INVERNESS Caledonian Thistle defender Josh Meekings will today face a disciplinary hearing at Hampden - despite increasing pressure on the SFA to withdraw its notice of complaint.
Meekings has been cited by compliance officer Tony McGlennan for a controversial hand ball incident in his side's 3-2 win over Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden on Sunday.
If a three person panel uphold the complaint the 22-year-old Englishman will be hit with a one game ban and ruled out of the final against Falkirk on May 30.
But thousands have signed an online petition launched to overturn the decision - and Jim Boyce, FIFA vice-president and head of the FIFA refereeing committee, said he was opposed to the intervention by the compliance officer.
One 'sporting integrity' petition already has nearly 4,000 supporters while no fewer than three others have also sprung up which together have garnered over 400 signatures.
Former Liverpool footballer turned television and radio pundit Didi Hamann has supported the launch of a petition against what he called the "pathetic" decision to consider the retrospective yellow card.
The Caley Thistle player is charged with deliberately handling the ball to deny a goal-scoring opportunity against Celtic on Sunday and faces a one-match ban if proven guilty.
The main petition argues that pictures show Meekings is not looking at ball when it strikes his arm and, therefore, it "cannot be deemed to be deliberate".
It points out that even in the case of a "clearly deliberate handball" by Thierry Henry to set up William Gallas's decisive goal against the Republic of Ireland in a 2009 World Cup play-off in Paris, FIFA's disciplinary committee reached the conclusion that there was "no legal foundation for the committee to consider the case because handling the ball cannot be regarded as a serious infringement as stipulated in article 77a) of the FIFA disciplinary code."
Jim Boyce, meanwhile, said the intervention set "a very dangerous precedent". He said: "I am absolutely, 100 percent against the compliance officer becoming involved because the referee's decision is final.
"It is a totally different matter if someone has gone over the top, or committed a serious foul, or head-butted someone and the referee has missed it.
"Those are disciplinary issues. But what happened here is that the referee has made a mistake regarding a handball and that's the end of it. There is no way the player should now be disciplined for that.
"Who's to say it was even intentional? If the Scottish FA or their referees committee decide that they feel a serious mistake was made then they could take action in the future against that referee.
"I can understand why Celtic are annoyed because they felt they should have had a penalty kick, but these things happen at all levels of football every week.
"The only punishment, if any punishment at all is due, should be made if the Scottish FA feel the officials in charge of this game acted improperly and made the wrong decision."
The SFA compliance officer can take retrospective action if an incident was not seen during the game by the referee, denied a goalscoring opportunity and could have resulted in an ordering off.
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