The SFA Does Not Fear Celtic. But It Should, And One Day It Will.

Chris Sutton said last night that the SFA is flexing its muscle in appointing Beaton to ref the game at the weekend. He called it a “power play.” For the second time in as many days I could not agree more. He also says they are wrong to do it, and I agree with that too, because it makes them look daft and it puts Beaton himself under terrible pressure.

But where I disagree is in that he thinks it’s a reasonable way for the SFA to show that it will not be dictated to when it comes to officials. And once again, I wonder why Sutton isn’t saying what every single one of us knows to be true; Willie Collum makes that a nonsense.

Let me tell you what else he failed to spot; that this isn’t a sign of strength at all. That’s only one of the mistakes the SFA makes here. The other one is in relation to us.

Richard Nixon introduced to the world one of the most dangerous concepts of the modern age. It worked for him, or so its proponents will say, and it has worked several times since. Its critics doubt that, and point out that it only needs to go dramatically wrong once, for someone to take it too literally, and we’d all be in a lot of trouble.

The concept he introduced is called The Madman Theory and the thinking behind it is thus; if a country’s adversaries think that the leader of that country is irrational, prone to anger and unpredictable they will utilise any strategy they can to appease that leader and his nation. Its proponents and supports still claim that Nixon used it successfully during the Vietnam War and in his dealings with the Soviet Union and China.

But history actually tells a different story. It was the Nixon Administration’s other foreign policy strategy, which Kissinger called triangular diplomacy, that was much more successful because it showed Nixon at his most farsighted and calculating. The strategy involved strengthening the links between the Soviet Union, China and the United States by seeking to work with both whilst subtly undermining their ability to work with each other.

That was the strategy that led to détente, to the first US links with China and ended the Vietnam War. Those things didn’t come about because they thought Nixon was a psychopath.

And yet, this is still not understood by a lot of people in politics, in business and in other fields today, who subscribe instead to The Madman Theory and go about their day-to-day lives practising the art of provoking concern and disquiet amongst colleagues and underlings.

One of the organisations which has embraced The Madman Theory is the one at Ibrox. In a football landscape with strong leaders this would have been tested to destruction long ago.

Samuel Seitz, the political scientist, said there are three basic failings with The Madman Theory first, some people don’t fully grasp the message (they think its erratic but not irrational), they do not see the madman’s ultimate threats as being credible and third, they recognise that if they are dealing with a genuine madman there’s no point giving in because you can never trust that they won’t just do what they were threatening to do in the first place.

The SFA should certainly have judged Ibrox’s behaviour initially on the basis that it was erratic and amateurish and unprofessional rather than genuinely dangerous.

After that, they should have dismissed Ibrox’s threats as having no credibility at all because whenever they have been thwarted, they have sulked and whinged rather than upping the ante. And third, they should have realised already that crazy or not, giving in to Ibrox only creates future problems as they find something else to provoke a fight over. They can’t be relied on or trusted in any way, shape or form. There are more grievances than trophies at Sevco.

But those at Hampden, whether at the SPL or at that the SFA, give in to The Madman at Ibrox over and over and over again, which, as I said, is insane as Ibrox has proved that it is, in fact, pitifully weak when it comes to responding forcefully on the occasions when those running things do tell them to sit down and shut up as if they were unruly children.

Chris Sutton spoke last night about the SFA decision to give John Beaton this game, just a few days after the Brendan Rodgers case, prior to which they’d already given us Don Robertson. He said that this is a pathetic attempt to act and look tough, to present strength. It actually makes those running our game look like petty, spiteful little bitches … and that’s the generous interpretation. There are some who will say that it actually makes them look corrupt.

One thing is for sure; they don’t think we’re to be feared and they are terrified of doing anything to offend the club from Ibrox.

Acting rationally and responsibly is a sign of weakness as far as these people are concerned, and those few occasions where we have taken robust action in our own defence hasn’t convinced them that we aren’t. They do not fear us because we do not appear mad.

That, in itself, is quite insane.

Look at the Collum situation and the Beaton situation side by side; we complained about him by calling him an incompetent and our manager was sanctioned and the club had him imposed on us for this fixture.

Ibrox called out Collum, actually accusing him of religious motivated bias … think for a moment about how that much stinks. They weren’t sanctioned. He hasn’t officiated in any capacity at their league games since.

Except this coming weekend where they have him there in such a minor role that it’s embarrassing and only highlights his months of absences all the more.

If the governing bodies think they project strength they are wrong.

But they certainly do not believe that our club does.

And that is where their gravest misjudgement might be. Ibrox projects strength it does not have, and the SFA bows to it … Celtic projects less strength than it has, and the SFA does not take us seriously. But they’ve failed to understand what that means.

It means that everything could change overnight.

See, the SFA has mistaken strength for will.

We lack the will to use our strength to the fullest, but we are far stronger than the club from Ibrox, and because we are not obviously run by insane people it makes it far easier for us to build and maintain alliances should we ever decide to try. Celtic’s issues are issues of policy and that comes from the people in charge; the simple fact of it is that our club has access to far greater resources, and far more sources of power, than the SFA realises.

We have allies at UEFA, where our chairman fulfils his one useful function to us. We have power at the European Club Association. We have access to legal advice from the best people, because we can afford it whereas the SFA and the SPFL cannot, and where even Ibrox would struggle to match us, for all their experiences with the law.

Furthermore, we have enormous political heft both here in Scotland, in the UK and in Europe and that comes from having a genuine billionaire on the board, a man with those contacts and that reach. Don’t underestimate our nexus of political supporters from across all the main parties. We have alliances and reach Ibrox can only dream about.

Celtic does not exercise its power … but that does not mean that it is not real or that we could not change that in the blink of an eye. It is lunacy for the SFA to believe that it can throw its weight around when it comes to Celtic, and it’s especially stupid when they make it so obvious that they are either afraid of or beholden to the club across town.

One day, the SFA will badly overplay that hand. Indeed, they may have done so already. Sutton is correct to say that this is a power play, but it is based on a very big presumption and a very stupid misunderstanding of where the power here really lies. Should we ever decide to give them a lesson it will be a harder one than they can afford to learn.

The only surprise, and frustration, comes from knowing that we could have done it, easily, long before now. If they push us too hard, they won’t leave us any choice.