Ally McCoist given suspended ban as Charles Green is censured

Rangers' Ally McCoist has been given a suspended three-match touchline ban after being found guilty of bringing Scottish football into disrepute.

The manager called for the Scottish FA judiciary panel who imposed a year-long transfer ban on the club to be named.

Police advised the three panel members who were threatened after their identities were revealed.

Ibrox chief executive Charles Green was censured for claiming bigotry was among the motives for punishing the club.

McCoist was charged with "calling into question the independence of the Judicial Panel", "not acting in the best interests of Association Football by calling into question, in a media interview, the independence of the Judicial Panel" and "not acting in the best interests of Association Football by requesting, in a media interview, that the members of the Judicial Panel... be named in public".

The manager was found guilty of the first two charges with the three-match ban suspended for 12 months.

Reacting to the verdict, McCoist said: "I can assure everyone that at no time did I intend to bring the game into disrepute when I made my feelings known about the decision by a judicial panel, set up under the auspices of the SFA, to impose a transfer embargo on Rangers.

"I felt the decision was wrong and my concern was that everyone must have full confidence in a system that has the capacity to impose such severe sanctions.

"I wanted full transparency on a decision which had far reaching implications for our club.

"At no time did I wish any individual subjected to intimidation as a result of my comments and I am pleased that this aspect of the complaint was dismissed by the judicial panel."

The company that previously ran Rangers entered administration in February with mounting liabilities, including debts to several Scottish clubs.

The club was found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute two months later and punished with the year-long ban on registering players over the age of 18.

After an unsuccessful appeal, Rangers challenged the verdict at the Court of Session, who ruled that the SFA had acted beyond its powers in imposing the embargo.

However, after the Rangers Football Club plc could not be saved from liquidation and were relaunched by Green's consortium, the Ibrox club accepted the transfer ban as a condition of being granted SFA membership. The ban begins on Saturday.

Green also agreed to settle the football debts incurred by Rangers in the run up to administration but issues relating to media rights and a Scottish Premier League investigation into how the club paid players in the previous decade had held up the process of gaining SFA membership.

And Green said in July: "Some of it has been driven by bigotry, some of its been driven by jealousy and some of its been driven by all the wrong motives."

The SFA contended that Green had "brought the game into disrepute and did not act in the best interests of football" and had not behaved "towards other members with the utmost good faith, all by making comments in a media interview which suggested that decisions taken concerning the future of Rangers FC were motivated, in part, by bigotry".

"The Judicial Panel found that the complaint against Rangers FC (in respect of Charles Green's comments) was upheld and a censure was issued," said the SFA in a statement.

Commenting on his censure, Green said: "The decision of the judicial panel was disappointing as they accepted there was no intention on my part to bring the game into disrepute and this is reflected in the sanction imposed.

"I explained to the SFA previously and have said publicly what I meant by my remarks and it is time to move on."