Today is the day of reckoning for Brendan Rodgers as the Celtic manager faces an SFA tribunal for his match official comments after the Hearts defeat last month.
Don Robertson awarded a dubious penalty and sent off Hyunjun Yang in the 2-0 Tynecastle defeat after intervention from John Beaton who was on VAR that afternoon.
The Celtic manager was livid with the match officials but saved his most telling comments for Beaton who instigated the moves by Robertson to make both decisions in the game.
Rodgers said at the time, “That there is absolutely shocking decision-making. I feel really disappointed, one for the players and two for our supporters.
“I thought the officials were very, very poor. You’ll have to ask John Beaton in VAR what he’s seeing.”
Rodgers went on further in a separate post-match interview and branded the match officials ‘incompetent‘ and it is those comments that have landed the Celtic boss in hot water.
So what could the Celtic manager face today as he heads to Hampden and how could the SFA suits deal with this situation?
Brendan Rodgers’ potential SFA sanctions
According to the SFA charge, Rodgers broke disciplinary rule no 72 where the Celtic manager’ is accused of’s comments ‘indicate bias or incompetence’ by the match officials. [SFA]
If found guilty, the SFA could make an example of Rodgers and he could face a minimum two-game dugout ban which means he could potentially miss this Sunday’s match against Livingston and then the following Glasgow Derby game against Rangers at Ibrox.
But that’s only if the SFA set the ban on two games. Any harsher punishment could see Rodgers miss the St Mirren game on the 13th of April.
Another route the SFA could go down is to still find Rodgers guilty but offer a two-game suspended sentence or one game served and one game suspended punishment.
According to the SFA handbook, punishments are handed out based on the offender’s previous disciplinary record, good character, remorse for actions and conduct since the offence and during the hearing.
Since Rodgers has no previous record the national association could go down this route but seeing as the Celtic manager hasn’t shown any hint of regret over his comments, that may make it difficult for the SFA to show leniency.
Another possible outcome is that Rodgers faces no punishment at all. We told yesterday how Celtic hired a lawyer, Nick De Marco, who is an expert on these disciplinary hearings.
De Marco successfully defended Scott Brown from an SFA charge in 2019 where the Celtic captain was accused of over-celebrating a Glasgow Derby win at Ibrox.
He has been involved in Leicester City’s continuous Financial Fair Play situation, Nottingham Forest’s appeal against their points deduction, and Newcastle United’s takeover.
Whatever argument or case De Marco puts forward could get Rodgers off but I would suspect that would be highly unlikely considering the comments made by the Celtic manager are in black and white.
Whatever the outcome, all eyes are on the SFA today and it will be interesting to see what their verdict will be.
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