IN SPITE of all the hype there will be many who view this weekend's League Cup semi-finals with indifference.
Fair enough. Football doesn't float everyone's boat.
While for many of us it is a source of inspiration, fascination and exhilaration, for the rest there might be the small matter of sirens in the distance, trouble on the streets or beatings behind closed doors. Not all aspects of the beautiful game live up to the monicker.
And this weekend's encounters raise wider social and economic issues from sectarianism and hate crime to the whole ownership model of most of Scottish football which struggles for existence in the shadow of the rampant capitalist model of the English game, when a far better example can be seen in Germany.
The semi-final between the New Firm of Aberdeen and Dundee United, both riding high in the Premiership, is shaping up as an excellent, if somewhat overshadowed contest. The other tie - even calling it the Old Firm clash was contested in a full page advertisement paid for by some Celtic fans - is also fascinating, but to some degree for the wrong reasons, like drivers slowing down to view a crash scene.
Cards on the table; I am a Hearts season ticker holder and was asked by The Herald to write a preview piece ahead of the 2012 Scottish Cup final. Friend and colleague Drew Allan was asked to provide the green perspective. "Some of my best friends are . . ." is a cliche but it is also true. I have supporters of all the top Scottish clubs among my friends. One is even an Alloa fan and he may have the last laugh on Saturday when our teams meet.
Most of that circle of friends suffer from what I would call "away fan syndrome" which is to say that we go primarily to home matches where the hard core fanatics are diluted and their behaviour restrained. As a result we have an inflated view of the virtues of our fellow supporters. At away matches that hard core reaches critical mass and would rarely be mistaken for a Sunday school outing.
After a home cup tie against Celtic new Hearts chairwoman Ann Budge - for obvious reasons not part of the old boy network at the top of our game - was highly critical of the behaviour of both supports and of the damage inflicted on the fabric of Tynecastle by away fans. For me it was a depressing day not just for the heavy defeat but because the visit of Celtic brings out elements in the Hearts support which have been all but eradicated, such as the attack on Neil Lennon, and which allow those from the East of Glasgow to continue seeing us as "Diet Huns".
Which brings us to the full-fat version among the Ibrox faithful. Hearts fans leaving the recent Ibrox fixture abandoned because of snow were set upon and buses stoned. Other enraged Rangers fans were besieging the main portals in Edmonton Drive, stretching police resources.
There is immense anger among Rangers supporters who can scarcely believe the extent of their club's fall from grace since Sir David Murray sold out to Craig Whyte, whose tenure ended in liquidation. The Charles Green era was equally calamitous, and now they are in the hands of Mike Ashley, the billionaire purveyor of sports kit condemned at both Holyrood and Westminster in recent days for an attitude which "high handed" does not come close to describing.
Leaving aside the curiously restrained approach of the football authorities to all this mayhem in the stands, streets and boardroom compared to, say, their swiftness to act against Livingston, what is not in doubt is that the saga is bringing out the worst in the Rangers support, who have channelled their frustration, impotence and rage back into attitudes of arrogance and historic bigotry which could and should have been left behind.
It didn't have to be this way. The re-born Rangers could have launched a proper fan ownership scheme similar to Foundation of Hearts instead of waiting for another millionaire to happen along, could have focused on youth development, and could have sought to banish anthems about no surrender and Fenian blood.
Currently only East Stirlingshire, Clyde, Dunfermline and Stirling Albion are community owned, but Hearts are on track and Hibs are looking at mechanisms to join them. But Germany, the most successful footballing nation, has made "50+1" the norm. The feel-good factor of fan control here would benefit everyone, even those indifferent to the game itself.
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