It is without a hint of irony that Lee McCulloch took the debate surrounding Allan McGregor by the scruff of the neck and claimed that the Rangers goalkeeper had no case to answer.
McCulloch, nicknamed ‘elbows’ for his combative style, was often across the desk of the SFA disciplinary panel throughout his career but feels that the incident in Celtic’s resounding 1-0 is being blown out of proportion.
In his newspaper column, the former Rangers captain claimed that the 36-year-old should have no case to answer in the eyes of the Compliance Officer.
McCulloch claims that the decisions taken by former Compliance Officer, Tony McGlennan, have set a precedent when the issue of excessive force are discussed.
‘I genuinely don’t think that the compliance officer can look at the incident where he appeared to kick out at Ajer and charge the Rangers keeper, because the precedent has been set this season with the Alfredo Morelos incident at Aberdeen and the Steven Naismith incident for Hearts against Celtic.’
However, new SFA Compliance Officer Clare Whyte must determine whether McGregor was in breach of SFA rules after appearing to kick out at Kristoffer Ajer as the Norwegian lay on the turf.
McCulloch continued in his defence by claiming it was clumsy behaviour from McGregor rather than violent conduct; however, the Compliance Officer must look to last week’s events at Fir Park, where McGregor escaped punishment for a perceived elbow on Peter Hartley.
‘I think he was probably just trying to get up and get Rangers away on the counter attack when he caught Ajer.’
‘These things happen all the time in football. If you were pulling up every incident like that, then there would be quite the backlog of cases to answer in the offices at Hampden.’
‘I don’t think Allan has meant to kick the boy and he certainly hasn’t tried to injure him.’
‘There is no excessive force at all, so therefore, I don’t think he has a case to answer.’
Here is Chris Sutton’s view on BBC 5Live…
"It was a mismatch."@chris_sutton73 says "in every area of the pitch #CelticFC dominated #RangersFC" – but that Steven Gerrard must be "given time"????#BBC606 pic.twitter.com/qhDLd4zQlY
— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) September 2, 2018
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