STUART McCall, the Rangers interim manager, last night appealed for the number of offences players can be punished for retrospectively by the SFA to be limited.

McCall welcomed the decision not to suspend Josh Meekings, the Inverness Caledonian Thistle centre half, for the Scottish Cup final next month.

He revealed he cheered when he heard the player, who had handled the ball in the semi-final against Celtic on Sunday, had been cleared to play against Falkirk.

The decision by compliance officer Tony McGlennan to issue a notice of complaint for a hand ball offence for the first time sparked a storm of controversy last week.

McCall stated: "It's 100 per cent the right decision. I'm delighted for Josh, I'm delighted for Inverness. I'm sure nearly 100 per cent of people in football will agree that it was the right decision.

"I can't remember if I heard it on the radio or saw it on Sky Sports but when I heard the news I went 'yes'.

"Listen, everyone knows it was a red card, a sending off. No doubt. But, for me, it shouldn't have gone this far but the right decision has been made."

He added: "I think referees should be allow to referee games. But if someone has elbowed someone or punched someone off the ball, that's different if it's done deliberately.

"I can think of loads of games that I've been involved in that you could have had retrospective disciplinary action. But where do you stop with it?

"For something deliberate, then yes, but this Meekings incident wasn't deliberate.

"Unless it's something sneaky that the referee has missed, an elbow or a spit or something like that. But for something like this I don't think it was needed."

Celtic wrote to the SFA this week seeking clarification on how semi-final referee Steven McLean missed the Meekings hand ball incident.

But McCall stressed he would not have gone down that route if he had been in a similar position.

He said: "What can you do? The referee missed it. We are all human. Obviously it's probably cost them (Celtic) massively.

"But they've (the officials) messed up and you can't go back and change it."