The news that Brendan Rodgers now faces an SFA charge for what he said about John Beaton’s VAR performance at Hearts is one that could be a huge setback in the upcoming Glasgow Derby.
Should the Celtic manager fall foul of the SFA and be sanctioned by the national association, he will find himself banned from the Ibrox dugout for the Glasgow Derby on the 7th of April.
Couple that with Hyunjun Yang’s ban, then Celtic will have a massive disadvantage heading into the top-of-the-table Scottish Premiership clash.
So why don’t Celtic ask the SFA to fast-track the scheduled date of March 28th? That way Rodgers, if found guilty, could well be in the dugout for the Ibrox game.
Unfortunately it can’t be done and radio presenter, Gordon Duncan, shares exactly why.
Duncan said [Superscoreboard], “It’s just written in the [SFA] protocol. An appeal like Yang’s, appeals like that for that red card are called ‘Fast Track’ so that the player doesn’t have it hanging over them so that they can try and get it dealt with before the next round of fixtures.
“Appeals like that are ‘Fast Track’. Comments like the one Brendan Rodgers made, that charge is just not fast-tracked. It never has been.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s Marvin Bartley at Queen of the South, it doesn’t matter if it’s Darren Young at Stirling Albion, it doesn’t matter if it’s Brendan Rodgers. The protocol is really clear.
“It’s not a fast-tracked issue and in fact, it’s done to try and give better fairness to clubs. It’s done so that when this charge is made, Celtic then have X amount of days to submit the evidence.
“And then the compliance officer has X amount of days to deal with it. And they then schedule a hearing date, which happens to be March the 28th.
“And that could, in fact, lead to Brendan Rodgers not being in the dugout for the Rangers game.”
If Rodgers is found guilty then heading to Govan without him in the dugout will be a huge blow. Rodgers has shown that when it comes to making big decisions at Ibrox he knows exactly what to do to get the result that matters.
We saw that in his first spell as the manager and witnessed it first-hand in the 1-0 Glasgow Derby win in Govan this season.
But I’m sure the Hoops gaffer will have his Celtic team well-prepared and confident of securing a result with or without him in the Ibrox dugout.
In other news, Peter Grant ‘disgusted’ after hearing the latest Celtic update from the SFA
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