THE former head coach of the Celtic women's team, Peter Caulfield, is likely to be issued with a notice of complaint by Vincent Lunny, the Scottish Football Association's compliance officer, if he returns to football.
Caulfield resigned suddenly from his post at the end of last month, with Celtic claiming it was for work and family reasons. But it emerged after a Scottish Women's Football disciplinary meeting on Thursday that the club held him responsible for an attempt to cup-tie their former player Emily Thomson.
The 19-year-old Scotland midfielder left Celtic for Glasgow City in May, but Celtic held on to her registration for a further 28 days. There is dispute as to whether the four-week period had run out when Celtic travelled to Forfar Farmington for a Scottish Cup second round match on June 23, when Caulfield listed her as a substitute even though it was known that she was training with Glasgow City and was going to sign for them the following day.
Forfar complained and, if found guilty of listing an ineligible player, Celtic, who won 5-2, could be eliminated from the Cup in controversial circumstances for a second successive year.
As Caulfield is no longer at the club, the SWA disciplinary committee concluded that Celtic had not been in breach of the rules, yet cleared Thomson to play for her new club in the Scottish Cup. "We are delighted that Emily will not be cup-tied," said Laura Montgomery, City's general manager. "Thankfully, commonsense has prevailed and Emily can concentrate on playing for Glasgow City."
While the disciplinary meeting was going on, Thomson was celebrating with her new team-mates after the 7-0 Champions League qualifying group win over Osijek of Croatia.
Her fellow Scotland midfielder Jo Love stole the show, scoring three goals in 15 first-half minutes before being rested at half-time. "It was obviously great to score a hat-trick in Europe but the result was the most important thing," she said.
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