CELTIC have vowed to stand by Aleksandar Tonev after he was handed a seven-game ban for racially abusing Aberdeen's Shay Logan.

The Bulgarian star was found guilty of using offensive, insulting and abusive language of a racist nature during a Premiership clash at Parkhead in September.

An SFA disciplinary tribunal yesterday handed down punishment to the winger.

A Celtic statement said: "Racism has no place in football and as a club for all people, Celtic absolutely abhors racism of any kind.

"This was a very unfortunate case, but the club has accepted Aleksandar's explanation that he did not say the words that were alleged to have been said and that he is not a racist.

"We are, therefore, very disappointed by the outcome today and can confirm that Aleksandar will be appealing this decision."

The winger has appeared 10 times for Ronny Deila's side, but with his loan deal from Aston Villa set to expire in January he could have played his last game for the club.

Boss Deila said: "This is something we will need to assess. It's important to understand that people make mistakes.

"We have to assess it from there. Of course we have no support for racism, that's clear. We will have nothing about that.

"Sometimes as a young player stupid things happen all the time with smaller issues.

"This is something we will need to assess but I really believe in him.

"I'm sure that he hasn't said that towards the player."