Gary Ralston

We’ve gone from Bovril to Bolivian marching powder

LONG gone are the days when Scottish football was defined musically by The Corries belting out Flower of Scotland.

These days, fans of the national game are more likely to be inspired by Grandmaster Flash.

Scottish football needs a mature debate on an issue no one has addressed in the aftermath of recent high-profile incidents of disorder.

That half bottle of Buckfast lobbed at Scott Sinclair by a Hibs fan at Easter Road the other week was a grotesque throwback in more ways than one.

The truth of the matter is “crossing the white line” is no longer the preserve of SPFL footballers on a Saturday afternoon.

The use of cocaine among Scottish football supporters – and we’re not just talking twentysomethings – is a reflection of its growing popularity amongst society in general.

A pal attended a Premiership game recently and told how he struggled to get into the toilets at half-time because there were so many fellow supporters doing coke.

Scotland tops the world league for cocaine consumption per session while around one third of users spoken to for last year’s Global Drugs Survey said they can get it delivered inside 30 minutes.

So it should come as no surprise when it makes its way on to our terraces.

Figures published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in the last decade showed 3.9 per cent of Scots aged 16 to 64 used the drug in a single year.

That was a higher proportion than any other country and compared to 2.5 per cent for England and Wales and 2.4 per cent for the United States.

A Hibs fan who tried to punch Lee Wallace after the Scottish Cup Final in 2016 and went on to assault two Rangers fans on the Hampden pitch had been using coke.

A Celtic fan was caught with cocaine before a match against St Johnstone in 2013.

And a Dundee supporter was also arrested for possession of the drug before a game against Aberdeen 15 months later.

Those cases represent the tip of an iceberg for actual consumption in our grounds and it’s an issue our game’s leaders must take more seriously.

Cocaine can lead to bouts of erratic and bizarre behaviour as well as restlessness and irritability. All of which have been standard behavioural traits of Scottish football fans for decades.

But intensified by drugs it’s no surprise when supporters burst on to the track and pitchside to celebrate matchwinning goals as if they had been struck in the World Cup Final itself.

It’s a long stretch to suggest we start swabbing supporters at the turnstiles to see if they’ve been dabbling in the Bolivian marching powder before they head for the Bovril.

But Flower of Scotland? As folk songs go, the current generation are more likely to tell you charlie is my darling.

Crossing the white line is no longer the preserve of footballers on Saturday