Two sides, one story

Twenty years ago today, at precisely 10am and amid scenes of slack-jawed disbelief, Rangers signalled a belated end to their reprehensible policy of religious apartheid in the Blue Room at Ibrox Stadium. Maurice Johnston became the club's first high-profile Roman Catholic signing. For some first-hand witnesses, the emergence of Elvis Presley astride Shergar from an ante-room would have been more believable than what they had just witnessed.

It was a cataclysmic statement of intent and bravado from Graeme Souness, the man who revolutionised a club and, while he was at it, a city riven by a deep and centuries-old sectarian chasm. That Souness had snatched Johnston in contentious circumstances from Celtic merely added kerosene to an incendiary and indignant public, on both sides of the historic divide.

Johnston's Road to Damascus has long been etched in Scottish football folklore and infamy. Two decades on it remains the seminal moment: the day a flame-haired centre forward of Roman Catholic faith rejected the chance to re-sign for Celtic - the club having only weeks earlier proclaimed the return of the prodigal son - to join their sworn rivals Rangers, a team that had steadfastly stuck to its No Catholics policy.

As a child of the 1980s, Ican recall the utter disbelief in the voice of a then moustachioed JimWhyte as he revealed on Scottish Television that Maurice Johnston had just done the unthinkable. Season tickets were burned, along with Rangers strips and scarves, in demonstrations held outside Ibrox, while across the city, a portrait of the erstwhile Celtic favourite in Baird's Bar was touched up with an incriminating blue nose, and one Celtic diehard was compelled to name his newly born quadruplets, Eenie, Meenie, Minie and Pat.

The news was greeted like a death in two families. The roots of the most outrageous transfer in Scottish history serve only to emboss its unsurpassable status. Johnston, having earned a reputation as the country's finest centre-forward at Celtic, whom he joined from Watford, embarked on a two-year European adventure with Nantes before financial problems forced the club to forfeit his registration and effectively make Bill McMurdo, his agent, a pioneer in third-party ownership.

Celtic paid Nantes £400,000 up front, with a promise of a further £700,000, to re-sign Johnston - after the player informed Roy Aitken of his desire to come back to Parkhead - and circumvent the agent who had long been persona non grata in the eyes of the chairman, Jack McGinn. Alas, they had not accounted for the unique ownership arrangement. Johnston returned to Scotland in any case to attend a former players' reunion, whereupon he was handed a Celtic jersey to pose with Billy McNeill.

It was only later McGinn smelled a rat. Johnston became incommunicado and, despite approaching FIFA - they were in town for the World Under-16 Championships and decreed a letter of intent to be binding - Celtic pulled out of the deal.

"We could have said to Rangers, or anybody else for that matter, You want to play him? You sign him from us'," said McGinn, "but Ididn't fancy that at all. At the end of the day, Ithought there was only one course of action to take and that was to say, Away you go. We're not interested'."

Johnston already had other ideas and agreed the deal that would take an entire country by surprise. "Iremember after a pre-season game Icame down the marble staircase and there was Graeme talking to Bill McMurdo," recalled Walter Smith. "Ididn't think any more of it at that stage until the next thing, he phoned and said, What do you think if we sign Maurice Johnston?' Like everyone else in the country, Ihad just seen Maurice Johnston wearing a Celtic jersey and just assumed it was certain he was going back.

"Nobody could put up a case against him as a player - he was excellent - but the obvious problem was how he, how we all, would handle the fallout from the religious aspect. Graeme was keen to break that mould, not signing a Roman Catholic, and Iagreed with him so it was down to the player.

"The only concern was that a signing of that magnitude might disrupt what we were trying to achieve. Graeme asked me to think about it, Idid, phoned him back and the next thing Iknew Iwas asked to pick him up and take him to see the chairman in Edinburgh."

To this day, McMurdo is unrepentant. "Ihonestly believe even if Rangers did not come in for him, he would not have gone back to Celtic," he said. "The club was in turmoil, they were scared of the Graeme Souness revolution and the set-up with the jersey and photograph had an element of let's kid on we have signed him'.

"He is the only person Iknow who was strong enough to take it on his shoulders."

He was not the first player targeted by Rangers to end their sectarian recruitment policy. Ray Houghton and Ian Rush were the original candidates but McMurdo revealed another even more daring thought crossed Souness' mind. Frank McAvennie. "Graeme Souness thought about him," McMurdo told The Herald. "Iremember Graeme was going to the airport and asked me along for a coffee. He said: Ihave had an enquiry about your man McAvennie from Terry Venables'. Iasked what he told him and he said, Isaid he is the best striker in Scotland. Actually, Isaid he was the best footballer in Scotland'. Then he added, It is a pity he wouldn't come here' Ithink Graeme would have loved it but it would not have happened."

As the plan was hatched to sign and then unveil Johnston, the rumour mill began to thrum. The Daily Record, and their legendary scoop, Alex Chiefy' Cameron, were tipped off that John Sheridan, Sheffield Wednesday's Republic of Ireland midfielder, would become Rangers' first Roman Catholic signing and were convinced until the very second Johnston poked his head into the Blue Room. The newly launched Scottish Sun, edited by Jack Irvine, had other information and claimed the exclusive that not only had the whole country talking, but rescued the embryonic publication that advertising experts said would not last until the end of the year.

"We knew the failure to sign a Catholic player had been a negative marker directed against our club at that time," said Sir David Murray. "We moved in for Maurice and Ithink the transfer stopped certain people pointing the finger at us over the club's signings."

Twenty years later, Souness confirmed that administering a devastating psychological blow on Celtic was as big a factor as signing a Roman Catholic. "There was an element of mischief. Ibelieved we were hurting Celtic by signing him," he admitted. "It wasn't just signing a Catholic, it was signing a Catholic who had played for Celtic. It was a double whammy."

Amid all the bravado and the plan to drag a club out of the dark ages, Johnston's impact as a player to the championship-winning season of 1989-90 has been overshadowed. Dislodging the fans' favourite, Ally McCoist, hardly endeared Johnston to an already febrile support, especially when a clomping Englishman by the name of Mark Hateley had also arrived on the scene.

"In his first year, Mo was absolutely brilliant," said Smith. "Ithink the significance of his signing maybe detracted from just how good a player Maurice actually was. He was a real all-round striker: he wasn't the quickest but had a brightness that enabled him to get to the ball before the defender; he wasn't the tallest but was very effective with his head; he wasn't the strongest but could hold offdefenders and could score from anywhere.

"In the second season, Graeme left and Ithink, if you looked at Maurice's career, he didn't hang around too long anywhere. Ithink he had done his bit at the club and it was time for him to move on."

It was also time for the club and its supporters to move on, and though the behaviour of the Rangers fans has been scrutinised by UEFA in recent seasons, sectarianism has become a faint undertone rather than an emphatic overture.

This morning, Johnston will receive a call to his Toronto home from his agent and friend to reminisce briefly about that fateful day: the transfer that will never be forgiven or forgotten.