What is this sad little corner of the world coming to?
What is the problem with the people running it and the sport of football within it?
The SPFL is mandated to release the after-split fixtures, that is their job here. It is not to subvert the system. It is not to deny fans what they want to see. The next time you hear that TV companies run the game, remember this week.
The next time you hear how important the so-called Glasgow derby is to our sport here, you remember this unedifying, gutless, scrambling away from it. People can make all the excuses they want. They drag out the likes of Gordon Strachan as they please. They can line up every single ex administrator, and ex police chief they wish to … the last week has labelled our sport a backwater. It has labelled Scotland a cesspit.
Everyone involved in this should be ashamed.
It is not even pandering to the mob; it is creating a mob out of thin air. Where was the crowd trouble just a few weeks ago? The Ibrox game was the league decider as far as that mob were concerned. That was the day we put away their pitiful challenge. Sunday will end their season.
There have been a dozen games against Sevco since the club emerged from the grave of Rangers.
There was a league decider against that club in the very year they went out of business. To pretend that this “can’t happen” is farcical and there’s no guarantee that it won’t happen in spite of all this yellow-bellied running in the other direction.
Celtic need three points to win the league; our form this season suggests we’ll drop points in at least one game out of the five. So say the SPFL schedules this for the second game; Celtic draw the first and need only two points to win the title at home in the next one.
Schedule the game third and it still affords no surety.
These people are kidding themselves on.
Tonight there’s an article on The Daily Record website which offers an explanation as to why “this will never be allowed” to happen again; I know IQ’s on that newspaper are notoriously low but as I pointed out last night, if we’re talking about league deciders against Ibrox clubs it already has, in 2012. The idea that something that happened 20 years ago should still haunt us … it’s a joke. It’s an insult to the whole country.
There were league deciders right down through the years; some of them are amongst the best memories my old man’s generation has. Do we base our decisions on those? Of course not. There was widespread disorder at a game at Ibrox last year, which I highlighted at the time.
There was a riot at Hampden two years ago, a literal riot; are we to keep Hibs and Sevco apart in that competition from now on?
My God, is there something in the stories about the two Glasgow clubs being deliberately paired in semi finals to stop them ever appearing in a final again?
What the Hell is Scottish football coming to? This is the textbook definition of a farce. It is scandalous that people are talking the way they are, especially the media who has no sense of responsibility at the best of times but here, and now, is speaking as the conscience of the whole nation?
What absolute bullshit.
Tonight people are saying this decision could be delayed until Friday because some of the clubs are angry about it; well of course they are.
If we’ve already won the league what’s to stop us fielding weakened sides in some of our games?
If there are European places up for grabs – which there are – that will be crucial.
The team that gets us first is at a natural disadvantage; no wonder they want basic fairness to be applied.
How much longer are we going to pretend we have professionals running our national sport?
Here is a match which will decide the league title, featuring (allegedly) one of the biggest rivalries in the game. It is a TV box-office game. It is a huge money spinner. And do we want it? No, we don’t. And we’re hiding behind transparently fictional nonsense to avoid it.
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