While Celtic’s dramatic win over St Mirren in the Scottish Cup semi-final provided plenty of entertainment on the pitch, the football wasn’t the only major talking point at Hampden this weekend.
In fact, the action was heavily overshadowed by off-field drama, as the Scottish Football Association (SFA) completely embarrassed themselves with their call to ban Premier Sports pundit Michael Stewart from their grounds.
The outspoken pundit found himself at the centre of a bizarre controversy after the governing body barred him from entering the national stadium, including for Celtic’s win over St Mirren.
Addressing the situation, after the weekend unfolded, Stewart pulled no punches, slamming the SFA’s actions as entirely unreasonable.
“Quite simply, it was farcical,” Stewart revealed.
“The weekend has been farcical. The fallout is petty and pathetic. What sort of country are we living in here? An institution sees fit to ban somebody for an opinion that they don’t agree on.”
Banning a pundit over comments about referees: the right decision or setting a dangerous precedent?
Michael Stewart blasts SFA as ‘petty and pathetic’
The timeline of events borders on the absurd, quite comical, and childish, to be honest, from the perspective of the SFA.
After initially being banned from entering Hampden itself, Stewart spent Saturday broadcasting Premier Sports’ coverage of Dunfermline’s win over Falkirk straight from a truck in the stadium’s car park.
However, the SFA clearly didn’t take kindly to that act of defiance.
By the time Sunday rolled around for Celtic’s Scottish Cup semi-final against St Mirren, the governing body had doubled down, officially banning Stewart from the car park as well.
While Celtic thrilled supporters by booking their ticket to the Scottish Cup final and a meeting with Neill Lennon, the SFA’s remarkably ‘petty’ and ‘pathetic’ administrative overreach became an unnecessary headline in Scottish football.
But Stewart, speaking to Premier Sports, dealt with and spoke about it in the best way possible.
Darrell Currie: “You were part of the Premier Sports coverage on Saturday. Part of the coverage from the car park.
“Then on Sunday, you weren’t there at all. So, for anyone who didn’t watch the pre-match. Can you clarify why you weren’t part of the on-screen team for Premier Sports for the Celtic v St Mirren game?”
Stewart: “I wasn’t part of the coverage on Sunday, because on Saturday, I was stuck in a truck in a car park commenting on the game due to the fact that the SFA saw fit to ban me from the stadium. They didn’t take kindly to the fact that I was still given an opportunity and a position on the broadcasting team on the footprint of Hampden in the car park.
“So, later on the Saturday, they sent an email to Premier suggesting that there was a, not followed what had been asked of them. God knows what that is. And that I was banned from the car park as well.
“Quite simply, it was farcical. The weekend has been farcical. The fallout is petty and pathetic. What sort of country are we living in here? An institution sees fit to ban somebody for an opinion that they don’t agree on. That fundamentally is what this is about.
“There is a serious issue here, and there is a dangerous precedent being set by the SFA, that they see fit to ban me because they don’t like the things that I have said.
There is a false narrative that is now trying to be peddled that there has been over a year of complaints or conversations between the refs and the SFA, who are unhappy with the way I have approached things.
“My retort to that would be, why on earth have the SFA never sought to discuss this with their broadcasting partners at Premier Sports? Never. Nothing.”
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