DUMBARTON manager Stevie Farrell has urged the SFA to review their rules after his goalkeeper Jay Hogarth was blocked from playing against his parent club Rangers in the Scottish Cup on Saturday.
Dumbarton and Rangers had reached an agreement that Hogarth, who moved from Ibrox to The Rock until the end of the season earlier this month, could feature in the fourth round tie this weekend.
Hogarth, who was brought in after Brett Long fractured his ankle in training and was ruled out for several months, has started in the League Two outfit’s last two matches against Peterhead and Bonnyrigg Rose since completing his switch.
READ MORE: Rangers manager Philippe Clement makes admission about Ridvan Yilmaz
Farrell had hoped the 20-year-old, who has made two appearances for the Scotland Under-21 team in the past, would be able to be involved in the live televised match against the Premiership giants at the Dumbarton Football Stadium on Saturday evening.
He had received the all clear from Rangers. However, rule 12.3 of the SFA Handbook states that “during the term of a temporary transfer, the player concerned shall not be eligible to play in the competition against his parent club”.
Farrell believes the governing body should revise their guidelines so that promising young footballers are able to gain invaluable experience of big cup games when they are out on loan at lower league outfits in future.
"Believe this or not, both clubs agreed to let him (Hogarth) play,” said Farrell. "There was no issue between Rangers and Dumbarton of Jay playing on Saturday.
READ MORE: Champions League surprise package held to a draw at Ibrox
“But the rules don't allow him to play. The rules of the governing body don't allow a player to play against their parent club in a cup tie.
"I think that's something that needs to be reviewed, because ultimately for Jay, like any other young player coming from an Old Firm club or a Premiership club, it's about development.
"It's about experiencing big games, big cup ties, because ultimately then he's going to go back to his parent club with better experience. I think it's something that needs to be looked at."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel