Dundee United boss Robbie Neilson has escaped a potential touchline ban after being cleared of stepping out of line during last month’s defeat at Partick Thistle.
Robbie was sent to the stand after an exchange of words with referee Alan Newlands during half-time in the 2-1 reversal.
At the time he insisted he had not spoken out of turn but he was charged with misconduct by the SFA.
A disciplinary panel, however, has found there was not sufficient evidence to find him guilty of the offence, a verdict that obviously calls into question the match official’s version of events.
Had he been found guilty, the manager could have been slapped with a dugout ban covering at least one of United’s vital games in their promotion run-in.
Former United boss Ray McKinnon was not so lucky when his current club, Falkirk, were also up before the SFA. The Bairns had appealed to the senior ruling body over a £40,000 fine for breaking SPFL rules when they lured McKinnon from Morton early this season.
An SFA committee, however, upheld the ruling that Falkirk had been in breach of the rules and the Championship strugglers will now have to pay up.
There was a crumb of comfort for them when the committee did quash a further suspended fine of £20,000 that would have been hanging over the club for a further two years.
McKinnon moved to the Falkirk Stadium from Cappielow right at the end of August after just three months in charge of the Ton. That led to Morton lodging a complaint with the SPFL.
Despite both manager and his new club insisting they had acted within the rules, the SPFL found in Morton’s favour and that decision has now been backed by the SFA.
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