MIND YOUR BANNERS
Right from wrong should not be arbitrary
Scottish football has spent the last week arguing over whether doing the right thing is the right thing to do.
It’s contrary and complex – even by the standards of our narrow- minded, inwardlooking world of melodrama.
The thought was prompted by the first caller to the radio to get involved in the rights and wrongs of Rangers’ manager Michael Beale ordering his players to let Partick Thistle score an equaliser in Sunday’s Scottish Cup tie at Ibrox.
In that instant , Beale showed a high degree of integrity and a remarkable presence of mind amidst a game in which his side were giving, by his own admission, a “lousy” performance.
The caller, however, described the manager’s instruction to conceded a goal as a “disgrace” – but only after he had begun his complaint by saying: “I’m not into this integrity.”
Fans in general aren’t that big on scruples. If there is a danger of scruples leading to a defeat for their team then they are actively opposed to the very idea of scruples.
I was immediately reminded of the Rangers fan I had spoken to during another phone-in last August after Celtic had taken nine goals off Dundee United at Tannadice.
He felt that, on a matter of principle, Ange Postecoglou’s team should have stopped scoring after their fourth goal out of sympathy for the opposition who were being so clearly outclassed.
Scruples would therefore appear to be a results-driven business in the eyes of some supporters.
The insistence that integrity was a dubious characteristic, particularly for a footbal l manager, was aired in public in the af termath of another breathtaking moment during Celtic’s cup win over St Mirren.
A banner was unfurled during a break in play that described assistant referee Douglas Ross as a c***.
If a player had referred to Ross as a c***, the match off icial would have informed the referee and a red card would have been shown for the use of foul and abusive language.
The banner was, in my opinion, an affront to decency, an ordering- of f offence for the unruly.
I am into this integrity business and zero tolerance should be shown towards such an offensive message.
The SFA compliance officer is now investigating what went on but Celtic remain silent on the matter.
This has nothing to do with Ange, whose responsibility rests with the football department, as opposed to those who are the custodians of the club’s public image.
Other than to wonder out loud what Ange would have said if that kind of language had been used in front of his wife and their two young sons. The manager is in the midst of planning a close-season tour of Japan for Celtic, an obvious commercial exercise given the size of the Asian contingent in his first-team squad.
Interest in Celtic, and news coverage of the club, will be sky-high in that part of the world – which probably means the embarrassi n g banner denouncing Ross in the most lur id t erms wi l l hav e b e en seen f r om Yokohama to Nagasaki.
Celtic chairman Peter Lawwell should have apologised for the banner of behalf of that section of his club’s support who didn’t find the spectac le remot e l y edifying.
He would surely have done so if the name on the banner had been Michael Beale and not Douglas Ross.
Celtic’s Charity Foundation is involved in carrying out outstanding work regarding the disadvantaged.
They have opened their ground to those in t h e i r c ommu n i t y who ne e d food or simply warmth in times of austerity. In doing so, the Foundat ion has adhered to the principles that brought Celtic into being in the first place.
Surely, in the midst of such noble endeavour, the club can’t tolerate, far less be happy with, a banner as crass and crude as the one displayed last weekend? The Green Brigade who flaunted the banner have now launched an initiative to have the Jock Stein Stand inside Celtic Park made a designated standing area in full.
The area in use for them at present has cost Cel t ic hundreds of thousands of pounds in fines for inflammatory banners.
They must, by this time, have forfeited their right to have an even bigger amount of space reserved for them to display even bigger banners of a questionable nature.
I am old enough to have been at a Celtic game during big Jock’s time as manager when he vaulted a pitchside wall to berate fans he thought were besmirching the club’s good name by their objectionable behaviour.
To have the stand named in his honour become a constant source of concern would be disrespectful to his memory.
Principles, scruples, integrity, call it what you like, must have a place in football.
Next weekend, Celtic and Rangers meet in the first cup final of the season. A win at all cost will be the order of the day for Beale and Postecoglou.
Both bosses fulfil their side of the bargain by being impressive leaders of men dedicated to playing the game to the highest standards.
They are a credit to themselves and the clubs they represent.
Whether they are into integrity or see it as an optional extra, fans will have to allow for there being instances where the managers will conduct the business of their club as they see fit.
Because it’ll be a sorry day when principles are outlawed because they are considered to be unhelpful.
The need to tell right f rom wrong should not be arbitrary.
I t mus t be mandatory.
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