‘Unacceptable’ – Lennon slams reaction to major Rangers incident, hints at agenda
Celtic boss Neil Lennon has said the Scottish government’s response to Rangers suspending Jordan Jones and George Edmundson is ‘unacceptable’.
Jones and Edmundson were suspended by the Gers earlier this week after the players broke COVID protocol to go to a party and the club’s swift action was praised by the government.
Lennon has claimed there are ‘double standards’ in the way that Rangers have been treated by the government, compared to when they criticised Celtic when Boli Bolingoli broke COVID rules earlier this year.
Lennon is quoted by The Scottish Sun as saying, “What I can comment on is the reaction from the government, which I find bewildering considering the way they treated us after the Bolingoli incident.
“There seems to be double standards as far as we’re concerned. You’d need to ask the government about that. The comments from their spokesperson, I found it strange to say the least.
“We were subjected to, ‘Privileged footballers, yellow card’ and blah, blah, blah. We have been treated in one way and other clubs have been treated another by the government. That’s unacceptable from our point of view”.
In a statement earlier this week, the Scottish government said, “We commend Rangers for taking such swift and decisive action in this instance, to protect the rest of their squad and wider public”.
The difference between the cases of Jones and Edmundson and that of the case Bolignoli is that the Ibrox pair were reprimanded by the club immediately after finding out about their actions.
Celtic never took action with their player, other than sending him out on loan and the only punishment he received came from the SFA.
In this instance we think it is fair that the government praised Rangers as they did everything expected of them in dealing with this issue in a prompt manner.
There is also an argument that says Bolignoli’s actions were far worse than Jones and Edmundson’s but really, if a player breaks COVID rules then the punishment should be the same.
In other Rangers news, Jorge Jesus has set his side a specific task for when they take on the Gers.