Old Firm Shame Game. It’s a phrase that media outlets have dined out on for almost 20 years.
Insert a picture of Hugh Dallas with a cut forehead.
It would be easy to think that nothing else untoward had happened in a football stadium since then.
Never Again. That was next, the follow up as the media enjoyed an orgy of hand wringing as they tut-tutted the events of the Shame Game.
Quite right.
Never again should two major Glasgow clubs play on a Bank Holiday weekend, or with a 6.05 kick off.
A ref gets hit with a coin & a fan falls from top tier of stadium and it gets spoke about for the next 20 years…. fan runs on the park attacks brown, scott sinclair racially abused & celtic players hit with coins & batteries, forgot about 20 minutes later. ???????? pic.twitter.com/ySvWMfQc8z
— The Notorious CSC ???????? (@TheNotoriousCSC) April 10, 2018
The world has moved on a fair bit since 1999, back then the Good Friday Agreement in Ireland had only been in place a year. It has survived a lot but remains in place while the Scottish police and football authorities are locked in a previous century.
If you want a modern shame game look back to Ibrox 12 months ago.
What a cocktail: racial abuse, a fan confronting an opposition player on the pitch and a large sized battery among many missiles thrown at Celtic players.
The fan that confronted Scott Brown didn’t even have to say ‘excuse me’ to a steward before he got on the park.
After that match the SFA, SPFL and Police Scotland never said a word, there was no enquiry or government legislation.
With effectively 10 days to go before their team can clinch the SPFL title thousands of distant Celtic season ticket holders are left waiting to make travel arrangements.
The SPFL has remained silent, the SPFL consists of the clubs.
When it comes to Shame Game it really ought to apply to the legislators who treat the fans with contempt, customers would never tolerate such sub standard service.