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An interesting point I saw made on P&B, in that the Compliance Officer is there to pick up incidents that the refereeing team has not dealt with at the time. By the accounts I have read, the ref saw there may be a claim, consulted with the additional assistant, who said he did not see an infringement, and the ref waved play on. Therefore the incident was dealt with at the time, the Compliance Officer has no jurisdiction and any suspension cannot be upheld.

Congratulations to all at Celtic. Glad you'll all be so happy to rob a young lad of what will probably be the highlight of his career. All because you've not won every trophy in one season. Selfish, embarrassing and completely classless.

***EXCLUSIVE*** That letter from Celtic to the SFA has now come to light!

I don't recall them writing to the compliance officer after Neil Lennon got Juanjo sent off or when Samaras went down holding his face and got Tansey sent off. I also don't remember them coming out and apologising or admitting what they're players had done was wrong. In fact in the Tansey incident I remember Alan Thompson flying out of the dugout gesturing wildly to the 4th official about a vicious elbow. Well guess what lads, get it right up you. Isn't it great how these things even out.

The charge must be thrown out 1. How can anyone prove it was deliberate? His head is down and his eyes are closed likely in case he gets a sore one in his face. In his own words "...he is two yards away from me. I have just gone to throw my body in the way.". From that there is no way anyone can say without doubt it was deliberate (this was the basis of every successful appeal this season by Ciftci). The referee and the assistant ref behind the goal see it but decide to take no action. end of story. 2. Does the compliance officer even have jurisdiction here? I am not sure of the official details of the CO role, but if as suggested earlier in the thread that the jurisdiction is for incidents missed by the referee then he cannot have a role as this was not missed, it was deemed either as non deliberate or inconclusive by the match official. Again ... end of story. 3. FIFA seem to disagree that this is punishable as per the quote in their ruling would also seem to call the compliance officer's role into doubt. There can be no doubt that the ruling they made was even bigger as it denied Ireland entry into the World Cup so surely its valid here too.

Three years ago we were warned by those who ought to be promoting the Scottish game that the rightful placing of the team that replaced Glasgow Rangers in the lowest tier would lead to disaster for the game. Since then we have had six national finals featuring eight different finalists with Celtic featuring in just two, precisely the same number as Aberdeen, Dundee United and ourselves with five different winners of the two competitions. The cups have never been so interesting and competitive and the finals crowds have been impressive. This season we have even had a semi serious challenge for the league which, at least in part, due to the five league points we have deprived Celtic of, is still just about live at this late stage. The great majority of clubs have reduced or eliminated their debts and are living within their means. Clubs are bringing on their own youngsters instead of importing mediocre foreign journeymen. I, for one, rather like this Armageddon. Can we please sign up for at least another three years ?

It's neither here nor there if it was deliberate. Fact is, the officials missed it and it wasn't given. You can't then change the rules completely just cos one club, with all the resources and a belief that they have a god given right to win everything, doesn't like the result. Henry wasn't punished when he handballs against ROI because there's nothing in the rule book that allows for a retrospective punishment for handball. There still isn't as far as I know. So either the SFA have different laws to every other footballing nation in the world, or they're simply pandering to a club that has influence way beyond what's acceptable. This could be the most ludicrous decision taken yet by ANY footballing governing body and has the potential to have far reaching, negative, consequences for our game. And all cos they don't like losing.

Despicable that Celtic have such power over the SFA and their "Compliance Officer". Makes a mockery of football and referees. I do hope our lawyer has as much power as Dundee United's one - if Josh has to miss the Final, then there is no justice in football for the "minor" teams. When ICT appeal a red card, it is rejected more often than not, when Celtic (and more recently for blatant issues - Dundee United)(shifty Cifcti for example), then it is rescinded, so it is blatantly obvious that there is one rule for the teams with loadsamoney and another rule for the supposed "also rans ". So unfair for ICT to be victimised in such a way. What about their goalie assault on Ofere (no word of that), what about Scott Brown should have had a second card and thus a red (no word of that). Oh but they play for Celtic. So, nothing done or said. I rest my case. Furious.

I keep hearing this 'if it'd been 11 v 11'nonsense...well it was 11v11 when they had a player sent off and it was still only 1-0 at that time. This argument that they'd have won is so arrogant it beggars belief. I will be so pd off if we don't fight this all the way, it's an absolute disgrace that one club can dictate the way the game is run in this country. It'd be good to get fans of every other club involved as well, there's a fair degree of outrage on all the forums I've looked at. The sooner that lot ****** off down to England the better.

