THE SFA will wait to receive a written explanation of why they have been fined by FIFA for Scotland players wearing poppies on black armbands in the Russia 2018 qualifier against England before deciding what action to take.
FIFA yesterday announced that Scotland had been fined 20,000 Swiss francs (SFr), or £15,694, by their disciplinary committee following the Group F match at Wembley on Armistice Day last month.
England, meanwhile, have been fined 45,000 SFr, £35,311, by world football's governing body for the display of a political symbol by their team and spectators and several incidences of supporter misconduct.
Read more: Matthew Lindsay: Poppygate fine reflect badly on FIFA - the SFA would be justified refusing to pay
Elsewhere, Wales have been fined 20,000 SFr and Northern Ireland 15,000 SFr for displaying political symbols in their Russia 2018 qualifiers against Serbia and Azerbaijan respectively.
And the Republic of Ireland has also been fined 5,000 SFr for displaying a political symbol – a logo which marked the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising - on their shirt in the friendly against Switzerland in Dublin March.
Stewart Regan, the SFA chief executive, last month argued the poppy was an “important symbol of remembrance” and did not “relate to any one historical event” and claimed FIFA had misinterpreted the rules.
The SFA released a statement yesterday afternoon saying they were "disappointed" by the decision of the disciplinary committee and would wait until they received written confirmation of the fine before deciding what action to take.
Read more: Matthew Lindsay: Poppygate fine reflect badly on FIFA - the SFA would be justified refusing to pay
The statement read: "The Scottish FA is disappointed by the outcome of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee in administering a fine for acts of remembrance at the England v Scotland match on 11 November 2016, at Wembley Stadium.
"We await the written reasons from the committee before considering the appropriate next steps."
FIFA disciplinary committee chairman Claudio Sulser said: “With these decisions, it is not our intention to judge or question specific commemorations as we fully respect the significance of such moments in the respective countries, each one of them with its own history and background.
“However, keeping in mind that the rules need to be applied in a neutral and fair manner across FIFA’s 211 member associations, the display, among others, of any political or religious symbol is strictly prohibited. In the stadium and on the pitch, there is only room for sport, nothing else.”
Both Scotland and England openly flouted strict FIFA guidelines about displaying political, religious of commercial symbols despite warnings they could be docked Group F points by world football's governing body.
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