‘Get the popcorn out’ – BBC broadcaster fumes over latest news on Rangers star
BBC Radio Scotland and talkSPORT broadcaster Stewart Weir understands why Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos was hit with a retrospective ban this week but has blasted the SFA over their inconsistencies.
On Tuesday, Rangers accepted a two-match ban for Morelos after the 24-year-old was initially booked for planting his forearm into Dundee United’s Mark Connolly.
There’s no argument, really, about whether Morelos’ ban was deserved but the greater issue that has arisen is the lack of consistency and also the fact that the striker was only shown a yellow card to start with.
Weir, who contributes on BBC Radio Scotland and talkSPORT, slammed the SFA for causing more whataboutery.
Writing via his personal Twitter account, Weir said: “Morelos cited for violent conduct. No surprise and little can be said in his defence. That he’s been cited however, says much about the inconsistencies around such calls in the Scottish game. It’s become so random, it makes it easy for those claiming double-standards.”
After the charge was accepted by Rangers, Weir added: “Rangers accept the two-game ban offered to Morelos. I don’t think he had a defence.
“Get the popcorn out for the next episode of ‘What The Referee Never Saw’…”
Trial by TV
Rangers’ 2-1 win against Dundee United was broadcast live on Sky Sports on Sunday and after the incident involving Morelos and Connolly in the first-half, ex-Gers duo Ally McCoist and Kris Boyd ripped into. And rightly so.
Morelos getting booked early on was already an issue but if he had been sent off that could have been bye-bye to the unbeaten run with United looking fairly decent for the game at Tannadice.
But would Morelos have been banned if the incident was replayed over and over again by Sky Sports? Would he have gotten away with it if he was playing in say the St Johnstone and Livingston game on Saturday?
Rangers – and, yes, Celtic – players are under the microscope a lot more because of the size of the clubs they play for and the major plot of this season that the Gers are on their way to securing title number 55.
It was stupid of Morelos. He deserved the red card there and then. And the referee should have seen that instead of giving him a yellow card.
But there are other incidents that never even get considered by the SFA.
In other Rangers news, fans are fuming with this update on a Gers player.