This is utterly unacceptable. It has been done simply to appease the knuckle draggers who, on Sunday night, were tweeting that they "wished Meekings dead when the bus crashed" on the way home. My first instinct is to simply say that we shouldn't bother contesting their cup if that's how they wish to treat us. It's shameful and I really hope Celtic are proud. I would also wonder why a single fan of this club would want to attend the last game of the season.

It's just part-and-parcel of football, in its current form - with no 'television-ref' - errors will be made. The ref 'allegedly' told Celtic that his line of sight was obscured by a player, at the moment in question - fair enough, he can't control where players move around the pitch. But, when he realised that there may have been a penalty claim, he correctly consulted his assistant behind the goals - Alan Muir. (who, incidentally has a 'worse' record of sending-off ICT players than Willie Collum - by ratio of games-per-sending-off). He (Muir) told the ref that he thought the ball had struck the head of Meekings, so no penalty. That's it, in essence. An incident occurred, the officials interpreted it as they saw at the time, without the benefit of slowed-down replays, and a decision was made - although it was the wrong one - simple human error, but no conspiracy!

Enough of the nonsense about begging neutrals to turn up and slashing the entrance fee. Charge the proper amount and the fans will turn up. Get rid of the inferiority complex please. This is a history making time for the club and the city, people will turn up and bring their kids. Let's not start calling those who don't usually go to games "glory hunters" or other derogatory terms. The excitement will build and we will have a great cup final.

Grunching, but would this be the first time in football history that a player was retrospectively suspended for handball? If so, WTF? If ever there was a case of placating the mob, this is it. I don't know who is more spineless: Celtic FC for pandering to the most toxic segment of their support by writing that ridiculous letter, or the SFA for granting them their pound of flesh. The media also deserves criticism for their coverage. Their entire focus has been upon Celtic and their victimhood narrative, rather than the real story - how a team with just a small fraction of Celtic's budget, only 20 years in existence, branded relegation favourites this season by the bookies, has just made history reaching their first ever Scottish Cup Final. A team consisting of homegrown youngsters and free signings from the Vauxhall conference, managed by a coach who most of Scottish football had written off - blew the Scottish Champions away with a display of Guardiola-esque passing football. The brilliant performances of Graeme Shinnie and Ryan Christie. These should have been the stories. They virtually write themselves. Not all this constant Old Firm p1sh. Hopefully this ridiculous, vindictive charge is written off ASAP. I don't see how it can't be. You'd be opening a whole can of worms. How many players would you have to suspend in a season? If every handball in the box is fair game, then what else? Where do you draw the line? How can you get away with taking action against Meekings, but none of the other handballs that have occurred this season? It's completely untenable. When it's all said and done, this might even work in our favour. It could galvanize and motivate the players. The old fashioned 'siege mentality'. I would absolutely love it if Yogi came out and absolutely lambasted Celtic and the powers that be. He'd have the whole (rest) of Scottish football behind him.

Now that I have managed to stop the steam coming out of my ears I can actually write something. Yesterday on the match day thread (post 132) I argued that not to award a penalty was the correct decision for these reasons. "In the incident yesterday what is absolutely as clear as the fact that the ball struck Josh's hand, is the fact that Josh tried to get his head to the ball. Imagine yourself in the position that Josh was standing and imagine trying to head a ball going just below your right shoulder. Try the move yourself! As your head goes down your right arm naturally comes up. I think the ref got it spot on when you consider three crucial factors. 1. Josh was attempting to make contact with the ball with his head. 2. He was not holding his arm deliberately in a position which would make it more likely to block the ball. Instead, the position of his arm was a natural consequence of his genuine attempt to head the ball. 3. The closeness between Griffiths and Josh was such that Josh would have had no time to react to consciously withdraw his arm when he realised he would not make head contact with the ball. Indeed he probably wouldn't have realised that the ball was going to hit his hand until it actually struck. The only conclusion you can draw from these factors is that Josh did not deliberately handle the ball and therefore it was not a penalty." Apart from giving the referee credit for a good decision when he didn't actually see what happened, I think my points are valid. Others have made the good point that Josh couldn't possibly have reacted in time in response to Griffiths' header and pictures posted provide compelling evidence. However, if the case is heard the SFA will probably argue that Josh had moved his arm into an unnatural position and that the action of moving his arm started before the ball was struck in a deliberate attempt to increase the chance of the ball hitting him. That would be consistent with the concept of "unnatural position that McLean talks about in the clip Alex has posted above. This is why my 2nd point above is important. It seems to me absolutely beyond doubt that Josh was, as he says, just trying to get his body in the way. You can see how he lunges across with his right leg and dips his head towards where he expects the ball to go and as I say above, when you do that your right arm naturally comes up and in the circumstances it would be almost impossible to deliberately hold it down to minimise any chance of the ball striking it. The pictures seem to tell a story of a brave young man preparing to take a sore one in the face for his team. Instead, the SFA at Celtic's bidding are branding him a cheat and threatening a punishment in a completely unprecedented way. Yet again, the body that has responsibility for upholding the dignity of the game in Scotland drags the reputation of the game into the gutter. Credit to the club for a prompt and very strongly worded statement in support of Josh.

