Cormack and fans have to accept it... the game has changed
THERE was a time when no Christmas in Scotland was complete without the annual copy of ‘The Broons’ or ‘Oor Wullie’ under the tree.
When Paw wasn’t mishearing the Bairn, or Wullie giving the run-around to a puffed-out PC Murdoch, a staple plot device of the great Dudley D Watkins was the Yank tourist.
The guy with the sports jacket and the big cigar was usually called Tex or Hank and spent his time in ‘Scotch-land’ boasting about how everything was bigger and better in the good ol’ US of A. And bears more than a passing resemblance to Aberdeen’s wealthy new chairman Dave Cormack.
The expat businessman thought so little of the club’s training facilities he stumped up the cash to build something bigger and better and stuck his own name on the wall.
He then agreed a tie-up with Atlanta United to bring some MLS glitz to the SPFL.
His next move was to take to Twitter like Scottish football’s answer to Donald Trump, accusing Celtic’s Kristoffer Ajer of ‘feigning injury’ after Sam Cosgrove was sent off at Parkhead last weekend. ‘Help ma Boab’ barely covers it.
Neil Lennon branded the Dons chairman’s accusations against Ajer ‘disgraceful’ and ‘embarrassing’.
If Dave King, Ian Bankier or Ann Budge all took to social media accusing opponents of cheating, the outcome would be anarchy. It might win brownie points with anonymous hardmen patrolling messageboards pedalling deranged conspiracy theories and calling on their chairmen to ‘grow a set’.
But intelligent, self-made men like Cormack (below) should rise above the rabble. Not pour petrol on the fire via pandering, dog-whistle statements on Twitter.
None of which changes the fact the Dons chief got plenty of retweets and likes. When it comes to Cosgrove and the wild challenge by Hibs’ Ryan Porteous on Borna Barisic of Rangers, there are people who can’t quite come to terms with the fact football is moving on while they’re rooted to the spot howling at the moon.
The fact that Cosgrove ‘played the ball’ doesn’t change the fact that the guidelines on serious foul play are there and refs are duty bound to apply them. ‘Particular emphasis,’ they read, ‘should be placed on the elimination of challenges where a player gives no consideration to the safety and welfare of an opponent, including when contact is made with the ball and opponent at speed’. Or to put it another way, if a player’s uncontrolled tackle touches the ball but shows no consideration for the possible consequences for an opponent, he’s off. In the last week, Scottish football has responded to the death of the hard tackle by working its way through the five stages of grief. First came denial and a blind refusal to accept that ‘getting the ball’ might still endanger an opponent. Second came anger and the insistence that any player who dares to jump in the air to avoid a broken leg must be a cheat. Third came bargaining and the inevitable appeals for a degree of ‘common sense’. Next came depression as a nation reared to revere aggressive hardmen realised these guys are now outdated luddites. The final stage is acceptance. And the macho nonsense over Cosgrove and Porteous shows we’re not quite there yet.
Many seem to think Barisic and Ajer should have ‘manned up’. That these foreign types should keep their feet on the ground and take their broken legs like real men.
Only Barisic and Ajer know if they milked the extent of the contact to get Porteous or Cosgrove sent off.
Yet a scan of the referee guidelines suggests the uncontrolled, highspeed challenges of both players did a pretty good job of that without any external influence from elsewhere.
If Cormack and Scottish fans think football is becoming sanitised, they might have a point.
If they think their players are being picked on while the compliance officer lets rivals get away with murder, that’s their prerogative.
But to point accusing fingers at the likes of Ajer or Barisic is to aim at the wrong targets. It’s not players who are changing the way the game is played, it’s the rules.
And the sooner people sit down and read them, the sooner Scottish football can come to terms with the fact that the game as we knew it is gone. And it’s not coming back.