Lord Willie Haughey has claimed Celtic and Hearts were not hit with the same rule that saw Queen's Park thrown out of the Scottish Cup.
The Scottish FA found the Glasgow side guilty of playing an ineligible player after Euan Henderson was fielded in their rescheduled fourth round win over Inverness. It was a fixture moved after the original date fell foul of the weather. Henderson had not signed on loan from Hearts at that point and therefore was not registered to play in the first tie, so was ineligible for the game that did go ahead.
But Queen's Park backer Haughey claims the same rules could also have been applied to the 2020 showpiece that was played in an empty stadium due to Covid. That Final, which Celtic won, was originally billed for May 9 but had to be forced all the way back to December 20 because the season had been brought to an abrupt end as the pandemic wreaked havoc.
In that time, clubs had made new signings over the summer, with Shane Duffy, David Turnbull and Diego Laxalt all featuring after their moves. Vasilis Barkas was an unused sub while Stephen Kingsley, Craig Gordon, Andy Halliday, Elliot Frear, Josh Ginnelly, Jordan Roberts were new players in maroon colours.
Mihai Popescu was on Hearts' bench and Christophe Berra was on loan at Dundee in the curtailed second half of the 2019/20 season. Crucially, however, there was special dispensation given for that season over player eligibility.
But Haughey claimed on Go Radio: "We signed the lad, played him in a league game no problem, and what we should have known is that game was cancelled from weeks previous. He had to be signed before that but here's an interesting one.
"The charge was that he had to be signed before the first game. When Celtic played Hearts in the Scottish Cup final (in 2020), that was a postponed game. Eight of the players were not signed before the first game. The exact same rule, Celtic had two, Hearts had six.
"There was nothing in writing saying because it was during Covid. If you take the rule they have ruled against Queen's Park, those eight players shouldn't have been able to play. You take your punishment and move on, it's a human error. But it's not as black and white as people think."
The SFA allowed the four clubs who made the 2020 semi finals – Celtic, Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen – to field players who had been signed in the summer window because of the Covid carnage. After the Queen’s expulsion, Inverness will now play Livingston in the last 16.
