Motherwell Appeals £5,000 Fine Over Controversial Celtic Penalty

Motherwell have launched an appeal against a £5,000 fine from the Scottish FA, doubling down on their anger over a controversial late penalty that helped Celtic to victory at Fir Park in May.

The charge stems from a club social media post published in the aftermath of that chaotic afternoon, when emotions were still running hot. In the penultimate round of Premiership fixtures, with the game level and the tension suffocating, Celtic were awarded a stoppage‑time penalty after Sam Nicholson was penalised for handball.

Kelechi Iheanacho stepped up, converted, and Celtic walked away with a 3-2 win. Motherwell walked away furious.

The Lanarkshire club later released a video on their channels, accompanied by a pointed caption:

"As the world of football mocks our game, we simply have to draw a line in the sand and shift the focus."

The Scottish FA did not see it as a rallying cry, but as a breach. On 16 July, a disciplinary tribunal hit Motherwell with a £5,000 fine, and the fallout did not stop there.

Elliot Watt, now departed from the club, received a four-game suspension for his own intervention on X, where he branded the decision to award the penalty "the worst VAR decision in history". The language was blunt, the punishment equally so.

He was not alone in his fury. Derek McInnes, then Hearts manager and now in charge at Rangers, also paid a heavy price for his reaction. His comments during a television interview about the same incident earned him a four-game touchline ban, underlining just how fiercely the incident split opinion inside the Scottish game.

Motherwell’s appeal now drags the whole episode back into the spotlight. The fine is modest in financial terms, but the principle is anything but small: where does criticism end and misconduct begin in an era when every decision, and every reaction to it, plays out in public?