Celtic are not looking to mess about when the club's manager Brendan Rodgers goes before the Scottish FA tomorrow.

The champions are reportedly set to bring out the big guns as the Northern Irishman meets with the SFA's disciplinary panel following a notice of complaint against him for his comments about matchday officials earlier this month.

And it seems the 'Lionel Messi of sports law' has been drafted in to defend Rodgers on Thursday.

The Daily Record states that the Hoops boss will be represented by legal expert Nick De Marco, who was previously described by football finance expert Kieran Maguire as the ‘football law version of Lionel Messi’.

The lawyer has taken on both the Premier League and Football League for more than 40 clubs upon their respective charges. He is currently tasked with representing Leicester City and their ongoing Financial Fair Play dispute.

The barrister also fought the charge against Nottingham Forest's points deduction and was involved in the Saudi's takeover of Newcastle United in 2022.

He previously helped Celtic by representing Scott Brown in 2019 after the club legend was accused of "not acting in the best interests of association football" following a derby encounter against Rangers.

Rodgers faces a minimum of a two-game ban if found guilty at the hearing. This means he would miss Celtic's next two matches against Livingston and Rangers.

The 51-year-old was cited for his comments about referee Don Robertson and VAR John Beaton after his side's 2-0 loss to Hearts in early March. After the game, he took aim at both regarding Yang's red card, and Tomoki Iwata's penalty controversy, branding them as 'incompetent'.

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“I try to respect decisions and give the benefit of the doubt," Rodgers said post-Hearts. “But I think when I see that level of incompetence, which is the only word I can use, then that makes me worry for the game.

"In such a tight title race that can make the difference. I also think that VAR is not the problem here. “That's clear. It's competence.

"The first one is the sending off when there is no force. Show a still image of that and of course and you will see a foot up with the head near it, but it's not the reality of the move. Don got it actually right on the field. It was a high boot, so it's a yellow card - no malice or force.

“For John Beaton to actually look at that in VAR, supposedly under no pressure, and say that was sending off? I find that incredible.

"The second one is worse. If you have a penalty go against you for that then there will be penalties every single weekend and midweek.”