SFA halves Strachan's touchline ban after appeal

Strachan will now only be missing from the Celtic bench for two matches (AP)

The Celtic manager, Gordon Strachan, yesterday had a four-match touchline ban halved on appeal but failed in his attempt to overturn the decision to punish him for a row with a steward at Aberdeen in August.

Strachan was sent to the stands by the referee Charlie Richmond following the incident on 19 August. He was found guilty of "unacceptable conduct" by the Scottish Football Association's disciplinary committee last month, but Celtic swiftly appealed.

Strachan appeared before the SFA appeals board yesterday and achieved a partial victory. However, he must watch the matches against Inverness today and Hibernian on Saturday from the stands.

The Celtic coach, Tommy Burns, defended Strachan at the time of the incident, stressing that the Hoops manager had been defending his assistant Garry Pendrey following accusations he had made a rude gesture to the Aberdeen fans.

Gordon Smith has acted to clarify reports claiming he had revealed that all Premier League clubs have complained about referees this season. The Scottish Football Association chief executive was reacting to the ongoing tensions between clubs and officials.

Smith was quoted as saying: "I've had a letter from every club in the SPL saying referees are biased against them. Clubs genuinely write in to say it." It is thought that at least one SPL manager has phoned the SFA to complain about being wrongly accused of targeting officials.

A spokesman for the Scottish Football Association made clear Smith was referring to fans of clubs rather than the clubs themselves. The statement read: "In the course of a lengthy discussion with journalists yesterday, Gordon Smith mentioned that he had received representations from SPL clubs about the performances of referees.

"These comments referred to letters, emails and phone calls from fans of SPL clubs who have contacted the Scottish FA to feel that they – their clubs – have been hard done by in some way by a referee.

"We have not received formal letters of complaints from SPL clubs."