Former Celtic defender Jozo Simunovic was hit with a two-match ban following his sending off against St Gallen in a pre-season friendly in 2019, as such after new signing Alexandro Bernabei was red carded for his former club Lanus just prior to signing for Celtic, it would have been no surprise had the SFA insisted the one game he had remaining to serve would move to Scotland with the player.
However, that may well now be a tough task for the governing body, with the news the Argentina punishment will not be applicable here, with the Daily Express reporting…
‘Scottish Express Sport can reveal that the necessary documentation to tidy up all of the paperwork has arrived from the Argentinian FA at Hampden – and there is no notification of any sporting sanctions applied so the player won’t be suspended in Scotland.’
‘Lanus played two matches after the red-card incident with Bernabei and these took place before the transfer to Celtic was officially completed so that is the most likely reason behind the situation – rather than the Argentinian FA not keen to transfer the suspension.’
Whilst Celtic announced the player’s signing just prior to Bernabei’s former side playing what would have been the final match of his two-game suspension, it appears the registration of the player was made after the event.
A nice touch you have to say from Celtic, and no doubt a major disappointment for a governing body with questionable form when it comes to transferring bans from out with Scotland, as we saw with the Simunovic affair.
Bernabei was red-carded for headbutting Colon’s Augusto Schott in an Argentinian Premier League match in what turned out to be his final appearance for former club Lanus ahead of his £3.75million move to Celtic, and although it must be said the incident occurred under provocation, there was no doubting the referee had no choice but to send Bernabei off.
There will be some who will point to issues surrounding his temperament and Bernabei will have to be on guard in Scotland for opposition players looking to target what they would perceive as a weakness, but from a personal standpoint, it’s nice to see a wee touch of devilment in a player now and then – it tends to show a passion for the game.
Today’s news will no doubt have Jim Farry will be turning in his grave.
Niall J
Jim Farry was a lowlife, an embarrassment to the game.
The SFA at that time were equally embarrassing by allowing him to act the way he did to make sure his club was not going to lose the league title. As it turned out and to this day will always be a very dubious and tainted “win”.
Looking back it’s interesting to see how many tainted trophies the old club “won”.
Covid also gave the SFA and SPFL the opportunity to penalize Celtic and Aberdeen while excusing their new club for committing exactly the same sins.
They were doing all in their power to ensure we got the message that there was going to be no tenth title. Even the little bitch in government stuck her oar in!
It must be killing the corrupt organizations in Scotland right now! Hail Hail!
Pure nothing story. He served the 2 game ban before joining, hence the delay.
One game was played not two, then the Argentinian’s announced the signing at 3am ahead of schedule and before that weekend’s second game. Today we got clarity that this did NOT mean that Celtic will inherit a one game ban.