All bubbling up in Scottish Football
Heading to and from the match yesterday at Ibrox for SFLD3 Rangers vs Elgin City there was much to talk about
First up
The comments from our esteemed Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny Macaskill
Opining on the recent trouble which followed the Hearts vs Hibs Edinburgh derby
Two initial points to mention on this
1. Did this guy miss the Dundee vs Celtic Dens Park shame game? why no such like commentary if he did not?
2. Any restructure of timing for high profile matches will almost certainly weaken an already fragile SPL TV contract
Not that such restructure of games should not happen
It would be remiss though not to hint to the consequences given the financial state of SPL Scotland and their reliance on TV revenue
And is this the Scottish Government tentatively trying to dip a toe into the governnace of Scottish Football
Mind you if Hugh MacDonald is to be believed all is well with Hertz and Hibs
I have no appetite to google journalist MacDonald’s positivity / negativity on previous matters Scottish Football
Maybe is just a born motivator
To miss though the circumstances in the game that prompted the cabinet secretary’s intervention in his “all is fine and dandy” piece is slightly alarming
Looks like oor Willie C will be the fall guy by the sound of things
Personally I do find Hertz vs Hibs at Tynecastle an interesting spectacle (at Easter Road when there is a much poorer atmosphere including non capacity crowd it is less so)
Although i had better things to do on Thursday than watch the game on TV
In reporting the match no matter the angle
There is no case for ignoring the distaste that this particular competition brings including well acknowledged sectarianism!
As agreed by Margo Macdonald MSP and hypocrite
Remember her comments on El Hadji Diouf on BBC radio?
Irrespective there seems to be big delay in any SPL enquiry into the new year Edinburgh derby – holidays an all that?
Takes us nicely to the shenanigans late last year in Dundee
Yes unfortunately discussion moved on to the aftermath of the Dens Park shame game
Was interesting to see the absolute hammering Phil 3 names took on his blog Friday night
This after he had the temerity to question the Green Brigade and their role in Dundee
John Hartson despite writing a pathetic column on the matter has also been getting a hammering from various Celtic blogs
Since that boxing day shame it was expected to see Rangers and Manchester get brought into the fray as a diversion tactic
And I was not disappointed as clearly Celtic blogs have went into overdrive with their divisive posting summarising as follows:
1. Not too bad at Dens; only 4 arrests for minor offence and sensational ver reporting (ignore the apology from our CEO)
2. 10s of thousands rioted at Manchester and wreaked havoc on a city with operation media cover up in place to minimise it
What is interesting in all this?
Your average Celtic denier’s attitude is
Unless you were at Dundee you cannot form an opinion on what happened
How many of them were at Manchester then?
How irrational and delusional and with such denial tactics in place
As Phil 3 names and John Hartson pointed out, more trouble surely lies ahead
ad iudicium not?
Common sense oot the window more like
For once thanks to the Sun newspaper the standard attempts to sweep matters under the carpet by the Celtic have failed
Will be interesting whether this vigilance continues
With the media pressing Celtic CEO publicly to report on Celtic induced FBOs to Parkhead
Or is this going to be poppy day shame 2?
As a footnote read this laudable blog from the Celtic TAL zine
While Dens park incidents had no racial tension
The facts in regard Celtic supporters accepting they did wrong and need to re-position them aka the Mark Walters scenario
“When you love a football club with all the hypocrisies and split feelings that can conjure up, the first reaction is to be defensive when accusations of discrimination are levelled at a fan base. You know that it isn’t representative of a whole fan base, but there can often (not always) be an illogical knee-jerk reaction based on loyalty. Our club would never behave like that”. ”It’s just a few idiots”. ”You misheard what they were chanting. We’ve all heard, or maybe even made, those kind of excuses before. As a result, it can be more convenient to ignore discrimination and save collective face rather than confront it and do something about it because of unswerving allegiance.”
Well it all just seems lip service and redundant on this one
Next we then had the pathetic jibes of Celtic reported on Rangers media by Andrew Dickson which I had stumbled across
Seems Celtic have taken to on line publishing their delights at winning the last ever old firm derby in April 12
Does this club have any dignity?
We obviously see through the wee dig at Rangers and old co new co mentality
Good luck to them in Europe and could luck to the Lawwell plan minus Rangers in SPL
One wonders mind how the latter would have succeeded without the former and qualification for ECL?
So for now have your moment of fun at our expense
Me thinks it will in the long term not last (and personally I think deep down Lennon, Lawwell and others in the celtic hierarchy know this)
This takes us nicely to league reconstruction in Scottish Football
The breaking news that modernisation (is this a joke term?) talks are going well with the SPL plan of 12 and 12 plus the rest looking to get the go ahead for progress
Where this leaves Rangers will be interesting given all that is going on in Scottish Football just now – more on this no doubt following Tuesday’s further talks between SPL/ SFA and SFL
What we do have is an SPL requiring (not seeking) change
This requirement against a back drop of
1. poor attendances at their games
2. increased prevalence of fan unrest and poor behaviour on match day
3. questionable long term sponsorship and financial robustness of their business model within the league/ clubs (Hertz)
4. infighting within the SPL Hertz for example?
And now the potential of re-emergence of Scottish Government intervention on matters Scottish Football
Beside all this of course we have Rangers
The biggest club in the country
Who until now between SFA / SPL have been seen from the Rangers side
to try and ostracise them from regaining prominence in Scottish Football
and in laymen’s terms “keeping them down”
Unfortunately if this was indeed the plan it has failed
Rangers are a team going from strength to strength on and off the park
Looking on with interest and indeed in no mood to be pushed about
As previously was the undisputed case by the SPL / SFA pigmies last July when they sought licence to play
No tail wagging the dog this time me thinks when it all unravels before next season
I will end with a few good old latin words for SPL/ SFA when it comes to the Rangers
Caveat – beware
Ulcisor – avenge
peccavi – i have sinned
Kinda captures the mood me thinks
For now though it is all too much for me to contemplate further
As I feel the pain of breaching The Scottish Football Monitor’s moral compass on whataboutery and trust
http://scottishfootballmonitor.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/the-dismal-art-of-whataboutery/
I am off to watch Arsenal in the FA Cup
FOOTBALL IS BLOODY MAD I CAN TELL YOU 