Goal difference

I note more tiresomely parochial “it’s only a Belgian club” pieces from British sports writers as Anderlecht beat Celtic.

Belgium’s most successful football club have won the European Super Cup twice (against Bayern Munich and Liverpool during their golden ages), the Cup Winners Cup twice and the Uefa Cup, yet don’t share the delusional tendencies of certain British (or pretending to be Irish) clubs who think winning one European trophy on black and white TVS (Celtic fans drone on about 1967 much the same way as England’s about 1966 – and with as much relevance to today’s game) confers European club superpower status in perpetuum.

Yet Anderlecht come from a national set-up producing five different league champarental pions over the last ten years. Every close season, fans of Bruges, Standard Liege, Genk, Mechelen, Ghent, Beveren, Royal Antwerp and even little Lierse also wonder, justly, if this could be their year.

Unlike Scotland, where no wealthy oligarchs (native or foreign) strive to invest because those in charge of the club game are so hellbent in resisting anything that challenges “the natural order” (i.e. a Celtic-rangers duopoly), no sane individual will squander a penny in it. There’s even the humiliating prospect of a national trophy – the Challenge Cup – heading to Wales or Northern Ireland because two wild card clubs invited to give the moribund competition some interest are this year’s semi-finalists.

For Belgian club football a rosy future awaits. For Scottish, only the thorns.

MARK BOYLE Linn Park Gardens Johnstone, Renfrewshire