HEARTS ‘cheat’ Jamie walker has been hit by a two-match ban by the SFA’s compliance officer following his dive against Celtic.
The midfielder can appeal the decision by Tony McGlennan to suspend him, but has been offered a fixed two match suspension.
Walker is accused of pretending he was fouled by Kieran Tierney resulting in the awarding of a penalty-kick during the champions’ 2-1 win in Edinburgh with new Bhoy Scott Sinclair slotting in the winner.
Hoops skipper Scott Brown labelled the player a cheat and claimed his outrageous theatrics belonged in the Olympics in Rio.
Walker went to ground in search of a spot-kick while Brendan Rodgers’ men were leading 1-0 through an early goal from James Forrest. Pictorial evidence proves there was no contact from left-back Tierney as the Tynecastle attacker went down.
Referee John Beaten, who later owned up to making an error, immediately pointed to the spot and, to make matters worse, Walker got up to drill the penalty-kick beyond Craig Gordon, who was also booked by the match official.
Various TV replays – and the referee’s admission that he got the call wrong – made certain of a two-game ban for Walker.
Former Celt Derk Boerrigter suffered an identical fate two seasons ago when the Dutch winger was found guilty of simulation in a 3-0 league win over St Johnstone in Perth.
Astonishingly, John Beaton was the referee on that occasion, too!
