THERE is a well-meaning notion that politics should be kept away from football, but perhaps it is politicians themselves that should try to keep away from the sport.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is attracting the wrath of Celtic manager Neil Lennon this week after failing to publicly flog Rangers pair George Edmundson and Jordan Jones for breaching Coronavirus protocols in the same way that she and clinical director Jason Leitch admonished Boli Bolingoli and the ‘Aberdeen eight’ back in August for their own transgressions.
Now, it is fair to say that with the effects of a global pandemic on the country to consider, the First Minister has a fair bit on her plate. But she must also know that in Scotland, as with much of Europe in fairness, football and politics are so intertwined that any inconsistencies in her condemnation of players from one club over another will stir controversy.
In fact, it is not so outlandish a notion to suggest that it may very well cost her at the ballot box.
There is history between the Scottish National Party and football supporters, of course, with the rancour from the well-intentioned but ultimately fatally flawed Offensive Behaviour at Football Act causing not only widespread upset on the terraces and in the lives of football fans, but leaving them feeling like second-class citizens. Not least when the beer-swilling ‘japes’ of the rugby set was not only tolerated, but actively encouraged when Scotland were playing at Murrayfield.
This latest football faux-pas has perhaps only angered one set of supporters, with Celtic fans seemingly as up in arms as their club and manager Neil Lennon over the inconsistencies in the First Minister’s rhetoric, but it’s a fairly large number of noses to put out of joint.
None more so than Lennon’s it seems, who has gone from having a largely supportive tone about the plight the First Minister is in and publicly backing her stance on a range of Covid-related issues, to accusing her of throwing his club under the bus.
The reasoning behind the difference in tone can only be context. When Bolingoli went on his daytrip to Spain, the public messaging around Coronavirus as a whole was markedly different than it is now. While restrictions still exist on our daily lives and will likely be ramped up once more in the days to come, the public mood then was much more accepting of the limitations being placed on our freedom, and was hugely unsympathetic – angry, even – about anyone who stepped out of line.
That is why Sturgeon came out all guns blazing and tore strips off both Bolingoli and the Aberdeen players who flouted the rules, and why matches involving both clubs were suspended as a result. The problem for the First Minister though is that in telling ‘privileged footballers’ they were on a ‘yellow card’, she didn’t give herself anywhere to go when the next digression from the rules took place. As it was inevitably going to.
To follow her refereeing analogy through, Scottish football would now be receiving a red card, and football would be placed back into mothballs immediately. A move which would be hugely unfair to our clubs, the vast majority of footballers who have followed the protocols to the letter, and the supporters who have been given a weekly 90-minute window of escape from the drudgery of this hopefully temporary way of life. Because a couple of 20-something dafties went to a house party? Come on.
Rangers, just as Celtic and Aberdeen did, moved decisively when the actions of Edmundson and Jones came to light, suspending the players immediately. It is unlikely that either will be seen in a Rangers jersey again, so the Ibrox club would be within their rights to ask why indeed they should be pilloried when they have acted in good faith, and dealt with the two offenders.
The problem is that both Aberdeen and Celtic acted in a similar fashion, and yet were held up as examples to satisfy the bloodlust of the baying public gallery.
That Aberdeen are involved in this scenario, and received the same punishment as Celtic at the time of their own Covid-19 kicking, should lay to rest any ideas about this being a partisan Old Firm issue, but in much of Scotland – not only the West – that is the prism through which a great many people view life. So, as absurd as it may seem to those outwith that bubble, the actions and motivations of the First Minister are subject to the same parameters.
Any perceived inconsistency in the treatment of one club over the other – from pundits, journalists, referees or governing bodies – will be highlighted and held against the offending party. Political or otherwise. It’s why CR Smith, Tennents and a host of others used to sponsor both clubs simultaneously, and why Cadbury’s did the same as recently as this week.
As arguably the sharpest political operator in the country, the First Minister must know as much. That’s not to say she should now give Rangers a shoeing for the actions of two individuals just to give the impression of balance, but she may come to regret putting the tackety boot into Celtic for the idiocy of one of theirs.
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