Neil Lennon will be banned from the sideline for the next Old Firm derby – and it could get worse despite a successful appeal to the Scottish FA.
Lennon has had a six game touchline ban reduced to four games on appeal by the SFA but that’s before they investigate his clashes with Ally McCoist and El-Hadji Diouf on Wednesday night.
The Celtic boss will be in the stands for the League Cup final against Rangers later this month and will also be banned from the dug-out for the Scottish Cup quarter-final at Inverness.
The initial six game suspension came about after Lennon was sent to the stands by referee Craig Thompson at Hearts back in November.
An initial two match ban was trebled by the SFA in January for ‘excessive behavior’ but Lennon has now successfully appealed the full six match ruling and had it reduced by two games.
An SFA statement read: “The Appeals Board has found that the Scottish FA’s charge of excessive misconduct against the Celtic manager, Neil Lennon, was inevitable.
“However, they set aside the original sanction of a two-match automatic suspension plus a further four matches for excessive misconduct and have imposed a new sanction of an automatic two-match suspension and an additional two matches.
“The new sanction will be imposed with immediate effect.”
Former Celtic player Lennon will start his new ban in Saturday’s Premier League clash at home to relegation threatened Hamilton but will then have to answer charges relating to the Old Firm Cup win over Rangers this week.
Both Lennon and McCoist are in trouble for their sideline spat at the end of a game that saw Celtic win 1-0 and three Rangers players red-carded.
Lennon has since made up with McCoist and told Celtic’s official website: “There was an incident on the touchline at the final whistle between myself and Ally McCoist, and obviously it’s one that has attracted a lot of attention.
“We’ve both got a lot of experience of this fixture and know that sometimes, in the heat of the moment, things can be said and words exchanged.
“It is a passionate game and both of us want our team to win. However, we were still able to sit down after the game and, as far as we are concerned, the matter is closed.”