The panel that cleared Inverness defender Josh Meekings to play in the William Hill Scottish Cup final did not even consider his handball, the Scottish Football Association has revealed.
Meekings saw his cup-final ban thrown out by a judicial panel tribunal on Thursday after Caley Thistle challenged his one-game retrospective suspension for denying Celtic an obvious goalscoring opportunity by deliberate handball.
And it has emerged the Highland club's lawyers successfully argued that SFA compliance officer Tony McGlennan had no right to bring the case because match officials had seen the incident where Meekings stopped a Leigh Griffiths header during his side's 3-2 win over Celtic on Sunday. Crucially, though, referee Steven McLean and additional assistant Alan Muir waved play on after not identifying it as a handball, which happened when Celtic were leading 1-0.
The SFA published the reasons given by the chair of the three-man panel, which read: "Further to the judicial panel hearing yesterday involving Josh Meekings, the panel considered initial submissions from Mr Meekings' solicitor.
"In particular it was argued by him that under protocol 13.4.1.1 the judicial panel was not entitled to determine the matter.
"The panel considered that as the incident (but not the actual alleged sending-off offence of handball) had been seen by one or more of the officials it was not entitled to consider the matter further.
"It accordingly dismissed the complaint without any consideration of the merits of the incident or the decision arrived at by the referee."
The decision could effectively blunt the SFA's powers to bring retrospective cases against players, unless an incident has been completely missed by all match officials.
Players have previously been banned for diving to win penalties and for tackles that looked worse when referees viewed video footage - such as Livingston defender Jason Talbot's face-high tackle on Hearts midfielder Sam Nicholson.
The rule states that the compliance officer can bring cases for alleged sending-off offences "not seen by match officials".
The Meekings case was brought because McLean and his team had not seen the ball hit the defender's hand.
PFA Scotland chief executive Fraser Wishart had warned before the verdict that the SFA was veering into dangerous territory.
He said: ''I think you have seen this week from the reaction of players across the country, players have no problem with video evidence being used for incidents that genuinely haven't been seen by the referee.
"Maybe a punch behind the referee's back and fly kick when the ball is away.
''But we think, if the rule has been extended, then it is now erring into re-refereeing a game on a Monday.
''That's not the purpose of video evidence. That's why the English FA and FIFA and UEFA steer away from that. The referee could see the incident on Sunday, he just didn't see the handball."
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