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30th Sep 2015

Celtic’s Leigh Griffiths punished for “f**king refugee” song about Hearts player

Fine and suspended ban

Darragh Murphy

Leigh Griffiths has been fined and given a suspended two-match ban for singing an offensive song about a Hearts player last year.

Griffiths was filmed singing “Rudi Skacel is a fucking refugee” in an Edinburgh pub ahead of the Hearts v Hibernian derby in April 2014.

The Celtic forward, who spent two years on loan at Hibs, pled guilty to the offence at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month and was fined four weeks wages by Celtic before the SFA handed out their punishment, citing Griffiths’ breaching of Rule 86 by “not acting in the best interests of Association Football by singing in public a song of an offensive and insulting nature.”

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Griffiths accepted the punishment, saying: “I made a mistake, I wrongly became involved in this incident and did not fully consider my actions. I apologise unreservedly for this.”

The SFA have warned Griffiths that any further misconduct this season will see his two-game suspension enforced.

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