"Are the new Disciplinary Procedures working at last?"

[Joe O'Rourke]

[COLOR=#000000:f4053419]You have to ask yourself, are the new disciplinary procedures in place at the SFA at last beginning to catch up with Rangers after years of underhand behaviour by the brethren within the corridors of power at the SFA?[COLOR=#000000:f4053419]Sneaky Sally used one loophole to enable serial thug Lee McCulloch to play against us on December 28th; but for once I don’t blame him for that; I would have expected Lenny to do the same if it had been Beram Kayal or Victor Wanyama.[COLOR=#000000:f4053419]The encouraging point is; they are getting dealt with even if the referee doesn’t see; or should that be doesn’t want to see some incidents; like in the case of Sone Aluko. Another thug Steven Naismith got done after referee Brines missed his elbow against Austin McCann at Dunfermline; and should have been done again after his shocking over the ball tackle at Aberdeen; I think God punished him for that one.[COLOR=#000000:f4053419]Obviously the new procedures are not perfect; and will be reviewed at the end of the season; but they are a vast improvement on the rules that were in place; so hopefully with some tweaking they will get it right.[COLOR=#000000:f4053419]There are at least a couple of areas that need to be improved on; one would be; how they deal with Managers who come into the media and spout off about decisions that went against them. [COLOR=#000000:f4053419]Two examples of that would be Butcher after our match at Inverness; and Sneaky Sally after the Aluko case; he actually named the people on the panel; which should have been confidential information; if Lenny had made similar comments; the prosecuting Fiscal would have been called in.[/COLOR:f4053419]
[COLOR=#000000:f4053419]But maybe the most important area needing addressed is how to deal with incompetent referees. I can understand if a referee misses an incident because he is unsighted; or makes a genuine mistake; but total incompetence must be dealt with by demotion to a lower division.[COLOR=#000000:f4053419]Hopefully we can look forward to decisions being made on their merit; and that all the clubs in Scottish Football will be treated as equals.

[hen1rik]

Hi Joe,

Totally agree its a lot better than last year and any cheat who tries to con the referee will be caught by the compliance officer.

Watch this space they will wan't regan out next because they wan't the old system back but i wonder why hmmm.

[boxer180]

Good article, Joe. After watching the SFA operate for fifty years, this is a big improvement, and is much more transparent. I agree about the managers though. Butcher gets away with murder. Last year after we beat them in the cup, he said that the fouls Celtic got would not have been called at the other end of the park. This year he has been even worse. They certainly were not shy about nailing the Dunfermline manager and he was 100% correct.

As far as I know Butcher has never been before the beaks. As you say Lennon would have been in jail for comments that Butcher makes after most games.

[Guest]

Incompetence follows incompetence, I watched an old firm u17s game a couple of years ago at , MP, which my son played in, for the hoops, noticed Ian Brines was the refs assessor , 5 mins unto the game Celtic winger bursts through into the box, is about to shoot and is sythed down !!! Stone wall penalty + red card, easy..,, eh no, not even a foul, the winger was James Forest, and the ref?? Well who knows, but if it was a 1st team game at Ibrox , I'd have expected the same, ref bottled it, for whatever reason. If they can't give a decision at youth level, how can you expect any different at 1st team