It’s been nearly a week since Ibrox.
Nearly a week in which anti-racism organisations have condemned the disgusting behaviour our player had to endure. Nearly a week in which people have been arrested and charged with that offence. Nearly a week in which every newspaper has written the story. Nearly a week in which Sevco fan organisations have sought to justify the disgusting behaviour of a growing section of their support by complaining that they were goaded.
Nearly a week, in which Scott Sinclair has spoken publicly on the matter.
Nearly a week in which PFA Scotland has come out and supported him with a statement.
Nearly a week in which our so-called “governing bodies” have been utterly, inexcusably, silent on the issue.
They have uttered not one word.
Not in support for the player.
Not in condemnation of those responsible.
Silence. No response whatsoever.
The whole world is watching this. All of football is fully aware of what happened here. Racism is a hot-button issue right now, especially with the situation in Italy involving Sullay Muntari. The Italian FA is probably the only one in Europe that could make ours look progressive.
Who runs the game in Scotland at the moment?
Who is responsible for giving it direction?
When situations like this happen in England there is no hesitancy at all on the part of the FA; they swing into action at once.
When Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was racially abused by Millwall fans last month, in the FA Cup, the FA swung into action the very next day and issued not just a statement but opened an investigation … so too, by the way, did Millwall themselves.
There is no excuse for the continuing silence of the governing bodies; all this “we have to wait for the referees report” nonsense is just plain and simple hiding. This is racism. People have been arrested for it. Why do we need a refs report before the governing bodies give the player their support and announce that they want this stamped out?
It’s a cop-out.
It’s an atrocious failure in leadership that makes them look backward at best.
It makes Sevco’s shame reflect onto Hampden and that’s what infuriates a lot of us most. This is a self-inflicted wound from the governing bodies and appears to have been dedicated to “keeping the peace” with those at Ibrox. As usual the rest of the Scottish game plays second fiddle to that.
Celtic has also been silent, but I understand that there are unhappy people behind the scenes who have made their views quite clear, and not only on the treatment recieved by Scott Sinclair. A number of very serious issues arises in relation to that game, including over the basic safety of our players.
For all that, I really don’t expect a “robust response”; exactly nothing will happen.
The SFA will hide behind the rules it always does.
The clubs themselves will say nothing more in public.
We’ve seen this too many times before.
You get really disillusioned with Scottish football at a time like this. If Celtic were not ascendant right now I wonder how many of our fans would still be committed to watching the game here. The resentment and anger out there is palpable. We have men of no vision and no backbone running football in this country.
That cannot go on for much longer.