PICTURE the scene.

Because it might not be too far away. A manager comes into the press room or broadcast booth to give his post-match thoughts on a game his side have just lost, as he is contractually and morally obliged to do. He is immediately quizzed on the subject of the match-winning, season-defining penalty that has just been awarded, wrongly, against his team. So how does he express his side's outrage about the material losses he and his football club will suffer as a result, yet steer clear of, to borrow the SFA terminology, "criticising the performance(s) of any or all match official(s) in such a way as to indicate bias or incompetence on the part of such match official"? The answer is quite simple. He refers the matter to the man sitting next to him. His legal counsel.

It is a scenario which few would feel is progress but may just be inevitable. Lawyers aren't asked to accompany managers into post-match press conferences just yet, but if any part of Scottish football is a growth industry, it surely is its interactions with the legal fraternity. The recent passing of Paul McBride QC robbed Scotland of one of its more flamboyant legal figures but, rightly or wrongly, the arrival of Vincent Lunny as SFA compliance officer and appointment of Andrew McKinley as the association's head of governance signals that Scottish football is getting serious about crime and punishment. While Craig Whyte, Ticketus and the club's administrators rack up the legal fees in the wrangling over the immediate past and future of Rangers, the latest courtroom skirmish is set to unfold in the next days and weeks over who said what to whom in the conversation between Neil Lennon and Willie Collum in the Ibrox tunnel on Sunday.

Few men are better placed to offer a considered opinion than Derek Stillie. The 38-year-old made his name as a reliable custodian for clubs such as Aberdeen, Dundee United and Dunfermline, but in recent times he has embarked on a second career as a London-based solicitor specialising in sports law at international law firm Kennedys. Although Stillie specialises in English, rather than Scots, law, he has recent experience with the SFA's disciplinary procedures, having assisted then Dunfermline manager Jim McIntyre, pictured, when he successfully disputed the one-match ban he was offered for saying referee Steve Conroy had had a "nightmare" when awarding a penalty against his side during the Sone Aluko "dive" affair at Ibrox back in December. With Aluko also having a two-match ban for simulation upheld for the same incident, that, you may recall, was when the SFA were in the peculiar situation of trying to prosecute a manager for effectively reaching the same conclusion as they eventually did.

"It was the compliance officer's prerogative to issue the notice of complaint," Stillie told Herald Sport. "At that time he decided there were two issues that needed addressing: one, whether Aluko was simulation, then the issue of whether Jim had been critical of the referee. But Jim wasn't being critical of the referee's performance at all. He was stating an opinion that, in one very narrowly defined instance in the match, there was a wrong decision. So we were called to answer the notice against us and did it adequately for the panel's benefit."

The Lennon affair, which could potentially lead to him being deprived of the chance to take to the touchline as his side clinches the title, is slightly different, as there are differences of opinion as to what precisely was said, and the annex in question is, in SFA parlance, "the adoption of aggressive behaviour towards a match official and the repeated use of offensive, abusing and insulting language". But whatever the outcome, and however difficult a tightrope our top managers have to walk, Stillie feels the current system is an improvement on the previous system, and is confident the law will take its course.

"The stakes are so high that players, managers and whoever needs professional representation should take it," Stillie said. "Whether we like it or not, the two major guys in Scottish football at the very top of our two big teams probably carry more responsibility than anyone else.

"Obviously everyone in the country has an absolute right to freedom of speech, but when you sign up to represent a football club, you sign up to abide by their laws, their rules and regulations, if you want to participate in association football in that country. There is no black and white, no 'you can say this' but 'you can't say that'. The wider circumstance can be considered. We can't have some of the most influential people in the game stop expressing opinions but at the same time they have a duty and a responsibility to the wider game that its integrity is not being questioned or breached at all.

"Each instance I suppose requires interpretation on its own particular facts. But the procedures are robust and people are getting to know them. Things are moving forward the way you would expect an organisation like the SFA should in the 21st century."

Stillie was even an interested party at one London court case relating to the Rangers takeover, as wrangling took place over a chunk of Ticketus cash which had been placed in a Collyer Bristow account. "My clients weren't involved directly on the case," he said, "it was more just taking a watching brief." That is one courtroom drama, it seems fair to say, which will run and run.