After going into hiding when one of their member clubs was found guilty of racist behaviour the SFA opted to put Steve Clarke in front of the media to discuss sectarian issues in the Scottish game!
Incredibly Clarke opted to involve Celtic in the discussion with that line delightfully taken up by the Daily Record to put a more acceptable gloss on the story for their army of readers.
For the benefit of any Record readers looking in Friday’s UEFA decision was handed down to the club calling themselves Rangers and was for racist behaviour, not the easier to accept sectarian charge which carries much more sympathy across large swathes of Scotland.
Covering Clarke the Record reports:
The 55-year-old, who is set to name his Scotland squad for upcoming Euro 2020 qualifiers on Tuesday, told BBC Scotland: “Rangers have reacted very well to it, they’re trying their best as I’m sure the people at Celtic are. Everyone tries their best but maybe the little UEFA ban on 3000 people – it’s only a small part of the stadium – maybe it will make some people think about what they’re going to say in the future, hopefully.”
Celtic weren’t involved in last week’s ruling which was successfully kept out of the spotlight after the initial charge was raised and presumably appealed against by the club.
For the hard of thinking the extract below is from the UEFA website:
The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) has announced the following decisions:
Match: UEFA Europa League first qualifying round second-leg match between Rangers FC and St Joseph’s FC (6:0), 18 July in Scotland
Charges against Rangers FC:
– Racist behaviour (sectarian chants) – Art. 14 of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations (DR)Decision:
The Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body has decided to order a partial closure of the stadium during the next one (1) UEFA competition match in which Rangers FC play as the host club, for the racist behaviour of its supporters. Rangers FC shall, as a matter of urgency, inform UEFA of the sector(s) to be closed, which shall at least comprehend 3,000 seats. The Scottish club is ordered to display a banner with the wording “#EqualGame”, with the UEFA logo on it. The banner shall be displayed in the sector(s) to be closed.
It’s unlikely that Celtic will raise any complaint with the SFA over Clarke linking the club with actions that have found to be racist by UEFA.
Fans can back the SFA by going to their website to buy tickets for next month’s matches against Russia and Belgium with ticket money being used to support Ian Maxwell, Rod Petrie, John Fleming and John Beaton.
Sensible approach from @PremierSportsTV get Celtic’s first and last match and that stretches the subscription period to the max.https://t.co/dI4rbZJEzE
— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) August 27, 2019
