When I went to Chelsea as a kid in 1986 racism was rife.

In the dressing room, on the training pitch, during games - it was everywhere. In my youth-team dressing room there were things said that would shock people now.

Back then, what was accepted as "banter" between the black and white players was a helluva lot different to what it is today - and it can only be a good thing that we have moved on so much since then.

It shows how far we have come as a society that in a period of less than 30 years what is considered acceptable or unacceptable has undergone such a change.

I believe campaigns like Show Racism The Red Card and Kick It Out have raised awareness and have done a huge amount to educate people. I would never say there is no racism in the game now, but gigantic strides have been made and that is something surely everybody would applaud. The mindset of players has changed, the culture in the dressing room has changed and we are moving in the right direction.

I would be the first to condemn anyone using racist language during games. There is no place for it. But I have to say I can see both sides of the Aleksander Tonev-Shay Logan issue and that Celtic stood by their player in the wake of the SFA upholding his seven-match ban for supposedly racially abusing the Aberdeen defender is something I can understand.

I can't say it often enough that I abhor racism of any kind, but I don't think you can convict someone of such a serious offence without having concrete proof.

I found the document the SFA released - something utterly unprecedented on their part - explaining why they came to their decision very interesting. It did not paint the on-loan Aston Villa player in a positive light and the judicial panel explained very clearly why and how they reached their decision. However, there is absolutely no way to prove or corroborate what was said.

We've had lip-readers brought in before in the wake of incidents with John Terry and Luis Suarez but there has been no video evidence and no audio evidence for us to look at in this case.

I think the way Shay reacted during the game was very telling. He was calm, he did all the right things, and it seems implausible that he would have made the accusation up. But - and this is a huge but - can you convict on the basis of one man's word against another? For that reason, I think Celtic are right to call for changes in the way we decide these things.

Switching to a higher standard of proof than "balance of probability" would mean there are no grey areas. We would not convict anyone in a criminal court anyone on that basis and I think it should be the same in football.

I also thought there was no need for Logan to take to Twitter in the aftermath of the announcement. I hate seeing players using social media anyway because I think it is a recipe for disaster. In this case it was ill-advised and always going to fan the flames.

We are in the middle of yet another soap opera at Rangers. As a football manager you go into the job with your eyes open. If results aren't up to standard you are going to be sacked, that is the way it goes and we all know that.

But it is not Ally McCoist's fault that Rangers can't afford to give him the pay-off he is due. There is something he has been unhappy about it and he has dug his heels in. I don't think you can blame him for that. He is perfectly entitled to hand in his notice and serve out his time.