Aberdeen to push for changes to Scottish Football Association’s appeals process

Aberdeen will lead a push for changes to the Scottish Football Association’s appeals process after accepting defeat over Graeme Shinnie’s four-match ban.

Shinnie was handed an additional one-game ban by an independent panel after the Dons’ appeal against his red card in Dingwall on Friday night was deemed either to be “frivolous” or having no chance of succeeding.

Aberdeen had been in talks with the SFA following the outcome from Tuesday night’s hearing but their attempts to soften Shinnie’s punishment were doomed to fail.

However, they are keen to institute general change after PFA Scotland claimed many of its members had lost faith in the system and argued that the threat of an additional ban was used to discourage appeals.

An Aberdeen statement read: “Following our request to the Scottish FA for Graeme Shinnie’s appeal to be re-heard by a freshly constituted fast-track tribunal, we have been informed that this has been dismissed.

“We now have no further recourse, so Graeme will miss the next four Scottish Premiership matches.

“We have taken the temperature of several Premiership clubs and will now pro-actively work with clubs and the Scottish FA to bring about sensible and positive governance changes for the benefit of Scottish football.

“Supporters, the lifeblood of our game, deserve to see a consistency and transparency in decision-making. Aberdeen FC is ready to play its part in a constructive and timely manner.”