Bougherra was fined £2,500 by the SFA`s disciplinary committee for grabbing hold of referee Calum Murray`s wrist while being shown a red card in his side`s Scottish Cup defeat by Celtic last month.

Bougherra`s team-mate, El-Hadji Diouf, also escaped with a fine for his misconduct charge while Rangers assistant manager Ally McCoist successfully appealed against a two-match ban for his post-match disagreement with Lennon.

That left the Celtic manager as the only person to receive a ban following the infamous Old Firm encounter - he accepted an automatic four-match touchline suspension, but only served one game after effectively getting it reduced on a technicality.

Lennon has no regrets about his decision not to launch a "futile" appeal but he reflected on two perceived inequalities over the punishments, also citing his three-match ban in 2005 for abusing referee Stuart Dougal and jostling his assistant James Bee during an Old Firm match.

Lennon said: "You have to take each case on its own merits but the furore after mine was widespread and quite condemning.

"There was quite a lot of condemnation after this one but the results were different and I find that hard to take."

Lennon claimed Bougherra`s ban set a "really dangerous precedent" and noted a perceived gap in SFA chief executive Stewart Regan`s rhetoric and the committee`s actions.

A day after the game, Regan condemned the "inflammatory and irresponsible behaviour" and declared himself "deeply embarrassed".

Diouf was fined £5,000 for failing to leave the field of play promptly and throwing his shirt into the crowd following his post-match red card but Lennon was not satisfied with the punishments meted out to his adversaries.

"If you look at what Stewart Regan said after the game, then it totally undermined what he said, the results of the disciplinary committee," the former Celtic captain said.

"I still find it interesting that I was the only one to suffer a ban out of the four people who were up for disciplinary reasons.

"I find it difficult to understand but there is supposed to be a statement out in the next couple of days and I can comment more then."

The SFA would not comment on the situation today but they plan to disclose the reasons for the disciplinary committee`s decisions next week when the seven-day deadline for the Rangers players to appeal has elapsed.

However, it is believed the main reason for Bougherra`s apparently lenient punishment was because of the evidence given by referee Murray.

Regan has promised a more open and streamlined approach to disciplinary matters next season with clubs set to vote on his reform plans in June.

But Lennon is not overly optimistic of serious change occurring.

"The game has got to evolve, we`ve got to move with the times and I don`t think we have been," he said.

"I`m not confident but a lot of people in football have been asking for it.

"If you look at a lot of cases this season, a lot of the results show that there has to be change."