SFA compliance officer: ‘I don’t watch Sportscene with pen poised’

He oversees the SFA’s new disciplinary procedures, a series of protocols which, like the man himself, have been seriously misunderstood.

Lunny’s hope is that, whenever he moves on, he will be remembered as having applied the rules “fairly and uniformly”.

That was his guiding principle in ten years in legal circles, which also gave him life experiences which will help him deal with the criticism from those who have sought to present him as some sort of one-man kangaroo court when, in reality, he is neither judge nor jury.

Lunny spent three years working for the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal in the Hague and then another organisation in the city called Euro-just. He spent a year and a half on a case involving a hospital in Vukovar in Croatia, put under siege by the Serbian army who later took 400 men away and shot them.

“I prosecuted the three soldiers who were thought to be in charge of that process and didn’t stop it from happening. The indictment related to 260-odd victims. On that scale, it’s quite hard to get your head around. But it’s the small individual stories you remember rather than the scale of it. One story which sticks in my mind is from another case in Kosovo against the Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj. Basically they’d taken someone and wrapped him in barbed wire, tied him behind a car and dragged him for two or three miles. When the UN came to exhume the grave years later they found around 50 bodies in a canal, and one of the skeletons was found still wrapped in the barbed wire. Right away, out of all those bodies, they knew who that one person was, someone with a family, a background and a life.”

After that, Lunney can be sanguine about accusations such as the one from Motherwell manager Stuart McCall who slated him for a “trial by Sportscene” after Michael Higdon was referred for a gesture that the club stated was merely a goal celebration.

Lunny said: “I don’t sit with my pen and paper watching and saying ‘right, that’s you got a ban’ or whatever. To be honest when I see something that might be a case my heart sinks.

“I’m not looking for the work, there’s enough work there. I just want the process to work as best it can. I’m like everyone else, I want our football to be about great play and great goals.”

Lunney hs personally referred only two cases. From a list of 144, only 12 have come through video evidence. He is a conduit, deciding which cases go before an independent panel. Indeed, much more of his time has been taken up sifting through potential breaches of player registrations, of which there have been 29 cases. Most of his cases involve comments made by managers to officials and media. His non-football, legal background may have been a bugbear for Ally McCoist and Sone Aluko when it came to the winger’s diving charge but Lunny sees that another way.

“I understand exactly where Sone Aluko was coming from and it’s true. I cannot deny that, I’ve not played at any level,” said Lunny. “I play five-a-sides with my friends, on a Thursday here when I can. But I love the game, I’ve watched it all my life. People have focussed on Sone Aluko’s comment about me not being a footballer. There are plenty of cases of registrations and other matters where not being a footballer has been an advantage. If you are sitting looking at the complicated registration rules it’s nothing to do with the laws of the game.

“The whole idea that I decide on the football side of things, to put it in plain man’s language, is pretty bogus. I’m taking professional, expert advice on breaches of the rules and looking at the evidence and tying that together with the rules. I have to ask if there’s a case to answer and will it be proved. Part of that is asking ‘what is the evidence’. If it’s a fan saying ‘I watched from the stand and I saw someone elbow a player’ I will make inquiries and if there’s no evidence to back that up the chances of it going forward are very slim. Whereas if the BBC or Sky or ESPN or the newspapers have a photograph or a piece saying this happened in a match I will go and see if there’s evidence for that. I will speak to John Fleming and his refereeing development unit. Is it a breach of the rules? And we’ll take it forward from there.

“There is a misunderstanding that I hand out bans. I don’t ban anyone. There is evidence presented and rules to be applied to that within the laws. In the cases where a fixed penalty is offered that is built into the rules.

“If, for example, there is a piece of violent conduct or a gesture or whatever, where it really is incontestable, you can avoid the whole process of a club and players coming to Hampden. The offer goes to them and they are entitled to accept or reject that. If they reject it they are not appealing anything; the onus is still on the compliance officer to prove the breach before the panel. It’s the panel’s decision.”

Even if a case starts with a clip from Sportscene being analysed, Lunny has little sympathy with the notion that SPL players face greater scrutiny than any others. “It’s like getting caught speeding on camera and complaining that there was a camera there,” he said. “There is a responsibility on clubs and players when they are so much in the public eye at the top end of the game to set the example that we want for the younger players.

“When players and managers have been through to Hampden and we’ve gone for a coffee as we have waited for a decision they are happy they have had a fair hearing and appreciate that I’m not there to get anyone done. I’m there to lay the evidence before the panel and I am being fair. I’m encouraged by the personal feedback.”

Lunny says he came into the job with his “eyes wide open” and, even knowing all the potentially nasty downsides, he had “no reservations” about taking on the role.

There have been numerous complaining emails. And one hand-written letter condemning Lunny that, far from irritating him, is a correspondence he will treasure.

“It was from a fan accusing me of being one sided, who was keen to point out that he was not a ‘bigamist’ but thought I was a Celtic fan. I’ve got that at home and I’m going to frame it.”