Lost in Sectarianism

And so to one of our irregular features on We Love Fitba, which we'll call Lost in Sectarianism in a nod to the Marina Hyde blog in the Guardian.

It's Sunday, and we're at Ibrox, for the third Old Firm match of the season, one that Celtic had to win to maintain any hope of winning the title. But it was off the field where the other battle for (moral) superiority in Glasgow was waged.

Here's the developments so far, but don't feel guilty if you feel like nodding off at any point. Falling asleep with boredom is far preferable to contemplating the depressing reality of Old Firm sectarian hand-wringing in the 21st century.

Rangers elected to begin the afternoon's proceedings with a minute's silence for Gerry Neef. Gerry who? you might say, but obscurity is no barrier to sanctimony these days, especially if your next game is against your hated rivals and you'd just love an opportunity to try and show them up.

Truth be told, if you found 10 Rangers fans who claimed detailed knowledge of Gerry Neef's career at the club, at least nine of them would be lying (he made a total of 48 appearances in the late 60s / early 70s). Nontheless, they all now demanded a minute's silence so that they could pay their respects to a man most had never heard of.

As it happens, the silence was fairly well observed, even though it was reported as "disrupted" in most media reports. Whether it was really disrupted by a handful of Celtic morons, or a larger mob of Rangers fans just itching to shout "scummy bastards!" as soon as they heard a pin drop, is open to debate.

But this episode was just the warm-up to the afternoon's main show piece. Rangers Community Foundation had chosen this match as the ideal event to honour Falkland's vet Simon Weston, who'd given a talk to the Foundation the day before.

Hmm, the Falkland Islands? Haven't they been in the news recently? Surely Rangers wouldn't co-opt one man's terrible injuries and inspirational recovery to make a political point? Are we really that cynical these days?

Sure enough, as Simon Weston was presented with his royal blue shirt at half time, the cameras scanned the Celtic enclosure, seeking any sign of disrespect. The headline just waiting for a story? Rangers support Our Boys. Fenian "scummy bastards" don't.

They found a Celtic fan waving an Argentina shirt around, Scotland's second favourite strip since 1986. This, it was deemed by the Sun, was enough to run the story about how a "twisted Celtic fan" taunted a war hero.

Spurred on by faux outrage, there's now a facebook page where you can register your own disgust at his behaviour, and help to track the offending tim down.

Of course, it is almost too easy to point out that cheap finger-pointing like this is all the more embarassing when it involves a man who met and befriended the Argentinian pilot who dropped the bomb that injured him so badly.

In other words, Simon Weston demonstrates forgiveness and understanding, and a mature world view that our two bigot brothers could barely comprehend, let alone emulate. If Rangers wanted to "honour" this man, maybe trying to build bridges with their neighbour, rather than perpetually wind them up, might be more appropriate?

It might also be stated that - at a time when the prospective next Foreign Secretary of the UK has recently tried to reprise the jingoistic fervour of the Falklands conflict - there has never been a better time to dig out our Argentina shirts and show that we, as a people, have moved on.

But no, Rangers have been declared winners in this round, so we must direct our anger as appropriate. Exploiting charitably-minded war heroes for cheap stunts is fine. Holding a national shirt of another country should be a criminal offence.

Rangers win the SPL

Well, it's all over now, isn't it? Rangers won the Old Firm derby yesterday and are now 10 points clear - there's no way Celtic are coming back from there.

Tony Mowbray could point out that the match was very even, that maybe a few decisions went against them (fuelling the current sense of injustice at Celtic) - and he'd be right.

But then everyone else could point out that truly clever managers find a way to keep getting results while changing their team. Instead, Celtic have dropped far too many points while Mowbray has tried to get to grips with the job. Walter Smith - a man with his own problems to deal with - has basically mugged him this season.

It means the title race has basically been decided before the split, not what the SPL needs to maintain interest in the rest of the season.

Any consolations? Well, we probably already know the make-up of the top six (Aberdeen look out of it) and Dundee Utd, Hibs, Hearts and Motherwell could yet give us some twists and turns in the battle for two qualifying spots in the Europa League.

