Celtic midfielder Aleksandar Tonev will serve a seven-match ban for racially abusing Aberdeen’s Shay Logan after the Bulgarian midfielder was described as neither credible nor reliable by the panel which handed him the suspension.
The fall-out from the incident will drag on after the Hoops declared they would be taking the matter up with the Scottish FA once again, with an appeal to the Court for Arbitration in Sport in Switzerland possible.
The on-loan Aston Villa player had denied saying: “Don’t touch me you black ****” when the Aberdeen defender put his arm across the Celtic player during the match at Parkhead on September 13.
The Scottish FA took nearly two weeks to consider the appeal and in an unusual step the appeal panel called for both its report and that of the original panel to be made public.
Logan was described as an impressive witness who gave clear and unequivocal evidence consistent with the evidence provided by referee Bobby Madden, Dons captain Mark Reynolds, manager Derek McInnes and football operations manager Steven Gunn.
The report added: “The tribunal had no difficulty in finding that he was both a credible and reliable witness.”
However the panel was highly critical of 24-year-old Tonev, saying: “Any player facing an allegation such as this is bound to feel anxious when giving evidence.
“Nonetheless, the tribunal considered that Mr Tonev gave his evidence in a guarded and hesitant manner.
“His evidence amounted to denial that the words used by him had included the phrase.
“His evidence on the understanding of the language said to have been used was particularly unsatisfactory.
“The impression was of a witness giving a less than full account of his actual understanding and seemed to the tribunal to be an inherently improbable account.
“On the central issue in the case we were unable to accept him as either credible or reliable.”
English defender Logan reacted on social media: “Do the crime, serve the time. Off ya pop geezer. #KickRacismOutOfFootball.
“On that note, let’s forget what has happened in the past.
“It’s done and dusted. Now time to move on and forget it. I’ll always be me.”
Aberdeen declined to comment on the verdict of the appeal but Celtic released a statement pledging their full support to Tonev and said they were “extremely disappointed” with the outcome of the Scottish FA’s appeal.
Tonev sat out one match of his ban before his appeal was heard and the Celtic statement read: “We do not consider that any player should be found guilty of such a grave offence on the basis of the evidence presented in this case.
“Celtic Football Club will be approaching the Scottish FA to seek to address this issue.
“We would like to make it clear that at no stage was it ever suggested that Shay Logan had made any false allegations.
“However, Aleksandar Tonev’s position consistently has been he did not say the words alleged to have been said and that he is not a racist.”