SO - Lee McCulloch has lost his appeal against his two-game suspension which followed his red card against St Mirren, yet another incident which has perked-up the already boiling pot of passion which is Scottish football.

The referee saw the incident between McCulloch and Carey, decided McCulloch had to go - he went; fair enough say I. The referee is the sole judge of fact, we must accept his decision.

But, it is at this point that football's justice and disciplinary system lets the game down. When McCulloch struck Carey, it was during the jostling match which nowadays preceeds the arrival of the ball into the penalty area from a set piece.

Imagine, if you can, what would have happened had their coming-together happened outwith football. Let's say McCulloch and Carey were in a late night taxi queue, it was cold and maybe drizzling; a taxi arrives, McCulloch moves towards it and Carey grabs him from behind, so McCulloch hits him, Carey goes down, but, instead of a football referee - a policeman arrives on the scene and arrests McCulloch, who is taken to the nearest police station and charged.

In the real world McCulloch has been accused of an alleged assault; but he remains innocent, until his guilt is proved in a court of law. In football, however, the minute the red card was brandished, McCulloch was guilty. In the real world, the police and procurator fiscal would be required to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, to a panel of justices of the peace, a sheriff, a sheriff and jury or a senior judge and jury (dependant on the severity of the assault) that he was indeed guilty as charged.

In the real world, McCulloch would have had the opportunity to bring forward cctv evidence - similar to the Sky Sports footage widely shown after his red carding, while his lawyer had the chance to argue his case.

Certainly, Rangers had that opportunity when the offence was dealt with by the SFA's disciplinary system, but, their protocols fall some way short of the standards expected in the real world.

Have, if you can get hold of the clips, another look at the incident. It is clear that Carey grabbed McCulloch first - there is also a presumption that, having been hit on the back side of his head, behind his left ear, Carey fell to the ground clutching his face. It could be argued that he was guilty of the original foul which kicked-off the incident and that, by going down clutching his face - Cartey was guilty of a degree of simulation. McCulloch will sit out two games for his crime, Carey escaped penalty for his two crimes. Is this justice?

Take another somilar incident, from the Manchester City v Liverpool game earlier this week. When Yaya Toure rose to head home one of the City goals, a Liverpool defender could clearly be seen, with both hands round another City player, preventing him from getting up to the cross which Toure met. City got the goal, but maybe the 'Pool defender should have been at least yellow-carded. Mind you, you see similar bouts of wrestling whenever a free kick or corner is delivered into a penalty area in every game, the same old jostling, pushing and wrestling goes on; and as these unpunished incidents continue football becomes ever less a gentleman's game - it is now a ruffians' game, played by ruffians.

We need a zero tolerance approach to policing the game. We need, at the top level, a new protocol, whereby whilst the referee is still the sole judge of fact (as far as the duration of play is concerned) - where there is television coverage, this may be reviewed post match by a review body, whose memebrs have the power to cite players who got away with fouls and to call them to taks; who may have a reviewing brief as regards referees' decisions and the power to decide that the yellow card given should have been a red, or red-yellow; who can call-up and discipline managers for comments made before, during and after matches.

That way, we would still punish the guys who go too far, as McCulloch did; but the guys who caused the bother, such as Carey, would no longer be getting away with things and hopefully, we would have a better game.

The International Football Associations Board, IFAB, meets next in March, in Cardiff. This is the body which makes new laws and reviews existing ones. Much is made of the fact that the four United Kingdom football associations each has a seat on IFAB. To my mind, they do very little with the power this gives them. If the UK associations really are, as they like to think themselves - the guardians of the game's soul, I would suggest they get together before hand, adopt a common pose and use their block vote to push through this zero tolerance approach to football's disciplinary ills - before it is too late.

Then, they just might justify their positions on IFAB.