Kyle Lafferty: Kilmarnock's Derek McInnes has 'no beef' with SFA on hearing date
- Published
Kyle Lafferty (left) celebrated with Daniel Armstrong during Wednesday's win over St Johnstone
Derek McInnes insists he has "no beef" with the Scottish FA and Kilmarnock are "just trying to respect the process" of Kyle Lafferty's disciplinary hearing.
The striker faces a tribunal on 20 October over an alleged sectarian comment, with a 10-game ban possible.
The SFA revealed that Kilmarnock had rejected the chance to bring the hearing forward after manager McInnes had publicly criticised the delay.
"Maybe there has been a wee bit of a lack of communication," McInnes said.
"But certainly no beef with me and the SFA. We are just trying to respect the process.
"It got brought to my attention on Tuesday, prior to the St Johnstone game after we had named the team and went through everything, that we could have maybe brought it forward by a week, which was the 13th, by which stage we had just decided to run with the 20th."
Kilmarnock have already fined Lafferty for the incident, which centres on a social media video, and the 35-year-old Northern Ireland striker will answer an SFA charge of not acting in the best interests of football.
Lafferty was on the bench last week at Aberdeen and started in the 2-1 win over St Johnstone at Rugby Park on Wednesday.
"Before the Aberdeen game, I wanted it dealt with because then it falls on me." McInnes added.
"Am I right to pick him or not? And I thought it would have been dealt with, but we have had good communication with the SFA in the last 24 hours, probably better communication.
"It was a tough one for me to get involved in last Saturday, whether to take the sting out of it all. I thought long and hard about his involvement in the game.
"But, being at home here (on Wednesday), we had done our preparation Monday and Tuesday and I felt, if he is going to get a ban in a few weeks' time, it is important that we tried to utilise that.
"Kyle has been training well and that's why we played him. He played his part in a winning performance.
"There are three more games prior to the hearing and we will take what's coming from that, but up until then, I have the luxury of picking him or not."
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