Leigh Griffiths has received a double whammy for his pitch side antics against St Johnstone. The Celtic loan striker has already been charged by the Police for kicking pyro back into the crowd, and now he faces a ban from football’s governing body.
Below is the full notice of complaint from the SFA citing ‘excessive misconduct’.
Notice of Complaint | Leigh Griffiths, Player, Dundee FC
Notice of Complaint | Leigh Griffiths, Player, Dundee FC
Alleged Party in Breach:Â Leigh Griffiths, Player, Dundee FCÂ
Date:Â 22 September 2021
Competition:Â Scottish League Cup
Match:Â Dundee F.C. v St Johnstone F.C.
Disciplinary Rules allegedly breached:
Disciplinary Rule 71 –Â No recognised football body, club, official, Team Official or other member of Team Staff, player, match official, or other person under the jurisdiction of the Scottish FA shall bring the game into disrepute.
Disciplinary Rule 77Â – A recognised football body, club, official, Team Official, other member of Team Staff, player, match official or other person under the jurisdiction of the Scottish FA shall, at all times, act in the best interests of Association Football. Furthermore such person or body shall not act in any manner which is improper or use any one, or a combination of, violent Conduct, serious foul play, threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting words or behaviour.Â
Disciplinary Rule 202Â – No player shall commit Excessive Misconduct at a match.
Principal hearing date:Â Thursday 14 October 2021
Leigh has not been able to keep himself out of trouble for quite some time.
The player has struggled with mental illness and the club previously gave the striker extended time off to get his head right. Upon his return, apart from flashes of the old Griff before the first lockdown, the player has been his own worst enemy.
The former Scotland international was handed a Celtic lifeline in the summer when he was signed up on a new one-year deal. Shortly after that, an online incident soured a lot of fans on Leigh and his involvement with the club. Celtic decided to cut their losses and allow the player to move out on loan to Dundee where he would run down his Celtic contract.
Three weeks into his Dundee career he decides to kick pyro into a crowd of people.
Dundee will be just as exacerbated with the player’s antics.
This is absolute hypocrisy. The SFA should also have been charged with excessive misconduct on MANY occasions. We know how corrupt they are. Remember Jim Farry?
They always pick on the weakest and have no sense of decency at all. Remember the winger on loan at Celtic who was charged with a racist comment (on the bounds of reasonable probability) when the guy didn’t even speak English. They preferred the word of one man against another).
How can they say that Griffiths meant to kick it into the crowd? How can they prove that? They can’t! Griffiths said he meant to kick it off the pitch and no more. He happened to kick it a little harder than he meant (on the bound of reasonable probability).
I know Leigh is a silly boy, but these people are supposed to be responsible. I believe this is just an opportunity to show that they act. Unfortunately, I think they have reacted without resort to reason. Perhaps reasoning is a bit too much to expect from them. The is no decency at the SFA and they simply behave like bullies.
Rule 77 is not broken, Leigh Griffiths kicked a pyrotechnic off the pitch to protect everyone on the pitch. The fault lies within the stadium’s security as a very dangerous item had got into the stadium. The pyrotechnic are highly flammable and produces toxic fumes. It is the person who threw this missile during a football game that should be identified and banned for life from football grounds.
It is the pyrotechnic missile that caused the game to be brought into distribute and the action of kicking it off the pitch is in best interest of players and match officials and is not violent conduct because it was not intended for the crowd area
The SFA are acting on the basis of Leigh Griffiths track record and are not looking at the actual facts. It is biased and victimization