Shiels facing complaint over Celtic comment

KENNY Shiels has been hit with a Scottish Football Association notice of complaint.

Shiels, who has been involved in a public row with Celtic manager Neil Lennon over the PFA Scotland player of the year shortlist, has been accused of breaking two rules over comments he made in a media interview this week. Kilmarnock have also been hit with a charge relating to Shiels allegedly failing to comply with judicial panel protocol.

Lennon had compared Shiels to comic character David Brent after the game following the Kilmarnock manager’s withering reaction to the Celtic manager’s criticism of the lack of his players on the awards shortlist. But it was further comments by Shiels on Tuesday that saw him handed his latest SFA charge.

Speaking about Celtic, Shiels told BBC Radio Scotland: “They have got a massive influence in the judicial panel and things like that, decisions that’s made. Celtic are the monster of Scottish football.”

The Kilmarnock manager has been accused of both bringing the game into disrepute and not acting in the best interests of football by making comments that “call into question the impartiality of the judicial panel and the integrity of another member club of the Scottish FA”.

Kilmarnock have effectively been charged with failing to control their manager from 6-30 April. The Rugby Park club have been accused of breaking rule 2, by “failing to procure that one of your team officials, namely Kenny Shiels, manager, acts in accordance with disciplinary rule 1 and complies with the judicial panel protocol).” Shiels and his club also face a hearing on 23 May.

Kilmarnock host Hibernian at Rugby Park tomorrow and Kilmarnock striker Rory McKenzie has targeted nine points from their last three matches in a bid to make amends to fans for failing to make the top six this season.

The Rugby Park outfit narrowly missed out on booking their place in the top half of the SPL ahead of the split and, in matches since then, have struggled to pick up the points. Killie lost to both Hearts and Aberdeen in their last two outings but McKenzie backed them to return to form in time to end the season on a positive note.

He said: “There are three games left and we feel that we can take nine points from those games. We just need to finish the season on a high. We feel as though we owe it to the fans. Things didn’t go our way for the top six but if we can finish the season well, the fans will be happy and we can look forward to next season.”