IT may stick in the craw of some Tartan Army diehards to admit it but Gareth Southgate remains a hugely impressive individual. Not only has he managed to lick into shape a perennially underachieving England team, the former defender has also shown himself to be a person of real substance when it comes to acknowledging and addressing off-field matters. Frankly, he is a hard man not to like.
This time last year he was shooting down Boris Johnson – alas only figuratively – when the former foreign secretary was blundering his way into another diplomatic crisis by casting doubts on Russia’s suitability for hosting the World Cup. Southgate’s insistence there would be none of the drama speculated upon by Johnson would prove to be entirely correct.
Last week Southgate’s personal stock has risen again. He has volunteered his support to Phil Neville and the England women’s team ahead of this summer’s World Cup, and also shown a willingness to tackle the issue of racism head on where some of his peers might have looked the other way.
With England players again being the subject of tasteless chanting from Montenegrin fans, Southgate not only highlighted the problem in his media comments but also called upon Uefa to finally take some direct action. Again, it was all thoroughly commendable stuff.
What chance both managers at Celtic Park calling out sectarianism in a similar fashion this afternoon? Highly unlikely. And perhaps that is why it is a problem in Scotland that never goes away and probably never will.
That there will be chants of a sectarian nature sung by both Celtic and Rangers fans during the derby is as much of a stick-on as yellow cards for Scott Brown and Alfredo Morelos. It is as close to a certainty as you can possibly get. And yet, chances are nobody will even mention it in the aftermath.
It took Steve Clarke to re-open the debate on Scotland’s lingering shame when the Kilmarnock manager was bold enough to speak about the religious abuse he had received during a match at Ibrox. That sparked days of chatter and talk of imposing sanctions and stamping out the problem before, predictably, it all went quiet again with the issue not having moved forward one bit.
Everyone was happy to respond to questions on it at that time, with managers, including Steven Gerrard, offering their wholehearted condemnation of the sectarianism problem that festers within Scottish football.
It would be a lot more effective, however, if he and Neil Lennon were to proactively address any incidents in their post-match media conferences this afternoon.
Call it out. And not just the opposition fans but their own support too if that happens to be the case. It would take a brave manager to criticise their own fans in the aftermath of an Old Firm derby, when they are likely to be either in jubilant mood following a win or in the doldrums after a loss. The argument would be that it wasn’t the right time or place but there may not be a better one. Bravery is what is required here.
Granted, it was easier for Southgate to comment as he was protecting his own players who had been abused by foreign fans in a foreign country. There would be no pushback on that one. But you suspect that were he in charge of one of these sides this afternoon his reaction would be just the same.
Lennon, of course, has addressed this issue at various points in the past, most notably after being attacked on the touchline at Tynecastle. Few have suffered as much from this form of personal and religious abuse as the Northern Irishman and he will likely be greeted in similar fashion by the 800 or so Rangers fans this afternoon.
Unless it spills over into a more significant incident, however, Lennon probably won’t refer to it. The chances of him condemning Celtic fans will be even slimmer.
Similarly, Gerrard has had to put up with it being called “a sad Orange b******d” at various points during his maiden season in Scottish football, something that must be baffling for
a man of no overt religious persuasion and who attended a Catholic school if only for football rather than ecclesiastical reasons. Perhaps bewildered by the whole thing, it’s unlikely he will talk about it in his post-match address either.
Instead, we are going to have to continue to rely on people like Clarke to keep this topic in the public domain until something – anything – finally gets done about it. We may be waiting a while.
TICKETS go on sale this week for Josh Taylor’s World Boxing Super Series semi-final bout in Glasgow in May despite the lack of detail on who will be in the ring with the self-styled Tartan Tornado amid ongoing speculation that Ivan Baranchyk and his IBF super-lightweight belt will not be appearing at the Hydro after all.
Talk instead is of an all-Scottish tussle between Taylor and Ricky Burns. That would capture the public’s imagination but might be a fight a few years too late in the making for the former three-weight world champion. Burns would be 36 by the time it comes around and would surely be no match for the southpaw Taylor whose star is in the ascendancy. All parties are remaining tight-lipped but the public deserves to know.
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