Lord Willie Haughey claims that both Celtic and Hearts dodged punishment for break "the exact same rule" that saw Queen's Park disqualified from this season's Scottish Cup.

The backer behind the Championship leaders insists the Premiership duo avoided any backlash for the alleged breach of rules back in 2020.

The Spiders were eliminated from this year's competition after they fielded Euan Henderson in their fourth round win over Inverness. 

They thought they'd earned a tie with Livingston in the next round. 

However, the loan deal with Hearts for Henderson was concluded after the original match date of the Scottish Cup fixture. As a result, Henderson was deemed ineligible.

After a notice of complaint was raised in the aftermath of the game, Queen's Park were found guilty by the Scottish FA disciplinary panel, who then reinstated Inverness to the competition.

Now, Lord Haughey has hit out at the decision and cited Celtic and Hearts breaking the same rules in the Scottish Cup final just over two years ago.

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The pair were permitted to play newly signed players in the one-off event which was delayed by Covid to December 2020.

But the businessman claims there is NO paper-trail to permit them to by-pass the administrative rules.

The ex-Celtic director has questioned how the rule had been applied when appearing on Go Radio.

He explained: "We signed the lad two weeks ago, he played in a league game no problem, and what we should have known is that game was cancelled from three weeks previous. He had to be signed before that but here's an interesting one.

"The charge was that he had to be signed before the first game. When Celtic played Hearts in the Scottish Cup final (in 2020), a 2-2 draw that Celtic won on penalties - that was a postponed game. Eight of the players were not signed before the first game. The exact same rule, Celtic had two, Hearts had six.

"There was nothing in writing saying because it was during Covid. The two things technically were the exact same thing - the game was postponed.

"If you take the rule they have ruled against Queen's Park, those eight players shouldn't have been able to play.

"You take your punishment and move on, it's a human error. But it's not as black and white as people think."