How Ally ‘lost World Cup – and a battle over the Saltire’
HE was the manager who hoped to secure World Cup glory for Scotland back in 1978.
Now it has been claimed that Ally MacLeod’s failed bid to take the national team to the top was not his only defeat of that tournament – he also lost a battle over a flag.
A book published today claims MacLeod favoured the squad flying a Union flag on the pitch but he was overruled by then SFA secretary Ernie Walker, who insisted on a Saltire.
When MacLeod led Scotland in the Argentina World Cup, the nation was preparing for a devolution referendum a year later.
And behind the scenes, a secret Unionist versus nationalist war was being waged.
In Adventures in the Golden Age; Scotland in the World Cup Finals 1974-1998, commentator Archie Macpherson writes: ‘It looked like the results of Ally’s
‘He chose the Union Jack’
team would be seen by certain politicians as having currency at the ballot box.
‘So it was surprising to learn that at the official draw for the cup in Buenos Aires, Ally – who could whip up nationalist sentiment with ease – when asked which flag should represent Scotland at the official line up, chose the Union Jack.
‘He thought it would be fair on the large presence of Anglos in the side and that everybody in the British Isles would be supporting Scotland anyway.
‘Ernie was incensed, failing to see the sophisticated nuances of that argument. According to what Ally told me, he was told by the SFA’s secretary where to stick the Union Jack.
‘It was replaced by the Saltire. Common sense, if not political correctness, had prevailed.’
Adventures in the Golden Age; Scotland in the World Cup Finals 1974-1998, is published by Black and White Publishing, £11.99.