Steven Gerrard has responded to John Kennedy’s Celtic comments overnight regarding the delay to a punishment of Rangers players found to be in breach of pandemic protocols.
As we discussed this morning, Kennedy is furious about the inconsistencies being applied to Rangers compared to other clubs such as Celtic and Aberdeen.
The Hoops interim boss feels there has been an unnecessary delay in holding the Rangers personnel to account. This is frustrating because he feels some players have featured against Celtic who should have been banned.
The Scottish FA have issued bans for the five players but the Ibrox side have now appealed that, with a hearing not scheduled until April 20th, after yet another derby match between the two clubs.
Gerrard attempted to deflect attention onto the Dubai trip, not realising citing that trip to the middle east reinforces Kennedy’s point, rather than takes away from it.
The Rangers manager spoke to media outlets this morning and you can see his response to Kennedy on the Clyde 1 Superscoreboard Twitter account.
Whether you agree with Celtic going to Dubai or not, the fact is it was sanctioned by both the Scottish Government and the Scottish FA.
Subsequently, after the goalposts moved on guidance, almost a full team of Celtic players had to self isolate and subsequently miss two matches in the Scottish Premiership, with the managerial staff also unavailable.
Celtic were hauled over the coals for the incident, very publicly, regardless of the ability or reputation of the players impacted.
That’s before we even examine the Boli Bolingoli and Aberdeen incidents from last year. The Belgian defender was issued a three-match ban just a few weeks after his ill-advised trip to Spain. Celtic didn’t appeal. Could you imagine the outcry if they did?
In contrast, it has been two months since Rangers players were found to have congregated and socialised outside of national guidelines and no action has yet been taken.
The difference is clear to see and far from shining the spotlight on something unfair to Rangers, Gerrard has simply reinforced Kennedy’s complaint.
A bit daft really.
In other news, John Kennedy was asked about the Eddie Howe situation yesterday.
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