Everyone seems to be of the opinion that the ref didn't see it. The ref did see something. He then consulted with goal judge. Outcome we're not sure if it was deliberate. And thatis the crux of the whole arguement. Was it deliberate. Personally I dont think so. I think Josh gets into a position to try and head the ball. Griffiths gets to it first. There is no way on this earth that anyone would have the reflexive action required, at such close range, to react in a deliberate manner. Therefore the outcome has to be that it was not deliberate therefore not a foul and certainly not a sending of. McLean did no wrong either. He acted exactly as his superiors teach. If in doubt dont penalise. The people who are very much in the wrong in all this are the people in the ivory tower of Hampden. They are miffed that a bigger team is not in the final. They are miffed that their payday is not going to be so big. Why else would they succumb to the pressure of one Scottish football club over another. Why else would they not act as a neutral agent but instead side with the big Glasgow club. The big problem, and one thats going to kill the game, in Scottish football is that for too many years the people in the ivory towers have lined their own pockets at the expense of the provincial clubs and the fans. Nobody has the balls to challenge them. Its high time that club chairmen got themselves organised and started to question the powers of the select few. Its high time this whole game in Scotland was taken by the short and curlies and given a real good shake up.

What a dangerous dangerous precedent this will set. The game will never be the same again if this is allowed to happen. Every losing team in every game now have the right to write a letter, point out a foul that wasn't given before a goal, a penalty that wasn't given, etc. If, for example, as happened recently, Dundee Utd played Celtic 4 times in 2 weeks, what is to now stop one of the teams writing a letter after 1st game and cite a bad foul that went unpunished, and get a top player banned for the next game? Then the other team does it for the next game? Absolute farce. Expect nothing less from SFA. And the officials?

In related news Police Scotland have sent a report to the Procurator Fiscal alleging that between the hours of 12.15 and approximately 15.00 hours on the afternoon of Sunday 19th April 2015 in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow a group of hardened criminals from the Highlands assaulted Glasgow Celtic Football Club and robbed them of their rightful place in the Scottish Cup Final.

That is unprecedented and is a direct result of Celtic's unsporting and petulant behavior in the wake of their loss of the treble they seemed to think was their right. Of course he defends it. How on earth can they prove retrospectively that it wasn't accidental ? If he is suspended it will be simply outrageous,

Josh would have saved it.

One question thats not asked is 'did the ref think perhaps there was hand to ball contact but it wasn't deemed to be deliberate'? Josh is twisting around to get his body in the way of a ball that he doesn't know, in the nano second of time he has to make a decision, the direction of. He's hardly two yards away from Griffiths so has the ref decided it was not deliberate? Matches are won on goals and Celtics only goals came from well taken set pieces whereas two of ours were from open play. Barring the first twenty five minutes when Celtic were on top I think we were the team with the most desire to win and we played to win. In extra time when it went to 2-2 Celtic stopped, obviously hoping they'd dominate in shoot-out. We kept going and got the winner. End of.

So Celtic are writing to SFA for an explanation on why a penalty was not given. Do they have no shame?. Wrong decisions happen every week to every team so man up and accept the decision. What this has done however is highlight the poor state of refereeing on show as this is the type of performance you see from referees week in week out. And by the way, Jock Stein would be birling in his grave at the way Celtic now act when refereeing decisions go against them. Sooner they leave Scotland with the other ugly sister, the better it will be for Scottish Football.

