BBC pundit, Michael Stewart, has “doubled down” on his claims that Alfredo Morelos deserved to get sent-off against Motherwell at the weekend whilst defending Scott Brown for a similar incident last season as reported in The Daily Record.
Stewart was highly critical of Morelos in the incident in which he celebrated in front of the Motherwell fans after scoring his side’s second goal of the afternoon.
So what did Stewart say?
When it was put to Stewart that he was contradicting himself and that he was being inconsistent in his views on the matter of celebrating in front of opposition fans, he said:
“I don’t agree. There’s a big difference. Scott Brown was standing there. The game finished in that bottom corner – he didn’t go over there to the Rangers support”.
“He was standing there with his arms out in front of the Rangers support. The video footage I saw he walked up the side of the pitch celebrating with the Celtic supporters. I don’t think he should have been sent off”.
“I see a difference between what we saw yesterday and that. I don’t see any inconsistency in that but look if you are going to get supporters of one team finding issue with it I don’t think that’s a great surprise”.
So is Stewart correct?
Brown and Morelos did exactly the same celebration to taunt opposition fans, whether or not the Colombian knows exactly what it means in Scotland is another matter!
Morelos has done the same thing on numerous occasions when running towards Rangers fans so there is an argument that it is a “lost in translation” issue but as it was a yellow card it can’t be appealed.
Stewart misses the point, Brown was taunting the Rangers support and backed him at the time (via The Scottish Sun) by saying:
“Should he be up celebrating in front of the Rangers fans? No probably, but is it a real bad incident? No it’s not. There needs to be a little bit of calmness added to this. What Scott Brown has done has got a reaction. And was it out of order? Not really, no.”
So, Stewart is happy for Brown to celebrate in front of Rangers fans but can’t apply the same rules to Morelos, instead, criticises him for stupidly getting himself off, the Colombian was smiling throughout the whole celebration and was nowhere near the edge of the pitch, hardly an act of aggression.
Does Michael Stewart contradict himself over Brown and Morelos incidents?
Yes
No
As with the refereeing in Scotland at present, the punditry on offer remains inconsistent, it continues to be one rule for Morelos and one rule for the rest.