Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin says the toughest part of being banned is not being allowed to see his players at half-time.
The SFA sanctioned Goodwin with an eight-game ban for comments made about Hibs defender Ryan Porteous.
He is serving an immediate six-game ban with a further two suspended until the end of the season.
Aberdeen will appeal having studied the SFA’s document explaining the reasons for the severity of punishment.
Goodwin was in the stands as the Dons crashed 4-0 at Dundee United at the weekend as he served the first game of the hefty ban.
As things stand, Goodwin will again be absent from the dugout for Sunday’s Premiership clash with Hearts at Pittodrie.
The ban prevents Goodwin from being in the dressing room at half-time.
Goodwin said: “The biggest problem you maybe have is at half-time, trying to get that message across then.
“When you are trying to implement changes.
“To be there to support the players and the rest of the staff. that’s the difficult part of it.
“Not being in the dressing room before the game doesn’t really matter because we do all of our build-up Monday to Friday.
“We always have an analysis meeting, a kind of overview of the week, normally three hours before kick-off.
“Just to remind players of what we have spoken about and worked on.
“So the players before kick-off know everything we are trying to do.
“They have probably too much information at times.
“At half-time that is the challenging part of it.”
Rugby managers lead from stands
The SFA charged the Dons boss for alleged breaches of disciplinary rules 73 and 77, which cover offensive, improper and/or insulting statements and conduct.
Goodwin communicated from the Tannadice stands via phone to assistant Lee Sharp and goalkeeper coach Craig Samson in the dugout.
Unless an appeal is successful Goodwin will miss the next five games against Hearts (home), Partick Thistle (h, League Cup), Motherwell (a), Rangers (a) and Hibs (h).
The Dons boss will return to the dugout for the Premiership clash at Livingston on November 8.
Goodwin was sanctioned because he accused defender Porteous of “blatant cheating” in his post-match interview following the Dons’ 3-1 defeat at Easter Road last month.
He also admitted he warned referee David Dickinson prior to kick-off to look out for Porteous.
The Dons were leading 1-0 when referee Dickinson awarded Hibs a penalty for an incident between Dons centre-back Liam Scales and Porteous.
The referee also dismissed Scales having brandished a second yellow.
A man down, Aberdeen would go on to lose 3-1.
Footage of the incident confirmed Porteous had dragged Scales to the ground.
Goodwin said: “It’s not ideal, but it is what it is.
“There are plenty of sports out there that have managers up in the skybox.
“You just have to look at rugby where managers are always up in the box on the halfway line getting the message down to the coaches on the pitch, on the sidelines.
“There will be an appeal taking place and then there’ll be a hearing and we’ll just wait to see the outcome of that.”
‘We didn’t underestimate Dundee United’
Aberdeen will look to bounce back from the heavy 4-0 loss at Tannadice when hosting Hearts on Sunday.
The Reds went into that derby against Dundee United on a high having swept aside Kilmarnock 4-1 the previous week.
Goodwin insists they took nothing for granted in a derby game where the Dons were backed by 4,000 travelling supporters.
He said: “We didn’t underestimate Dundee United just because they were sitting bottom of the table.
“We don’t take anything for granted.
“The game was approached in the right manner and we respected the quality of players that they had in their squad.
“Unfortunately, things didn’t go our way and we ended up losing.”
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