Brendan Rodgers: Celtic boss charged over criticism of officials in defeat by Hearts

Brendan Rodgers will face a Scottish Football Association hearing after being charged over his strong criticism of officials after Celtic’s defeat by Heart of Midlothian on Sunday.

Beaton had called referee Don Robertson to the monitor as Hearts were given a penalty and took a 1-0 lead.

Celtic earlier had Yang Hyun-jun’s yellow upgraded to a red card.

Rodgers claimed “the game was refereed outside the field today” after VAR intervention led to winger Yang being sent off and Tomoki Iwata conceding a penalty for Hearts’ opener after the ball struck the midfielder’s arm.

The Scottish champions on Wednesday had an appeal against the sending off, for a high boot on Hearts full-back Alex Cochrane, rejected by the SFA.

Now the governing body has called Rodgers to a hearing on Thursday, 28 March for breaching disciplinary rule 72, which rules out criticism “to indicate bias or incompetence on the part of such match official” or “make remarks about” match officials that “impinge on his character”.

If the independent tribunal finds against Rodgers and imposes a minimum two-match suspension, he will be sitting in the stand for Celtic’s visit to Livingston on 31 March and what could be a pivotal derby against current Scottish Premiership leaders Rangers a week later.