Even if the Celtic players were dead beat at the end, the way Shinnie walzed round these backs and left them standing in his dust before getting that hard pass over to Dave, was........ MAGIC.

Stay strong Josh! A whole nation supports you. A whole nation is watching Celtic slide further into the gutter.

This is my first comment for a long time but like everyone else on here can't believe this decision. Just heard John Collins on news staing that if they had been given the decision they would have won Says who John ??? It's like dealing with kids in the playground .Why do Celtic think they have the God given right to win everything ? I attend all home and away games and if this decision is not overturned God help the refs because I can honestly say their are decisions missed at every game and this is going to open the floodgates like they have never been opened before. Now I think as fans we have all to get fully behind our team and give them all the support we can because in the end of the day we are going to Hampden and Celtic are not. The SFA have just proved what we all suspected how they don't want teams from the Highlands In the League . This is such a sad situation and Josh is not a nasty player it would be criminal if he misses the biggest game of his career.With that in mind I would be more than happy to make a donation to the Club to with the cost of this appeal .If anyone knows how this can be arranged please advise .

Hope the appeal is upheld, but doubtful as the complaint was at the request of one of the ugly sisters. Pretty sure it'll be all thats talked about on sportsound tomorrow night with the typical chic murray commentary of celtic was robbed before, during and after the dundee game. I just hope that celtic get pumped and afterwards hartley dedicates the game to josh. SFA have a serious lack of balls offering josh a ban he does not deserve, yet there seems to be no indication of a ban for zaluska for wiping out eddie I'm hoping Kenny and Co will be giving doncaster and his cronies both barrels on thursday when they're down sorting out arrangements for the final I know its could be detrimental to the lads, but maybe we should not send an away support to the final game of the season at parkhead. Just a big banner indicating our digust at how petty and childish their club and fans are being. Or take the biggest support we've ever had to parkead outside of the league cup and spent the whole 90mins chanting "There's only 1 josh meekings" and "We're going to the final and your not" and make sure we're heard

can the SFA cite a single example of an alleged handball being refereed retrospectively in the past ? This is not what the system is for and it has never been used in this way before. As I said in my previous post, if Josh is convicted and suspended it will be an outrage. They may as well cite all those ICT fans who were 'pulling down Celtic players in the box'....

Having watched the highlights again (and again and again) I'm more and more surprised at the seriousness of the Sub Keeper's assault on Ofere. Could easily be the topic of a letter from ICT to the SFA if: 1) We were unaware of the difficulties facing referees as ably described in the posts above 2) We, like Celtic, had absolutely nae class.

You put your right arm in. Your right out, in, out, in out, You put the Celtic out, You do the Josh Meekings and Turn around, We put the Celtic out, out, out.

Behaviour likely to deny Celtic a treble.

Let's be honest, we will never have a better chance of winning the Scottish Cup! And, frankly, I think we will do...but, it should be noted, that Falkirk have an outstanding record against us - historically. We've become an established 'top fight' side, and have now been top-six in three consecutive years, whereas, Falkirk have recently been in the 2nd tier, but not a club unfamiliar with the old SPL. Falkirk are not a 'big club', but they are bigger than us and will have more fans there on the day. However, the current teams' form and position suggest we will be favourites. But, to diminish any thoughts of it being a formality, here are a few facts. The last time we played them - they relegated us! We've played them 3 times before in all cups - and lost the lot! Falkirk have won 7, drawn 1 and lost 1 of the last 9 games between the sides. No complacency!

Glad to see that there's outrage across social media about this (apart from the irrelevant green-eyed monsters, of course). Even some Celtic fans acknowledge that Josh is the wrong target here and that he is a scapegoat. Michael Stewart has tweeted that this is nonsense. I hate that this has totally overshadowed the performance of our team and fans on the day.

Celtic football club have now driven Scottish football to a new all time low with there bad loser attitude. I think if the outcome of this is not in our favour, there really is no point in having any officials for the games anymore. They can just sort out everything afterwards. F**cking raging......

The case should be thrown out and as a gesture of goodwill on behalf of the Compliance Officer for his grave error of judgement in putting the case forward, Garry warren's card rescinded in time for the final.

