The death toll is rising ...half the country is in lockdown and a global tragedy has just been reduced to a local fight for club bragging rights
There are more than 5000 people who have nothing to say about the decision to suspend Rangers’ George Edmundson and Jordan Jones.
That’s because they’re dead. Condemned to eternal silence after becoming the innocent victims of a global pandemic.
And the list of those forced to forever hold their peace is growing worryingly, day after distressing day.
A grim mi lestone in the coronavirus crisis was reached last week when Scotland’s death toll passed the 5000 mark.
That’s why, for me, any debate, far less argument, over the seven- game bans given to the Rangers players for blatantly breaching pandemic protocols is disrespectful to the memory of those who have passed away.
Tragically, many Rangers fans will be among the lengthening list of those lost to Covid-19 and that is why those who survive them really have to see the bigger picture here.
Even one death in any way associated with football is met with one guarantee ...
You will be lucky to avoid injury in the stampede of people rushing to say that this “puts the game into perspective”.
That’s why any attempt to introduce club rivalry into the subj e c t o f the pl a y e r s ’ punishment is stomach churning.
Where i s the sense of perspective there? Am I seriously to believe this sentence has been delivered with official bias against one club in mind?
Any more than I was supposed to believe NHS Lothian Health Board put Ryan Christie out of the last meeting of Celtic and Rangers on football, rather than medical, grounds?
The extremist element among fans is in danger of indulging in a grotesque lack of sensitivity by disregarding the deaths that have occur red, and the awful possibilities connected with the transmission of a lethal virus, because it doesn’t suit their agenda on the field.
Rangers suspended the players when their reckless behaviour came to l ight. The Scottish government then publ icly applauded the club for the “swift and decisive” response.
But the reaction from Celtic and Aberdeen was to say the politicians had treated them less well by saying Scottish football was on a yellow card after the protocol breaches by Bol i Bolingoli and the Pittodrie Eight. Really? What are we like? The death toll is rising. Half the country is in lockdown and a global tragedy has been reduced to the level of a local squabble for bragging rights.
I knew the feelgood factor created by the national team’s qualification for the finals of Euro 2020 wouldn’t last long – but I thought it would have had the legs to go beyond one week.
On the day the story broke about the house party attended by Jones and Edmundson I was f ielding cal ls on radio from Rangers supporters who wanted to make an example of the pair by cancelling their contracts.
Now there’s anger over their seven-game bans. What’s it to be?
The only positive came in the form of Rangers’ club statement on Thursday evening, ful ly accepting the punishment and reminding the wider community of their responsibilities.
That was the right and proper thing to do.
Steven Gerrard and his team have had an extraordinary start to the season and don’t deserve the distraction of two wayward players to deflect attention.
Against Aberdeen today, Rangers can go a long way towards winning the title if they can re-emerge from a two-week break while not displaying the symptoms of disorientation that have caused their challenge to falter in the last two seasons after the winter shut-down.
That’s the story. That’s the perspective needed.
The elemen extrem t ist among is in da fans indulg nger of ing in grotesq a ue lack sensiti of vity