The buzzphrase in Scottish football recently has been ‘title stripping’. Specifically referring to Rangers, of course, in relation to an isolated appeal which saw success for HMRC following two defeats.
Consequently the media has gone into a mass frenzy, with everyone and his dog having something to say on the affair and more than one ‘journalist’ again using Rangers to further their own careers and agendas.
However, the mass outpouring of froth from Scottish football fans in general has been the most notable, with almost every fan not of an Ibrox persuasion getting on their sanctimonious soap box and demanding the BIG BAD RANJURS be relieved of all titles won between 2001 and 2010.
None of these groups have stood out more than Celtic fans, with Parkhead’s finest latching onto this defeat in the courts like moths to a flame and committing moral outrage crying out for all titles won in this period to be given to them, or at least, stripped entirely.
One wonders why? Why have Celtic fans gone into meltdown despite the fact so many of their illustrious icons disagree? The likes of Martin O’Neil, Chris Sutton, Paul Lambert, Kenny Dalglish, Jackie McNamara and even high-profile ex SPFL chairman and Celtic faithful Roger Mitchell have laughed the notion off entirely?
Could it be that a certain scandal in the distant past, the biggest scandal in Scottish football history, remains a blight on Celtic’s history and they are using Rangers’ misfortune to try to ‘beat’ it in the outrage stakes? Could many of these fans, so ashamed of what happened within Celtic Boys’ Club all those years ago, be trying to make Rangers’ tax woes seem so much worse than the crime committed within their own halls?
It really does seem pretty bizarre that a tax case could cause so much fury among said fans, when their figureheads could not really give so much as a damn about it (you know, ex-players and managers who actually won/lost stuff during this period).
Of course, this is conjecture on my (and many of my peers) part. Maybe these supporters really do just feel football injustice that they were not good enough to beat Rangers on the pitch so want to invalidate any success from Govan during that time.
Or maybe they wish the biggest scandal in Scottish football to suddenly not be as big a deal.
After all, tax issues are much more serious than the health, wellbeing and futures of children, are they not?