Hearts boss Craig Levein is bemused by the decision to charge his club and Hibernian following last week’s Edinburgh derby.
Both teams have been issued with notices of complaint for failing to control their players during last week’s feisty Tynecastle clash.
The Scottish Football Association charges centre on two second-half incidents – the first of which was sparked by Hibs striker Flo Kamberi’s collision with Hearts midfielder Oliver Bozanic which saw the Swiss collect a second yellow card.
But Levein insists both sets of players were actually trying to help referee Andrew Dallas by pulling team-mates away from trouble.
And he believes compliance officer Clare Whyte should take a look back at some of the skirmishes he faced as a player to see what happens when things really lose control.
Both clubs are accused of breaching rule 204, which carries a maximum fine of £10,000 in cases of ‘mass confrontation’ where “three or more players from one team are involved in a confrontation with opposing players during and/or directly after a match”.
Levein said: “I worry about the game when that is seen as a mass confrontation.
“People think players are robots who can control every emotion going. But the whole idea of teamwork is to support your team-mates.
“When I look at the first situation I don’t see anything in it. I see a lot of people going in to break things up and stop a situation arising. In fact, I thought they were helping the referee.
“If the compliance officer wants to watch some games from the past then maybe she would recognise exactly what a difficult situation that is. But that was nothing.
“Just about everyone is trying to keep the peace and trying to help the referee. Just because there are people there doesn’t mean it’s confrontational.
“I certainly think those situations could have got out of hand had it not been for the players trying to calm it.”
The goalless derby draw came in amongst two heavy defeats to Celtic which exposed the extent of the Jambos’ injury woes.
But Levein is clinging on to hopes that skipper Christophe Berra and talisman Steven Naismith could be set for early returns from their long-term lay-offs in the coming weeks.
That would be a major boost as Hearts look to defend their position at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership table.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s visit of Kilmarnock, he said: “You don’t stay at the top of the league for as long as we have without deserving it.
“We’ve had a lot of things to contend with that are out of the ordinary and I’m talking mainly about the injuries but yet we’re still in the same position.
“The key for us is trying to stay out in front to the point where we get our main players back.
“I think we can stay in the fight (at the top), it’s just about hanging in there right now. We’ve got four or five players out who are arguably definite starters.
“I’m hoping that Christophe and Steven are ahead of schedule and will be able to help us in the last three or four games before the winter break.”
