Neil Lennon's third SFA charge in a week

SFA Compliance Officer Vincent Lunny has written to the Hoops boss after quotes made to the Evening Times which appeared on Tuesday.

St Johnstone visit Parkhead on Sunday for a match in which Lennon's side could win the SPL title.

It will be refereed by George Salmond but, speaking earlier this week, the Northern Irishman was quoted as saying: "It will be nice just to be able to go out and think only about winning a game of football – and maybe have a decent refereeing performance into the bargain."

Lennon has allegedly breached Rule 69, which prevents managers commenting on referees before games, a rule which was implemented at the start of the season.

In October, Hearts manager Paulo Sergio escaped with a warning for his comments about match official Iain Brines before his side's SPL win over Dunfermline.

Brines had riled the Portuguese boss when he disallowed an Eggert Jonsson goal for handball during the Jambos' 1-0 Scottish Communities League Cup defeat by Ayr United the previous month.

Sergio said: "I am not happy with that. I am not happy to have him at Hearts games, I'm sorry."

Sergio was also censured for breaching Rule 68 which, among other things, relates to suggestions of "bias or incompetence on the part of such match official; or (making) remarks about such match official(s) which impinge on his character".

Lennon has until tomorrow to respond to this latest charge as his recent rap sheet grows in length.

The Hoops boss was served with a notice of complaint by Lunny on Monday after being sent off by whistler Calum Murray during Sunday's Old Firm defeat to Rangers at Ibrox, a decision Lennon described as "a joke".

That incident came days after he was asked to explain his comments following Celtic's Scottish Communities League Cup final loss to Kilmarnock, where he referred to Willie Collum's decision not to award Anthony Stokes a late penalty as "shocking" and "criminal".