That’s surely true. We’re divided, angry, binary. I might be overthinking this, but the Russians have an expression: “a fish rots from the head”. And we’ve never had such poor leadership across the world. Indeed, our leaders, through their actions and blatant corruption, have arguably enabled the sort of behaviour we witnessed at Ibrox on Sunday 8 March.
I’d be wary of two things though. Firstly, we’re talking about two clubs. You simply don’t see anything like Sunday (8 March) at any other club in Scotland. So, when I hear the phrase “Scotland’s shame” I think – as a Stranraer fan – what the hell has it got to do with me? Indeed, for the vast majority of Scottish football fans – myself included – our experience of the game is wonderfully positive, and completely safe.
Secondly, beware of false equivalence. It’s easy to say “a plague on both your houses” but the common denominator here – 1980, 2016, 2026 – is the behaviour of Rangers fans after a late defeat. That surely falls entirely on them. I think any inquiry needs to be honest about this if it’s ever going to sort this out.
If there’s a reason to be positive, it’s this
The late Walter Smith, a bluenose to his bootstraps, described a world whereas a player and budding coach he would pay for a ticket for Parkhead and watch the Lisbon Lions, and never encountered any trouble whatsoever. However, it was also a world where your religion barred you from getting a certain type of job. Such a world is long gone, and good riddance to it. Days like Sunday are just the angry actions of people representing a toxic ideology that is, thank God, discredited and on its way out. At least I hope so.
And please let’s not forget that, especially this year when Hearts might win the league and Scotland are going to the World Cup, Scottish football is an overwhelmingly positive thing for our nation. Let’s not forget that in the aftermath of the disgrace of Sunday.
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