As the controversy surrounding last week’s Old Firm derby showed no sign of abating, a degree of perspective was offered by Richard Gough yesterday. The former Rangers captain suggested that there was no point in today’s so-called “summit”, at which police and politicians will meet representatives of the two Glasgow clubs.
The chief executives of Celtic, Rangers and Scottish football’s three governing bodies gather in Edinburgh today with police and government officials, including the First Minister, Alex Salmond. The plan is to address issues arising from the notorious Scottish Cup replay in which, among other things, three Rangers players were sent off.
“Football matters should be dealt with by football people,” Gough said. “I know there has been a lot of police involvement because seemingly after an Old Firm game domestic violence goes up and stuff like that.
“That’s unacceptable. But on the whole I would like to see football deal with football matters. Football is an emotional game. I don’t think meetings between politicians will make any difference to what happens in a football game.
“Obviously the managers are now going to warn the players to be on their best behaviour, but sometimes games can kick off quite easily.”
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If it is anything like the last summit, convened in 2004 — by Salmond’s predecessor, Jack McConnell — after a stormy contest at Ibrox, their achievements are likely to be the square root of not much. There is talk of alcohol bans, midweek games and the playing of matches behind closed doors — none of which is remotely likely for as long as television calls the shots. With an election on the horizon, if they and their like are not quite hijacking the issue, they are certainly hitching a ride. The disturbing effect is that the fallout from last week’s match has somehow outgrown the events that led to it.
Death threats, allegations of racism and attempts by each club to defend themselves seem to grow in number each day. The Rangers Supporters Trust submitted its tuppence-worth yesterday by demanding that the Scottish Football Association conducts “a thorough and meaningful investigation” into reports that Neil Lennon, the Celtic manager, provoked Rangers players with extreme verbal abuse.
Martin Bain, the Rangers chief executive, had said more or less the same thing several days earlier.
Amid all this, it was announced yesterday that Craig Thomson would referee the Co-operative Insurance final between the sides on March 20. In last year’s final of the same competition, he gave red cards to Kevin Thomson and Danny Wilson, the Rangers players, during their team’s 1-0 defeat of St Mirren. He was also in charge of the Old Firm derby at Ibrox on January 2, when Celtic won 2-0. His fourth official at Hampden will be Willie Collum, heavily criticised by Lennon after the derby at Celtic Park in October.
Thomson is no stranger to controversy or security issues. In November, he was criticised by José Mourinho, the Real Madrid manager, for his handling of the Champions League match in which Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso were accused of deliberately getting sent off. The month before, he had to abandon a Euro 2012 qualifying match between Italy and Serbia after seven minutes because of crowd trouble.