Celtic news: Ex Fifa official says SFA playing ‘very dangerous game’ after update on Yosuke Ideguchi controversy
The SFA are playing a “very dangerous game” after they handed Mouhamed Niang a retrospective two-game ban for a challenge he made on Yosuke Ideguchi in Alloa Athletic’s 2-1 defeat to Celtic last week (22 January).
That is the view of ex-Fifa official Keith Hackett who was one of a number of referee’s Alloa contacted for advice, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the incident.
As relayed by the Daily Record on Friday (28 January), a three-man SFA panel had upgraded Niang’s initial yellow card to a ban.
Ideguchi suffered an ankle injury as a result of the tackle and has not been in Celtic’s last two matchday squads.
“I thought it was really interesting,” Hackett told Football Insider‘s Connor Whitley.
“I got an email from Alloa, they’d seen what we’d written last week and they were in agreement. The SFA came in to charge them and they asked for my further views.
“This raises a number of issues. First of all, I do note I’ve supported review on dives but when you get into the realms of re-refereeing a game then this is an area that I know from the past Fifa get very concerned about.
“Does this undermine the authority of the match official? It does.
“A challenge made on the field of play is often subjective. It reflects the opinion of the official controlling that match from what he sees on the day.
“I genuinely believe the Scottish FA are playing a very dangerous game of re-refereeing games.
“They’ve brought into question the referee on the field of play.
“You could put 10 referees in a room to discuss it and you wouldn’t come out 10-0.
“I supported the referee on the basis he was on the field of play and it was a subjective call.
“This is a reaction to the fact the player has been injured. It’s a contact sport, players do get injured.
“Are they going to re-referee these types of incidents when VAR comes in and VAR agrees with the referee’s decision?”
In other news, Kieran Maguire has dropped a ‘£150m’ prize money reveal after Uefa news that’s ‘enormous’ for Celtic.