And maybe, just maybe, Falkirk will pick themselves up and make a real fight of staying in the Division.

A fresh round of Old Firm bleating

Surprise, surprise. Rangers appoint a new chairman who's a director of IMG, the global marketing company that believes heritage and tradition are only useful if they can be exploited for their own profit, and the prospect of the Old Firm leaving the SPL is back in the media again.

We all know the routine by now. Rangers use what residual power they believe they have to make threatening noises about "needing to leave" Scottish domestic football, presumably in the hope that the authorities will bow to the pressure and cut them a deal.

Celtic, meanwhile, play the humble card, with Chief Exec Peter Lawwell this week saying that the club would only leave the SPL if they were invited to join somewhere else, and only in the interests of "telling the Celtic story". This being a euphemism, of course, for "hoping to make even more money".

Dutifully, though, the media have once again been sucked in, with even Jim Spence on the BBC (normally a journalist who speaks a lot of sense) blogging about the chances of the Old Firm leaving.

Others in the Weegie mafia, meanwhile, breathlessly reported the news that FIFA have said that a move is "possible", as if this has any real value. It's "possible" that George Foulkes could become Scotland's next First Minister, but that doesn't make it any more likely.

At least Rangers are being honest about their intentions, while Celtic are becoming increasingly devious. Lawwell's latest reasoning is that the English Premiership might invite the Old Firm in order to increase the competitiveness of the league, ignoring the fact that such a move would destroy the competitive integrity of the league system - namely, that any club can go up or down.

As Mark McGhee said, who shouldn't Aberdeen (incidentally, the last non-OF team to win the championship, not Dundee Utd, Mr Lawwell) apply to join the Premiership? Or what would happen if Celtic or Rangers, having joined the English top flight, got relegated? Could another Scottish team replace them?

So many questions, so few answers - but then, Celtic and Rangers have never been interested in anything other than themselves. Hence the creation of an SPL rigged to favour the top two teams, which they then point to and say - look at how uncompetitive this league is; we have to leave.

Who knows where this story will end. The only certainty is, we have a lot more of this bleating to come, unfortunately.

Celtic rue defensive mistakes

You get the impression that Tony Mowbray is not enjoying life at Celtic as much as he hoped. Instead of a team gelling under fresh leadership, Celtic seem to get rattled more and more easily as the weeks go by. This has not been a dream start for the ex-West Brom and Hibs manager.

Of course, the aftermath of an Old Firm derby defeat is always depressing for the losing party, but Mowbray - who normally defends his players in public - was uncharacteristically scathing about them after the match. He didn't mention him by name, but he was clearly seething at Glenn Loovens' performance, especially for letting the ball bounce in the area for Kenny Miller's second goal.

Sunday's first Old Firm meeting of the season exposed Celtic's problems at both ends of the park. Defensively they were a shambles, while upfront they failed to make an impact, despite enjoying lots of possession and facing a patched-up Rangers back line.

With all due credit to Rangers (and Kenny Miller, who once again excelled in this fixture), Celtic really failed to put their stamp on this game. Yes, Shaun Maloney was denied at least one clear penalty, but that doesn't excuse their myriad failings.

Of course, Celtic are also experiencing difficulties in Europe. Getting into the Champions League would always have been a tall order, especially once Celtic were drawn against Arsenal in their second qualifying tie. But the Europa League should be a rather more comfortable environment - instead, Celtic are struggling with just a point from their first two games.

The Celtic board gave Mowbray £4m to sign Marc Fortune over the summer, and N'Guemo has been a fine addition in midfield (albeit on loan), but was that enough? He was willing to listen to offers for Stephen McManus, and probably wanted to reshape the squad more than he was able to.

With their rivals in such dissarray, now would seem an ideal time for Celtic to invest in building a team that could really achieve something under the new management team. Yet again, by not spending money, Celtic seem determined to let Rangers off the hook. They have only themselves to blame.