O’Neill is wary of ‘mighty’ Bayern

CELTIC manager Martin O’Neill last night welcomed the Scottish FA’s “invitation” to explain his accusations of double standards against the club.

The Northern Irishman reacted angrily to their stubborn stance over Didier Agathe's red card and insistence that Neil Lennon explains his one-fingered gesture at Dundee.

O'Neill claims the SFA have been inconsistent in recent times and is bemused as to why they took no action against Chris Dailly after his "cheats" rant in Germany last week when they hit Chris Sutton with a ban after he accused Dunfermline of "lying down". "That's great," smiled the strangely-relaxed Celtic boss on hearing of the SFA's invitation.

"It is not a rant and it just seems that some things, at best, are ambiguous and a bit of a nonsense, but it would be great to have a meeting to clarify that. If there is shown to be a consistency with the application of the rules and regulations then I would be very happy with that."

But at the moment the Celtic boss is focusing his attentions on tonight's daunting Champions League Group A opener with Bayern Munich in the intimidating Olympic Stadium. Ottmar Hitzfeld's side have been having their problems with injuries and form with Sebastian Deisler, Alexander Zickler and Jens Jeremies definitely out, Michael Ballack, Willy Sagnol, Claudio Pizarro, Ze Roberto and Bastian Schweinsteiger struggling.

They also crashed to a 3-2 defeat to WfL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday but O'Neill claimed his players still needed to improve on last season's stunning away form en route to the UEFA Cup if they are to compound the misery on their opponents.

He explained: "We are playing one of the premier sides in European football so it's going to take a monumental effort to get something from the game. I think that our away record last season certainly stands up to decent inspection and it was terrific. We may need all of that and more to get something from the game tomorrow night."

Bayern, last season's third-favourites to win the Champions League, never won a game after starting their campaign with a defeat to Deportivo La Coruna.

But the Celtic boss still rates them as a European superpower and fears that his side, Anderlecht and Lyon could bear the brunt of their angry backlash.

Celtic are reeling from injuries to Johan Mjallby, Joos Valgaeren, Ulrik Laursen, Stephen Crainey, Paul Lambert and Steve Guppy. That could see on-loan defender Michael Gray drafted in or even Valgaeren handed a place among the substitutes but O'Neill is not too concerned.