George Peat pushes for referees to be denied appeals veto

SFA president George Peat has unveiled plans to change the organisation's much-criticised disciplinary appeals system by removing the right of match referees to veto claims of wrongful dismissal being referred to a review panel.

Peat, speaking after yesterday's SFA annual general meeting at Hampden, also revealed his intention to speed up the appeals mechanism when dealing with incidents not spotted by match officials but which are later referred to the SFA for video review.

Both issues were the subject of considerable controversy in the season just ended. The most high-profile case involved Celtic captain Scott Brown, whose red card for a clash with Rangers striker Kyle Lafferty during an Old Firm match at Ibrox in February sparked a furious reaction from the Parkhead club.

They launched an immediate appeal against Brown's dismissal, but it was immediately rejected when match referee Dougie McDonald stood by his decision, therefore preventing its consideration by an independent panel under the current regulations.

Celtic chairman John Reid was among those to call for an overhaul of the appeals system and received support from PFA Scotland chief executive Fraser Wishart and SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster.

Earlier in the season, the SFA disciplinary process also came under fire when it took them five months to sit in judgement on the case of Celtic defender Glenn Loovens for a kick at Rangers player Maurice Edu which had been referred for video review. In England, such cases are usually dealt with in a matter of days.

Now Peat hopes to push through changes in time for next season which he hopes will make the SFA's system both more transparent and expedient.

"I've put a proposal to the disciplinary committee suggesting that the referee on the day does not make the decision in the case of an appeal against an ordering-off," said Peat. "Instead, he puts his case to the review panel who will consider it in making their decision.

"In the case of incidents which the referee has not seen, my proposal is that if it goes to a video review panel, then the referee will again be able to make his case, so would the player involved and the idea is to speed up the process. Currently, when it goes to the review panel, it then goes back to the disciplinary committee whose next meeting could be one or two months down the road.

"We are hoping to make it weeks rather than months and I hope they will take up my proposal. They are discussing it at the moment and, fingers crossed, if they agree to it, it could be implemented for next season."

Opposition to such changes in the disciplinary system has previously been based on fears that the authority of referees would be undermined, but Peat says the SFA's head of referee development, Hugh Dallas, is comfortable with his proposals.

"He accepts it," said Peat. "It is important that both the referee and the player are allowed to put their case to the panel. The difference will be that, rather than wait for it to be referred back to the disciplinary committee, we would try and involve the chairman or other member of that committee to make a decision as soon as possible."

Peat, who will be 70 later this year, found himself in a dual role at yesterday's agm as he is currently also the SFA's acting chief executive following the resignation of Gordon Smith last month. The position is currently being advertised, with a closing date of 4 June, with Peat confirming different criteria will need to be met by Smith's successor. "It was my idea to bring in a guy with a footballing background like Gordon," said Peat. "People seem to have formed an impression that Gordon and I didn't get on, but that wasn't the case. I got on perfectly well with him, although we didn't always agree with each other.

"The next chief executive will come from more of a business background, though, because the first part of Henry McLeish's review was a recommendation that we appoint a performance director. That's a football job, so we are looking for a chief executive to run the business side of things."

Peat was able to report a turnover of 22.6 million in 2009 for the SFA, an increase of almost 2 million on the previous year, with an operating profit of 570,000. Maintaining a healthy level of income stream will depend on securing replacement sponsors for the Scottish Cup and the Scotland national teams following the expiry of agreements with businessman Willie Haughey and brewers Tennent's respectively.

"We have a new head of commercial operations in Kenny MacLeod," added Peat, "and he is confident he will come up with the goods in time for next season. I'm very confident we won't be faced with the situation we were three seasons ago when we had no sponsor for the Scottish Cup."

Peat has been encouraged by a recent assurance from David Davies, the former English FA director, over the future of free-to-air television coverage of Scotland international matches. Davies is chairing a government review of sporting events set aside for terrestrial television coverage and the SFA feared a potential threat to their lucrative contracts with Sky Sports.