At a time when integrity seems to be the buzz word in
Scottish football circles, what little credibilty,
integrity even, our mickey mouse league may have had
has been blown out of the water over this past week or
two by the undisguised corruption of match officials
and blatent minupulation of the fixture list.
So Peter Liewell is concerned about the integrity of
the SPL. Really? Would that be the same integrity
which was callously compromised when, with injuries
and suspensions piling up, he pleaded for Ra Sellick's
New Year clash with Rangers to be cancelled following
the tragic death of a player who was just about
hounded out of Breezeblock Boulevard years earlier?
Yet the Dundee United players, who suffered the trauma
of being on the same pitch as Phil O'Donnell when he
dropped dead, were forced to play their game against
Hearts just a couple of days later.
No more than a week or two ago the SPL were
trumpetting the improvement in Scotland's UEFA
co-efficient as if they had done anything to make it
happen, yet at the very same time Mr Integrity was
effectively calling for the club which has done more
than any other to raise the profile of the Scottish
game to be penalised. And the eejits at the league
bought it, Charlie Cooke, Patsy Cline and Regi
Blinker!!!
Suggestions that we are the authors of our own
misfortune by asking for the postponement of our game
with Gretna in the build-up to our Champions League
clash with Lyon are no more than a smokescreen. The
Gretna game was played on January 16 and is not an
issue.
Our two outstanding fixtures are visits to St.Mirren
and Motherwell which needed to be rescheduled for
reasons beyond our club's control. The game at Love
Street was initially put back to aid Scotland's
preparations for the Euro2008 qualifier with Italy,
then fell victim to a Tuesday night monsoon in
January. Hardly Rangers' fault.
And our visit to Fir Park on March 15 was postponed
because we qualified for the League Cup Final
scheduled for that same weekend. Again Rangers cannot
be faulted, unless progress in a competition and
qualiying for the final is now regarded as something
to be penalised.
Mind you, the off-hand manner in which our UEFA Cup
run has been dismissed makes you wonder where the SPL
is coming from. And Liewell, true to form, has been
quick to point out that Smelltic asked for no
concessons on their way to Seville in 2003,
conveniently overlooking the point that they were out
of the Scottish Cup in March and, with there having
been a mild winter, there was no fixture backlog. And
with a Celtc shareholder as manager of Dundee, it was
hardly a big ask for the Dens men to bring their visit
to Breezeblock Boulevard forward to give Septic more
time to prepare for being pumped by Porto.
I really can't see what their beef is. Playing
catch-up for quite some time, they've always had to
win all their remaining games, a point unaffected by
our fixture problems. They know what they have to do,
we know what we have to do but, as always, it ain't
quite as simple as that. The Septic mentality is that
we should be compelled to push all our games into an
already congested period, forcing Walter to field a
weakened side in some matches, effectively aiding and
abetting our title rivals' championship challenge.
Fair play? Don't make me laugh!
If Liewell feels it is imperative that both sides
fulfill their final fixtures simultaneously, the SPL's
decision to rearrange their trip to Tannadice to
coincide with ours to Shittodrie should suit him
perfectly...or is the integrity of Celtc's
money-grabbing jaunt to Japan more important than the
integrity of the SPL?
But how can any league claim to have anything
resembling integrity when the likes of Eddie Smith,
John McGarry, Tom Murphy and the ever-obliging Steve
Conroy can go about their business with a
self-satisfied smirk on the face. They are what they
are and they don't care who knows about it because
years of harassment and intimidation have made sure
nobody in the corridors of power will have the bottle
to stand up against them.
The afore-mentioned clowns are corrupt but least you
know what you are getting when you see their names
listed in the programme. Ian Brines, Craig Thomson
and Kenny Clark fall into an equally dispicable group,
cowards who can see what is going on (but who turn a
blind eye to it} because they don't want to risk the
double-glazing by giving a decision against
you-know-who at you-know-where.
On the FF Mesageboard last week what amounted to a
poll was conducted about how Steve Conroy would
influence the Motherwell v
Scum Of game. Would he give a late pen to his
favourites, maybe disallow a perfectly valid home
goal, perhaps red card a Well player (probably with an
Ibrox connection!) or overrule a flag at a crucial
point in the game?
There were countless options open to him but it was
never in any doubt that, at some point in the game,
there would be a controversial call and it would would
significantly benefit Them. Did he let us down? As
if! A Celtc player clearly heads the ball out of
play, yet Conroy rules that the ball came off a
Motherwell plater. C'mon tae feck, how many
Motherwell players do you know who look like Bobo
Balde? Like I said earlier, weasels like Conroy know
what they are and they don't care who knows about it.
With Brines' 'honest mistake' depriving Dolly & Co of
a draw at the Piggery, never-ending injury time
presenting Them with a winner in the midweek Old Firm
encounter, Murphy's reluctance to flag McDonald
offside, then Thomson's great haste last Sunday to
award a penalty against Rangers when a) the foul could
have been awarded to us, and b) it was outside the
box, followed by Conroy's shocking display at the
weekend, it really is going to take a super-human
effort from the Gers to win this title.
But I believe - or maybe I'm just kidding myself that
I do!!! It will be very interesting to see who Mark
McGhe decides to 'rest' at Ibrox in midweek, just as
it will be well-worth checking out how many Hibs
players put themselves about at the Scum Dome at the
weekend (and how the Hibs fans will react to it). But
with them all against us, Walter and his coaching
staff have to turn it into a positive, make sure our
guys are doubly determined to send out a GIRUY message
both in the SPL and the UEFA Cup and, when all the
trophies are decked out in red, white and blue
ribbons, we can then ask some poignant questions about
recent goings-on in the la-la land of Scottish
football.
As somebody [a nonentity), somewhere (in a poxy local
radio station) once said: "Lets not have anyone
suggesting these things even themselves out over a
season, THIS CHAMPIONSHIP HAS BEEN TAINTED BY
CHEATING!"
Aye, Mr McGuire, I'll bet you didn't expect that one
to come back to bite you!!!
LITTLE BOY BLUE