Brendan Rodgers has been hit with a two-game ban after a Scottish FA disciplinary hearing.
The Celtic manager had been cited by the authorities after his furious comments on refereeing "incompetence" in Celtic's loss to Hearts.
The Northern Irishman will miss the weekend's match against Livingston - but will be back in the dugout for his side's crucial away clash at Rangers a week later.
That's because one of the games is suspended between now and the end of the season.
The decision has just broken following a hearing at Hampden.
Rodgers had launched a scathing verdict on the officials as he blasted the decision to send off Yang for a high boot before Tomoki Iwata was penalised for handball leading to a penalty.
Rodgers was charged under Rule No72 Article 96.1 which states: “No recognised football body, club, official, team official under the jurisdiction of the Scottish FA, shall in an interview or in any other manner calculated or likely to lead to publicity (i) criticise the decision(s) and/or performance(s) of any or all match official(s) in such a way as to indicate bias or incompetence on the part of such match official.”
Rodgers could have faced anything between a two-game to 20-match ban with the club also facing a potential fine of between £1,000 to £100,000.
In an explosive post-match interview Rodgers had blasted the officials for "incompetence" as he branded the refereeing and VAR use in the match as the worst he'd seen.
Asked if the match was as bad as he's seen in Scotland, regarding the officials, the Irishman said: “I think so.
“I try to respect decisions and give the benefit of the doubt. But I think when I see that level of incompetence, which is the only word I can use, then that makes me worry for the game.
“In such a tight title race that can make the difference. I also think that VAR is not the problem here. That’s clear. It’s competence.
“I think the first one is a great example of the game being refereed outside of the pitch. The referee made the decision and someone outside made another decision to say it was a sending off.
“That’s the game being refereed outside of the field and in big games that costs you.
“I’m not one who comes crying about referees, be it here or the English Premier League because I understand there will be mistakes made.
“But that today was awful officiating in what was a big game for us. My feeling is that the game was decided by the officials - on the field and outside of the field.
“The first one is the sending off when there is no force. Show a still image of that and of course and you will see a foot up with the head near it, but it’s not the reality of the move.
“Don got it actually right on the field. It was a high boot, so it’s a yellow card – no malice or force.
“For John Beaton to actually look at that in VAR, supposedly under no pressure, and say that was sending off? I find that incredible.
“The second one is worse. If you have a penalty go against you for that then there will be penalties every single weekend and midweek."
MORE TO FOLLOW.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel