Three years after the fact, and Legia Warsaw are still moaning about the decision to throw them out of the Champions League for fielding an ineligible player. Who has the violin this week? Let’s play them a mournful song. That better? Job done.
I find this all a bit pitiful, and I find the comments of their people to be myopic at best. You could question why The Daily Record is running their latest wailing; apart from the imminent collapse of Sevco as the SFA stands mute, watching, there’s not all that much going on.
Of course they’d be writing Old News.
Legia Warsaw think we should be embarrassed by what happened. They seem to be alleging a cover-up. They’ve said today that Celtic and the UEFA delegate both knew they had an ineligible player in the squad before the game kicked off, and we should have spoken up.
But why should we?
It wasn’t our job to make sure they had their house in order, it was theirs.
If we knew, and the UEFA delegate knew, why didn’t they? And we’re the ones who should be embarrassed? These people need to lie down somewhere and get a grip on themselves. This is done. It’s past. And you know what? They deserved it.
I also know why The Daily Record published this drivel today, and why they are perfectly happy to give credence to Warsaw’s ridiculous claim that they were treated harshly. They weren’t. The rules are very clear on this, but the paper was never terribly bothered about rules as they exist here in Scotland; if the SFA had been running that match the result would have stood and Celtic would have been the ones disenfranchised.
That UEFA acted right still galls a lot of people here, because the contrast between the swiftness and the surety of their own judgement casts a dark shadow over the laxity of our own governing bodies and the scandal that was the Lord Nimmo Smith case.
Legia Warsaw broke the rules. The penalties for that are laid down, in the book, in detail. They can cry about it after the fact as much as they like. They screwed up and they paid the price. They have no complaints, but that hasn’t stopped them spending years griping about it.
I am sick of hearing it, frankly.
Those who break the rules deserve whatever’s come to them … or what’s coming to them, somewhere down the road.
Sevco better take note; the “history” they claim to have bought is as tainted as that Legia Warsaw team sheet, and in that regard it’s good to see The Record highlighting this case all over again. Because some of us plan on referencing it in the not too distant future.