Confirmed: Horrendous challenge on Celtic midfielder punished with ban; does Bhoys no good

By John McGinley

January 28, 2022

Alloa man Mouhamed Niang will serve a two-match suspension for his horror challenge on Celtic midfielder Yosuke Ideguchi, it has been confirmed today.

Niang was served with a fast track notice of complaint by the Scottish FA earlier this week after only receiving a yellow card from referee Don Robertson for the lunge on Ideguchi.

The hearing was this morning and the SFA have upheld the complaint, punishing Niang with a ban for his next match this weekend as well as the next Scottish Cup fixture he is eligible for.

However, as Ange Postecoglou pointed out in the wake of the fixture, it’s really a challenge that should have been dealt with by the referee on the day.

Retrospective punishments are all well and good, but they do nothing for Celtic. It’s not the first time this has happened this season either.

A similarly terrible tackle on David Turnbull by Calum Butcher only ended up banning the Dundee United player for fixtures against Celtic’s rivals.

Failing to send off Niang didn’t give Celtic any advantage in the fixture last weekend, nor did it protect the environment during the 90 minutes, putting more of Postecoglou’s Bhoys in harms way as Alloa failed to tone down the tackles.

Ultimately unless referees on the pitch start taking control of fixtures, I’d expect more incidents of this nature from Celtic’s opponents between now and the end of the season.

The club must be considering pushing for change to the disciplinary system as it stands.

In other news, Ange Postecoglou on what outsiders are underestimating about his Celtic team.