AFTER a grim week for Scottish football with scenes of disorder in Glasgow, a new documentary is set to lay bare the shocking racism that blighted the early Rangers career of black player Mark Walters.
The former Aston Villa midfielder, now 56, journeys back to Glasgow to explore the abuse he suffered in the late 1980s during his first two games against Celtic and Hearts. Bananas and darts were thrown at him from the stands, and he feared he might be injured by a missile before the final whistle blew.
“It was a horrific time for me,” says Walters in the BBC Scotland documentary showing next Tuesday. “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”
Rangers player-manager Graeme Souness, who signed Walters, said the games were an embarrassment to Scottish football, with the scenes shown in England and beyond.
Despite this shameful introduction to Scottish football, Souness says it was still more difficult for Mo Johnston, a Catholic, to sign for Rangers than it was for Walters.
“It’s a ridiculous state of affairs and thank God it’s nothing like that now,” says the Sky Sports pundit.
READ MORE: Walters on football, family, and pride
Later in the film, Walters discovers that far from being the first black footballer to play in the higher leagues in Scotland, several others came before him. Foremost among these was Andrew Watson, the world’s first black international player.
Walters recalls Souness picking him up from Glasgow Airport in a Daimler. “His nickname was Champagne Charlie at Liverpool. That says it all.”
The then 23-year-old could have gone to Everton but he chose Rangers for the chance to play in Europe. After the Heysel Stadium disaster English clubs were banned from European competitions. Many players headed north for the same reason as Walters, among them Terry Butcher and Chris Woods. Walters confesses now he would have taken less money than Souness offered in wages, so impressed was he by the club.
READ MORE: Walters returns to promote biography
He made his debut at the Old Firm game at Parkhead on January 2, 1988. Recalling the wall of noise and the ferocity of the play, he says: “There were tackles going on everywhere, things going on off the ball, people getting butted in the back of the head. It was definitely not a game for the faint-hearted.”
Watching footage of the games for the first time, Walters is visibly shocked, especially when he notices that children were among those hurling missiles at him.
The scenes so appalled BBC commentator Archie Macpherson he used an appearance on Sportscene to call for the “madness” to stop – an act Walters praises for going beyond the call of duty. The football authorities did change the rules so that anyone caught hurling objects would be banned. The throwing stopped, says Walters, but the racism did not.
With the support of Rangers fans, things eventually improved. But Walters wonders, given his experience in the 20th century, what it had been like for Watson in the 19th.
Watson was a trailblazer with a string of firsts to his name, including being the world’s first black footballer to win a national trophy. He captained Scotland to its greatest ever, 6-1 win against England in 1881. Richard McBrearty, curator of the Scottish Football Museum, likens him to Pele.
Despite his fame and contribution to the sport – he helped to invent the running and passing game that dominates today – Watson’s achievements only came to light when he was rediscovered by historian Ged O’Brien.
Watson’s father was a Scottish slave trader who owned a plantation in Demerara, now part of Guyana. His mother’s family had been victims of slavery.
The family wealth bought the young Scot a private education and a confidence that shines out from photographs of him with early teammates at Queen’s Park and Parkgrove.
Walters, in contrast, was born and brought up in the working class area of Aston, Birmingham, by a single mother who was part of the Windrush generation. “Without her I would have nothing,” he says.
READ MORE: Winger on Steven Gerrard's future
The film ends with Walters talking to some of the black players of today, including Scotland and Motherwell star Kaela McDonald-Nguah, to find out how much progress, if any, there has been since his day. He ends his trip to Scotland ultimately heartened by what he hears, and forgiving about his initial experiences.
“Graeme Souness had the biggest impact on my playing career,” says Walters, who went on to play for Liverpool and Southampton after lifting trophies with Rangers.
“Signing for him at Rangers was the best move I made.”
Mark Walters: In the Footsteps of Andrew Watson, airs on BBC Scotland at 10pm on Tuesday, May 25.
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