SFA Hearing Outcome

Posted on Thursday, November 10th, 2011

After a very fair hearing at today’s Judicial Panel we have been expelled from the Scottish Cup for the failure to register Keith McLeod. We have also received a fine which has been suspended for 12 months.

We submitted Keith’s forms back in July. It was returned by the SFA as we had omitted the commencement dates from one of the forms. We didn’t receive the return letter so we assumed all was in order. Unfortunately we failed to check with the SFA that the form had been registered correctly.

The SFA accepted that we had not been trying to gain an unfair advantage.

Chairman Craig Graham said “obviously the outcome from today’s panel is disappointing. We wish Culter well against Partick Thistle. It’s always tricky for a club like ours with volunteers in all the key positions however we have made a number of changes to help ensure does a mistake doesn’t occur again in the future. I apologise to our players, coaching staff and supporters for what has happened however I know we will bounce back. We have far too many great things happening at Spartans with fantastic people involved to allow this to be anything more than a minor setback. For a start the EoS League is more competitive this season than it has been for many years and we will all be pulling together we do our utmost to retain our title.”

Keith did play in the South Challenge Cup prior to the Scottish Cup. The South Challenge Cup has different competition rules and sanctions when compared to the Scottish Cup. The Cup competition committee have yet to meet to discuss the implications of Keith playing in that competition. Our game against Eyemouth United this Saturday has however now been postponed.

Finally in the week when Bert passed away it reminds us what is really important. He was such a gentleman and we will all miss him.