SCOTTISH football has had to get used to the idea of Vincent Lunny – and the early months of his tenure haven't been easy.

As the SFA's first football prosecutor – whose job includes sweeping up the incidents and mis-demeanours missed by referees – Lunny has been perceived as something akin to George Orwell's Big Brother – a shadowy, cold-hearted figure who sees every-thing and swoops to punish. Worse still, he supports Celtic, or maybe it's Rangers, but it's definitely the biggest rival of whoever happens to be criticising him.

Not much was initially known about Lunny other than his name and his job title – he's the SFA's first Compliance Officer – but after three months in the role he held his first media briefing.

Nothing can change the fact he has a job which elicits as much public sympathy as a traffic warden or tax inspector, but Lunny himself isn't the character many have imagined.

A personable, soft-spoken 39-year-old from a Motherwell legal family, his approach to his responsibilities doesn't allow room for emotional involvement. He is neither the judge nor jury, just football's new equivalent of a Procurator Fiscal.

Sone Aluko's claim that a non-football person was involved in the process was gently unpicked by Lunny's observation that you don't have to be a criminal to be a Fiscal.

Matters like Leigh Griffiths gesturing to fans come to his attention (from checking the media, receiving reports from witnesses, refereeing reports, etc) and he runs them past SFA head of referee development John Fleming to confirm whether a rule may have been broken.

If so, he offers the player a suspension which, if rejected, means the case goes before a Judicial Panel (which does not involve Lunny).

Recently his work has been disparaged as "trial by Sportscene". He's read that all he does is watch the BBC highlights show and act on whatever Rob Maclean and his guests flag up.

"That's not the case at all. Under the protocol, matters can be brought to the attention of the Com-pliance Officer by any means and once you're aware of it you can't pretend it didn't happen," he explained.