Celtic's Ryan Christie guilty of 'brutality' against Rangers' Alfredo Morelos - Scottish FA

Ryan Christie was deemed to have committed a deliberate act of "brutality" against Alfredo Morelos in the incident that led to a red card, the Scottish FA has confirmed.

It has published written reasons for Christie being found guilty of violent conduct against the Rangers striker.

Catching Morelos in the groin area resulted in a two-match ban for the Celtic midfielder.

It "was not a reflex action or an unintended consequence", the SFA said.

Christie defended himself by video link from their training camp in Dubai.

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But a three-person panel found the SFA compliance officer's accusations proven following Rangers 2-1 win at Celtic Park on 29 December, leading Celtic to express their disappointment at the decision.

Compliance officer Clare Whyte deemed Christie had "deliberately committed a violent act whereby he struck an opponent in the groin, with excessive force when not challenging for the ball.

Christie had been handed a notice of complaint after the match officials all confirmed they had not seen the alleged act at the time.

"Given the sensitivity of the area of the body targeted by the alleged party, the compliance officer categorised the act as one involving brutality and also submitted that this was manifestly apparent from the video footage available of the incident," the SFA explained.

"The three former match officials, following a review of the video footage, had each separately confirmed that the alleged act amounted to a sending-off offence for violent conduct. Two of these former match officials believed that brutality was also evident."

Christie, who is recovering from minor groin surgery picked up in the Old Firm derby, will miss the Scottish Cup meeting with Partick Thistle and a Scottish Premiership encounter with Kilmarnock because of his ban.

He will also sit out a league game against Ross County because it was his second sending-off offence of the season.