Time to kick parasites out of our game

Football is Scotland’s national sport and obsession.

In parks and youth clubs across the country thousands of children play their heart out dreaming of one day signing a professional contract.

How many parents are aware that should that dream be realised, it could involve handing their sons and daughters into the clutches of despicable organised criminals?

The Sunday Mail reveals today how a football agent who has managed both Celtic and Rangers players is facing serious crime charges.

It is the first time an agent has faced claims of this type in Scotland.

Unfortunately that has more to do with a fai lure on the part of footbal ling authorities and the police to acknowledge and face up to an endemic problem.

MSP Russell Findlay is one of the few politicians to call out the cancerous presence of these thugs in public life.

The former journalist, who spent years exposing murderous crime clans at this newspaper, has rightly called them “parasites in pinstripes”.

He warned it is an open secret that football is being contaminated with drug money.

It is depressingly unsurprising that Police Scotland seem powerless to root these gangsters out of the game.

They have been peddling their grimy trade in drugs, violence and misery across Scotland for decades with apparent impunity.

It is time for the Government, courts, police and football ruling bodies to end this embarrassing scourge.

They need to work together to kick organised crime out of the game, and out of society in general.

Their continued involvement is an insult to everyone who loves football for what it should be – a game based on sportsmanship and fair play.

It is a truly ugly side to the beautiful game which players and fans alike deserve to see eradicated.