Spartans feel force of SFA’s new ‘get-tough’ measures

THE newly-established position of compliance officer has helped strengthen the impression that the Scottish Football Association now mean business, and Spartans yesterday learned the harsh consequence of an administrative error when they were expelled from the Scottish Cup.

A missed-out date on long-serving striker Keith McLeod’s re-signing registration form might sound like a trivial oversight. But the implications have been significant indeed as far as the East of Scotland League side are concerned, although chairman Craig Graham remained circumspect yesterday. He wished Culter, the side who benefit from Spartans’ pain, the very best as they now prepare to host Partick Thistle is just eight days’ time.

Culter fell 2-0 to Spartans in their second-round tie last month but have been handed a valuable reprieve after yesterday’s decision by the three-man Judicial Panel at Hampden Park, one which had been anticipated by Spartans. The Edinburgh club were also fined £4000, though this has been suspended for 12 months. Culter, by contrast, can look forward to a pay-day amounting to at least £10,000 when they take on Thistle next weekend at Crombie Park.

It is fair to say that there was little hope in the hearts of the two-man Spartans party who travelled through to Hampden yesterday. The day earlier Steven Craven had failed to overturn his lifetime ban from officiating after the assistant referee’s part in the controversial overturning-of-a-penalty episode at Tannadice Park last season, during a match between Dundee United and Celtic. Then, later yesterday, came the news that East Stirlingshire player Ryan Frances had been banned for 12 games for laying his hands on referee Barry Cook after being sent off during a Scottish Cup clash with Buckie Thistle last month.

Spartans, too, felt the strong arm of the newly pared-down organisation as they were ejected from a competition which has helped define their recent development as a club. Scottish Cup runs in recent seasons increased the Edinburgh club’s profile and also supplemented finances. Such a combination, allied to the will of the committee members, facilitated the move to Ainslie Park in 2009, where a much-admired Community Football Academy has been established.

Rules are rules, however, as Spartans were reminded to their cost yesterday. The re-drafting of SFA laws in this summer’s stream-lining of disciplinary rules and procedures made it even more unlikely that they would survive what has been described as a “very minor” administrative error.

McLeod has scored over 200 goals in a ten-year career with Spartans. “It isn’t about sneaking a new player into our squad,” pointed out Graham.

The striker’s re-signing papers were submitted in July but the club had omitted to fill in a commencement date for the new contract. The form was returned to Spartans by the SFA in order to be corrected. However, Spartans claim that it was never received by the club.

“The form was signed by Keith and the club and sent in along with the forms for the other players,” explained Graham. “We got two or three back with minor discrepancies. For some reason they send each form back individually and they do not send them back recorded delivery so there was no record of it coming into the office. There’s a box on the second page of the form which confirms the date of his contract and says that ‘I have signed for Spartans with effect from such-and-such date to such-and-such date’. It was those two boxes which had not been filled. Later on the date is asked for again and that has been filled in. It was very minor.”

Minor or not, the oversight sealed Spartans’ Scottish Cup fate. The club have accepted that the SFA had little choice but to opt for the extreme measure of expulsion. The relatively moderate size of fine has also been noted. “There is no doubt that in accordance with their strict rules there was a technical breach,” said Graham. “The fine range goes from £4,000 to £100,000, The fact it is at the low end of that scale and the fact it is suspended helps demonstrate we were not trying to do anything underhand. The panel acknowledged that.”

Vincent Lunny. the SFA’s new compliance officer, presented the case for the governing body. “There was no wriggle route,” said Graham. “There will be no recriminations for anyone at a club where many of the key positions are filled by volunteers.We will do a few things to make sure it does not happen again,” said Graham. “As you might imagine, all of us are thinking ‘how on earth did it happen’. We are all responsible.”