John Wilson, 26, was accused of a sectarian attack on the Irishman as his side played Hearts in a crucial Clydesdale Bank Premier League game at Tynecastle in Edinburgh.

A jury at Edinburgh Sheriff Court said the charge against Wilson, from the city, was not proven.

The decision came despite Wilson telling the court that he had lunged at Mr Lennon and struck him on the head during the incident

However, Wilson, a Hearts fan, was convicted of a breach of the peace on May 11 last year.

Celtic chief executive Lawwell claimed Lennon, who was also threatened with bombs and bullets in separate incidents last season, had been left "confused" by the not proven verdict delivered by the jury and believes most people who were either at the match or watched the incident on television, will feel the same.

"Most people will be baffled and find it difficult to comprehend the judgment and verdict," said Lawwell.

"You have to think of Neil Lennon, he has been left disheartened and confused.

"We will need to try to rebuild him and support him in another body blow.

"It certainly had an effect in him. We met last night and he was pretty low.

"I think we are all confused as to how this can happen.

"The incident was watched around the world by millions of people and the chap actually admitted to it but had a not proven verdict - I think that has mystified people.

"It's not for me to go in to the legal issues, I am not qualified to say why, but in a practical sense and a human sense, it seems an extraordinary outcome.

"We will be doing everything we can to support him and this has been another chapter in what has been an unacceptable chain of events."

Lawwell had no fears though, that the verdict might have proved the last straw for the former Celtic skipper.

"I've said before that Neil is an extraordinary character," he said.

"He loves his job, he wants to get on with the job of being a successful manager of Celtic.

"He is a very resilient character and he will have his own mechanisms to motivate him and I'm sure he will get back."

The Parkhead club will discover tomorrow if they are to get a Europa League reprieve.

Celtic played both legs of their play-off defeat against Sion under protest over their opponents' alleged breach of a transfer embargo.

Sion had allegedly signed five players with the club still under a transfer ban imposed by FIFA after breaching rules over the signing of Egypt goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary three years ago, although a Swiss court had ruled in the Swiss club's favour.

One of those players, Pascal Feindouno, scored two goals in the 3-1 second-leg win over Celtic in Switzerland last Thursday night.

UEFA's control and disciplinary body will make a ruling tomorrow although Sion having two rights of appeal.

Lawwell, speaking at Hampden where Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister and MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, was announced as patron on the Johnny Thomson memorial committee, stressed the importance of the issue.

"This could be a landmark case for football," he said.

"What you have here is the rules and regulations of football being challenged by a domestic court in Switzerland.

"It is a complicated case.

"Clearly there are a number of huge issues that could be thrown up in terms of registrations of players but there are other issues in terms of football regulations so it is a huge issue for FIFA.

"But we need to respect the processes that UEFA are going through so it is difficult to comment.

"We think we have a very strong case and we have been told we will get a decision tomorrow night.

"You never know what will happen and I think we need to respect those that are making the judgment.

"We played under protest in the two games, our strong view was that there were ineligible players, we followed that with a formal protest subsequent to the games and that is our position.

"The SFA have been very supportive, they understand the arguments we have

"We will now await the judgment."

Sion were drawn against Atletico Madrid, Udinese and Rennes in the group stages and Lawwell said: "I think it is a Champions League group in terms of the quality of the clubs that are in there.

"It is exciting and hopefully we will be able to participate."