LENNON AND SMITH AGREE

NEIL LENNON needed no urging to join the debate over the secret way the Scottish Football Association go about dispensing what they call justice.

The Celtic manager was expressing his disgust at the lack of open honesty about the way the SFA go about things at more or less the same time as Walter Smith was explaining to me just how in the dark Rangers have been kept over the Allan McGregor affair.

GREEGSGATE!

Smith told me that neither he not anyone at Rangers had been told just who it was at the SFA who decided the incident involving the goalkeeper in the match with Aberdeen should be referred to the the SFA's clandestine Video Review Panel.

The conversation took place at Murray Park at the same time as Lennon was holding court at Lennoxtown and asserting to reporters that if anybody makes a complain against any one of his players he would want to know who it was.

By the time what Smith said appeared on radio and televsion the new SFA chief executive Stewart Regan blundered in, in a manner which suggested he was unsure about what was going on.

For instance, according to the man in the Hampden hot seat, the identity of the ex- player, former manager and retired referee who sit on the panel has to be kept secret in order that their decision is seen to be impartial.

Jeez, that's a good 'un!

Surely the exact opposite is the case, and if Regan is so keen on the whole thing being seen to be impartial then the best way is to come out from behind the SFA's very own version of the Iron Curtain and let everyone know just who is involved.

If there is nothing to hide, then why hide it?

Regan also went on to disclose that any incident referred to the Video Review Panel is the job of someone in the SFA Referees' Department of the Disciplinary Department.

But who? A penpusher? A computer whizzkid? A wee lassie? Surely any such decision should be taken by someone who is fully qualified in the game's laws. Now, who falls into that category? Mmmmmm? Yes, got it!

A REFEREE!

Lennon and Smith both agree with the basic wrongness of the current system, with Lennon chosing to highlight the point  I made last week about justice being seen to be done.

Maybe the Celtic manager is one of my growing army of regular readers. Which would not in the least surprise me.

He likes to keep himself up to date with all aspects of his job, and by visiting Ibrox to watch Rangers against Motherwell ahead of the Old Firm match, Lennon showed how thorough he is as a manager.

However, to return to the Scottish Football Association and it's declared love of secrecy. This is a body which is willing to take money from the taxpayer, and indeed wants Alex Salmond to give them more.

Therefore, there may be a case for trying to discover what it is that goes on behind the closed, locked a bolted doors of the SFA's sixth floor headquarters at Hampden by way of a request through the Freedom of Information Act.

For the culture of secrecy is growing within the SFA, with the Rod Petrie chaired General Purposes Committee no longer releasing what its punishments are regarding managers, players, or indeed any official club source, including websites, when  offensive language is used.

Maybe Petrie thinks the SFA should be run the way he runs Hibernian. If he does, he is wrong. At Easter Road he has an owner, Tom Farmer, to whom he is accountable, and nobody else.

The SFA is the national body made up of all the clubs, and all the associations right down to grassroots level, as well as it's responsility of running the national team. Does the word national not give Petrie a wee clue as to who the SFA is responsible to? If not, let me tell him. And tell the new boy Regan too.

IT'S THE NATION!

Neil Lennon and Walter Smith appear to be at one with me on that.