Rodgers charged by the SFA. There’s a reason the SFA are thumbing their noses at Celtic, and that’s the board. Will Rodgers be collateral damage?

So, to the shock and dismay of nobody other than the Celtic board, the club’s appeal in relation to Yang Hyun-Jun’s red card was thrown out by the SFA yesterday.

Or put more accurately, laughed out.

Step one of the SFA’s two step plan to ensure Celtic are well punished after last Sunday’s officiating debacle at Tynecastle.

Step two, will most likely be ensuring Brendan Rodgers receives a touchline for speaking the truth in relation to John Beaton in the post match conference.

How dare he?

How dare he expose the blatant cheating that was on display in the 2-0 loss to Hearts?

Now, as Celtic fans, we can’t really blame Brendan Rodgers for this.

Nor can we blame him for the fallout in the aftermath of these events.

Brendan Rodgers has done his part.

He spoke the truth, and in as professional a manner as he could, he basically said what every one us has been thinking.

Or more pertinently, what every one of us really knows.

And that’s that John Betaon is a cheat.

Not only is he a cheat, he is a coward who hides behind the power he is afforded by the SFA.

Knowing fully that he is untouchable.

Because he is untouchable, he can be as blatant as he likes when it comes to his officiating.

And that was there for all to see last Sunday.

It is clear now in Scotland that VAR is used as a tool to hurt us, and as Brendan Rodgers said, it facilitates refereeing the game outside the field of play.

VAR was never designed to do that.

The Video Assistant Referee, with Assistant being the operative word, is there to assist the referee.

He is not there to referee the game, as Rodgers made clear.

If he is, then we should just cut the bullshit, and call him the Video Referee, with the on-field Ref becoming the Match Assistant Referee.

Because, based on how Sunday’s game was officiated, that very much appears to be the format.

If a Referee makes an instant decision, like Don Robertson did on Sunday with Yang’s high boot, and penalises the player accordingly, which Robertston did by giving him a yellow, then that should be that.

There should be zero necessity to review that incident again.

The match referee has made his decision, based on real time, and on what he has seen.

Slowing it down, and then freezing it, is always going to make it look a hell of a lot worse than it is.

But then again, we know that that slow motion imagery, and freeze frame, was always going to make Don Robertson’s decision very easy.

Put simply, he and Beaton colluded to ensure Yang was removed from the field of play.

Then they colluded again to ensure Hearts got a penalty.

An incident that Robertson, as well as 22 players on the field of play, and every person inside Tynecastle, missed completely.

But eagle eyed Beaton didn’t miss it.

And once again, he slowed it right down for Robertson, who happily awarded Hearts a penalty.

As I said, collusion.

But what rubs further salt into Celtic’s wounds is that the SFA aren’t quite finished with screwing us over.

They were never going rescind Yang’s red card, and down grade it back to the original yellow that it was.

Despite how ridiculous the decision was in the first place.

Because if they did, it would be an admission that they are fully in agreement with what Brendan Rodgers said on Sunday.

That the game was being refereed from outside the field of play.

And they cannot possibly admit that.

To further galvanise that stance, they must now ensure that Brendan Rodgers is made an example of.

Celtic and the board have paid their usual lip service to the events of Sunday.

They had “serious concerns”.

That’s about it.

They are, of course, “astonished” at the outcome of the appeal.

As I said, lip service.

They don’t care.

But the big question now is whether the SFA will be ballsy enough to go after Rodgers?

They’re taking their time with it.

So they’re clearly assessing what the collateral damage will be if they decide to pursue Rodgers.

If they do decide to hit Rodgers with a disrepute charge, then they must realise that they’re leaving themselves wide open.

Wide open for attack in relation to what happened in the aftermath of “penalty-gate” last December.

The Ibrox side went after Willie Collum with all guns blazing after that incident.

There were no sanctions forthcoming for them.

In fact, the majority of their ridiculous demands were met.

The SFA agreed to meet with them, and allowed them to hear the VAR conversation between Collum and Nick Walsh.

Celtic have demanded nothing of the sort in the aftermath of Sunday’s shitshow.

If the board had any balls, they would be demanding to hear the conversations between Beaton and Robertson last Sunday.

But they don’t throw their toys out of the pram like they do at Ibrox.

Therefore, the SFA shows our club and our board no fear.

Conversely, what happens if they decide not to sanction Rodgers?

Then that is to admit that something is rotten in the State of Mount Florida.

They have allowed Rodgers to speak the truth about the blatant cheating that goes on in the Scottish game.

Either way, the SFA will lose face in all of this.

But the lesser of two evils for them is to sanction Rodgers.

They would take that chance in the belief our board is too gutless to take them to task on it.

Based on what we’ve seen to date from the board in relation to incidents like this, that belief would be justified.

If the SFA does sanction Rodgers, then our board needs to grow a pair and take them to task on it.

They need to highlight the events of last December in that process.

Do you have faith in them to do that?

I don’t, because they’ve never given me cause prior to now to have faith in them to.

As I write, news is just in that the SFA has just charged Brendan Rodgers on the following basis:

The SFA’s compliance officer, Martin Black, has issued a notice of complaint against Rodgers, citing a breach of Rule 72. Article 96.1. This rule prohibits individuals within Scottish football from publicly criticising match officials in a manner that suggests bias or incompetence, or that impinges on their character.

Rodgers could face a 2 to 20 game ban.

Yesterday’s outcome shows that the board are reaping what they’ve sown up to this point.

That’s why the SFA thumbed their noses at them in relation to the Yang appeal.

It’s why they’ll most likely thumb their noses at them if their charge against Rodgers sticks.

And it’s also why the likes of Beaton thinks he’s untouchable.

Because he’s never had to worry about his decision making.

It’s why he continuously pushes the boundaries.

Sunday was a perfect example of that.

If our board does not protect or fight for Rodgers to the full in this, that will further drive the disconnect between him and them.

What should we do if we’re subjected to blatant cheating like this again before the season is out?

Well personally, I think Brendan Rodgers should instruct his players to walk off the park.

Maybe then the SFA and our board will sit up and take notice.

Because that’s a spectacle they really wouldn’t want to go viral.

It would expose the whole rotten operation for what it is to the world.

Right now, the SFA treats us with contempt, and that’s down to our gutless board.

Just as they treat the Celtic fans with contempt.

More on that in a later article.

They don’t protect us, they don’t protect their players, so they’d better be ready to protect Brendan Rodgers if he’s hit with a disrepute charge.

The sad reality is we’re where we are now because they’ve never protected or insulated the club from the kind of treatment we received last Sunday.

That’s on them.

The Celtic board are the reason the SFA treats us like dirt.

And that, like a hell of a lot of other things, needs to change.

Click here for: CELTIC’S LOSS AT TYNCASTLE YESTERDAY SHOWS US THAT CORRUPT OFFICIALS LIKE JOHN BEATON WILL INFLUENCE THE OUTCOME OF THIS SEASON’S TITLE RACE

Click here for: KEEVINS JUMPS ON THE “GOOD GIRL” BANDWAGON, AND TELLS US ALL THE CELTIC BOSS WILL BE GONE BY MAY