EAST FIFE have been made to wait a little longer to find out if their appeal against the eight-match ban handed to Kevin Fotheringham will be successful.

The club has been told to expect a decision from the SFA’s disciplinary panel within seven to 10 days after a lengthy meeting at Hampden on Wednesday night.

Fotheringham is appealing over the eight-match ban imposed by the SFA’s disciplinary committee after he was found guilty of making racist comments towards Stranraer’s Gregory Tade following a match at New Bayview on January 2.

The 32-year-old has protested his innocence from the outset and was allowed to play for the Fifers for the rest of the season pending his appeal hearing, which was postponed several times before this week.

Vice-chairman Sid Collumbine, who accompanied Fotheringham to the hearing, confirmed the panel was unable to reach a decision on Wednesday following a three-and-a-half-hour meeting.

He added that the SFA will inform the Methil club of its decision in writing in due course.

“It was a very well- constituted meeting and it was a very good presentation from our QC,” he said.

“To be fair, the whole hearing was conducted absolutely perfectly and we argued points of law purely and simply on how the disciplinary committee was conducted in the first place.

“We hope the whole thing will either be dropped or, at the very least, a new committee hearing is set and we can put forward our case properly.

“If the disciplinary committee had been as good as this week’s hearing, we wouldn’t have this problem.

“The meeting was very fair, consisting of submissions and counter-submissions, and I’m reasonably confident that we’ll get a result.”