Just saw a post from a deluded celtic fan on P&B saying "Good call by the SFA. Hope justice prevails and he misses the final. No place in football for cheats" What he obviously doesnt understand is that means celtic should only be able to then field on average about 3 players every week, from their under 5's team if thats the case Hope the appeal is upheld and josh is cleared to play in the biggest game of ICT's short but glorious existance just to stick it to central belt media bias and the seethe fest thats coming out of so called paradise faithful

A comment made on twitter that if Josh Meekings did DELIBERATELY stop the ball with his arm - he is a better stopper than most goalies !

Surely this is just a bureaucratic exercise ? There's no way that anyone could prove that Meekings deliberately handled the ball.....unless of course those that run Scottish football have now added mind-reading to their long list of talents !!

About as angry about this as I was about efforts to keep The Rangers Newco in the SPL three and a bit years ago and with just as much legal, sporting and moral merit. We need to make a stand on this and if Josh loses woe betide Scottish football.

I cannot believe this - the club will surely contest it. If this results in Josh being suspended then there will be dozens of similar investigations every single week. Any potential denial of a goal scoring opportunity not spotted or dealt with properly by the referee could be investigated. For starters "Why was Zaluska not penalised for punching Eddie in the back of the head?" and 'Why did the referee instruct the Celtic wall to stand just 8m from the ball for our free kick?" What punishment will be given to the three officials who failed to do their job properly in the first place? It's an absolute joke but no surprise coming from the SFA who couldn't run a bath.

Good statement from the club. Absolutely the correct thing to do.

http://ictfc.com/news/team-news/1525-club-statement--josh-meekings

How utterly ridiculous. If that handball was deliberate the man must have the reactions of a superman. It all happened in a split second. Of course we should defend it. How can anyone with a brain prove it was deliberate?

Ridiculous decision against them in a big game involving Celtic? Maybe they have got their wish to be treated just like other clubs?

All this talk of Compliance officer investigations and Celtic writing to the SFA etc is just, as we all know, sour grapes by the remaining ugly sister. DON'T let it take the shine off one of the best days in our short history. I believe that the next few weeks will see us consolidate our 3rd place league position, win the Cup and stride proudly into Europe where, I am confident, we will do ourselves, and Scotland, proud. Believe.

Shittt we could be in trouble - I never noticed the linesman

I know its been all said already but what a performance very proud of the legends we had on the park and what a performance from the fans proud, very proud.

What exactly do people think Meekings could/would be cited for? He's not committed an act of Serious Foul Play, he's not sought to Deceive a Match Official and as (at least) two officials had a clear view of it then it can't be deemed an incident happening outside their view. Citing a player on any other basis would, IMO, be total and utter folly and would take little/no effort to have it thrown out.

Celtic fans are all over the internet claiming 'all the big decisions' went against them. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, McLean bottled it for 90% of the game and gave the Celtic fans every single decision they appealed for. Some of the soft fouls and yellow cards being bailed out to ICT were laughable. Conversely, Celtic players were getting away with murder and should have had at least 4 or 5 more bookings. Its worth noting that Celtic's second goal came from a free-kick that was never even close to a foul. Only one big decision went ICT's way, and it wasn't crucial. When it was all said and done, Celtic were still 1-0 up with 11 men on the park. ICT absolutely played them off the park with some of the best passing football you'll see in this country. That's the real story.

From the BBC website "Celtic - who later had goalkeeper Craig Gordon sent off by referee Steven McLean - wrote to the SFA to ask why Meekings was not dismissed and a penalty awarded. BBC Scotland understands that Celtic will receive a reply acknowledging that the match officials made a mistake." Does this mean they have already decided on the outcome of Thursday's hearing? Just when you think the SFA can't get any more incompetent they somehow manage to plumb even greater depths of ineptitude. This is actually also an unwarranted slur on their own officials. Even if a penalty offence was committed, if the positioning of the officials was such that they could not be certain that the offence was committed then they were quite correct not to award the penalty. There is a difference between not being in position to make the right decision and making a mistake.

I have just returned from the north pole and don't know the result either. I have read all the papers but still can't find out. They have nothing but pictures of Josh meekings taken from every angle possible trying to prove he handled the ball and prevented a certain goal.looked like a perfectly good headed clearance to me

While Celtic are complaining to the compliance chappie can they ask him at the same time why ICT were not given a penalty when their goalie poleaxed Eddy.