article_snippet.sent: – backed by manager John Hughes – preceded the player being cited by the SFA compliance officer Tony McGlennan.
article_snippet.sent: That unprecedented move following a game in which a handball incident had gone unpunished, brought a warning from Jim Boyce, head of FIFA’s referees committee, that a successful prosecution would open up a can of worms.
article_snippet.sent: Although such a scenario was avoided with the charge being kicked out, the furore surrounding the issue prompted the SFA go public on Friday with the tribunal panel’s reasons.
article_snippet.sent: ’s reasons considered that as the incident (but not the actual alleged sending-off offence of handball) had been seen by one or more of the officials it was not entitled to consider the matter further.
article_snippet.sent: ‘it accordingly dismissed the complaint without any consideration of the merits of the incident ( or the decision arrived at by the referee.
article_snippet.sent: However, legal sources have told Sportsmail that the SFA’s prosecutor is entitled to cite players even in such instances when officials have seen an ‘incident’ but have failed to spot an ‘offence’.
article_snippet.sent: Yet it appears that in Josh Meekings’ case, the tribunal panel’s reasons concurred with his solicitor’s argument that they were not entitled to take the matter further as the match officials had seen the incident (. the matter is further confused by the fact that former Hearts striker Ryan Stevenson and ex-Motherwell keeper Darren Randolph were previously banned retrospectively for serious foul play as the referees in question had seen the ‘incidents’ but missed the ‘offences’ in question.