Celtic contact SFA over referee’s handball blunder

Celtic's Leigh Griffiths heads the ball off of Inverness Caledonian Thistle's Josh Meekings. Picture: Getty

The Scottish champions say they were deluged by complaints from their supporters yesterday regarding the incident in which Inverness Caledonian Thistle defender Josh Meekings blocked a Leigh Griffiths

goalbound header with his right arm.

Celtic were leading 1-0 at the time but went on to lose the tie 3-2 after extra time, ending their hopes of securing the domestic treble this season. Now the club have made formal contact with the SFA with regard to the performance of referee Steven McLean and his assistants.

“With the club being inundated today, Celtic can confirm that it has written to the SFA

regarding yesterday’s match and in particular the incident involving Leigh Griffiths and Josh Meekings,” read a statement

issued by the club. “First and foremost, we absolutely congratulate Inverness Caledonian Thistle on reaching the Scottish Cup final.

“They are a fantastic club and reaching the final is a great achievement.

“However, given the level of reaction from our supporters and across football, we are duty bound to seek an understanding of what actually happened.

The statement went on: “We have not been given any other specific explanation so far and this is simply to understand the circumstances of what went on and why such an obvious error was made.”