Within a few hours of the upholding of the Compliance Officer’s offer of a one match ban following the striker’s gesture at Tannadice, Chief Executive Leeann Demptster had released the club’s opinion on the official website.
Will a gentlemanly handshake eventually become the only legitimate way for a player to celebrate scoring a goal?
The statement reads...
“We are extremely disappointed by all aspects of the process and of course the ban. We have material concerns about the approach, the informal communication around it and the obvious disproportionate nature of the suspension.
“As a Board we have raised our concerns with both the Scottish Premier League and with the Scottish FA. There is an urgent need for clarification on what is being done, why and to what end. The precedent set does not give us the impression that justice has been done, or seen to be done.
“It will mean that a huge focus will be placed upon consistency in the application of such compliance rulings across the game at all levels. In essence our player has been banned for celebrating a goal in a way that has, to our knowledge, never resulted in a suspension in any game anywhere else.
“We are focused as a Club on improving how we are run and how we contribute to the rejuvenation of Scottish Football. We do not believe this process as executed is doing anything other than setting all of us back. The focus is supposed to be on football, more needs to be done to keep the administration of the game on that track.”