Hearts manager Paulo Sergio was handed a five-match ban for misconduct by the Scottish Football Association (SFA) following a disciplinary tribunal here on Thursday.
The Portuguese coach was sent to the stands during Hearts' ill-tempered 1-0 loss at home to Kilmarnock at Tynecastle on October 29.
And, following a second disciplinary appearance at SFA headquarters at Hampden Park in the space of a fortnight, Sergio received a touchline suspension, starting with Saturday's match against Dundee United at Tannadice.
He has the right to appeal, but if any appeal fails he would miss Scottish Premier League fixtures with United, Inverness, St Johnstone, Celtic and Dunfermline -- keeping him away from the dug-out until Christmas Eve.
Sergio was seen arguing heatedly with referee Alan Muir and was sent to the stands after 77 minutes of the Kilmarnock match, which was settled by a controversial Dean Shiels penalty after Ian Black's first-half dismissal.
Muir pointed to the spot only after the intervention of his assistant, Stuart MacCaulay, following a foul by Hearts defender Marius Zaliukas on Paul Heffernan, while numerous other incidents appeared to anger Sergio throughout the match.
Two weeks ago Sergio escaped with a warning for his comments about match official Iain Brines.
He was "censured" over two charges relating to comments made about Brines before his side's SPL win over Dunfermline on October 15.
Thursday's decision was announced in an SFA statement that said that Sergio had breached rule 203, incorporating "continued use of offensive, abusing and/or insulting language and/or behaviour; calling a match official a cheat and/or calling a match official's integrity into question; failure to comply with a match official's requests; adoption of aggressive behaviour towards a match official".
Source: AFP
