Bill Copeland and the SFA Referee Committee member
Referee Kenny Clark holds Celtic's Alan Thomson during a clash in their Scottish Premier League soccer match in Glasgow. Celtic's Alan Thomson (L) is held by referee Kenny Clark before being sent off as Peter Lovenkrands (R) lies in pain after a clash of heads during their Scottish Premier League soccer match at Ibrox Park in Glasgow, November 20, 2004. Rangers won 2-0. REUTERS/Robert Paterson.
Former referee Kenny Clark is on the same After-Dinner circuit as shamed former Criminal Lawyer Bill Copeland.
It seems that Clark is quite happy to sit alongside Copeland (for a fee) and laugh along at his seventies style joke book full of racist gags, the type that forced Eilidh Barbour and others to walk out of Sunday’s SFWA award night where Copeland was humouring the guests.
Clark likes to maintain a number of income streams, in 2014 he spoke to The Lawmen in Black about juggling refereeing with his work as a Criminal Lawyer with Adairs of Dumbarton. With age forcing his retirement from active refereeing it is believed that he is involved in training the next generation of referees.
Here’s a picture of Ex FIFA referee, Kenny Clark, S** journalist, Andy Devlin and after dinner speaker, Bill Copeland in St Brydes 579 Masonic hall in Uddingston. pic.twitter.com/uMWA3tB9zX
— Celtic (@YoutubeCelticFC) May 9, 2022
In an undated but currently live page on the SFA website they list:
Referee Committee
Chair: Willie Young
Vice Chair: Steve Brown (St. Johnstone), David Reid (Stenhousemuir)
Members: Kevin Toner, Kenny Clark, Martin Cryans, Alan Freeland, Ian Fyfe, Calum Murray, Brian Winter
The Neil Drover After Dinner Agency describes Young as:
Willie Young is one of the few referees ever to send off Ally McCoist but it was in the Robert Duvall film ”A Shot At Glory”.
A successful lawyer and former referee, Willie is an accomplished wit, raconteur and established after dinner speaker.
He is in demand for engagements all over the UK. Willie has spoken at numerous business and sporting dinners and at scores of Burns suppers large and small, from Cumnock to Cairo. He has delivered Immortal Memories in places as diverse as Kenya, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The same agency describes Copeland as
Corporate events for leading government bodies, major national and multi-national businesses, professional bodies and trade associations sporting dinners for football clubs, major and minor rugby dinners, posh and proletarian golf club prize givings, annual dinners and days out, prestigious and humble Burns Nights and Rotary Clubs all have warmed to the unique brand of Copeland humour.
Bill is equally at home addressing audiences of 70 as 700, and he’s happy to tailor and customise his speech to any specific requirements.
Bill’s mission statement as a speaker is to follow his grandfathers old adage – Always leave them begging for more! – which was the very attitude that led to his granddad being struck off as the world’s worst anaesthetist!
A recent newspaper review stated that Bill Copeland was pushing back the frontiers of comedy and reaching into new and hitherto undiscovered areas of humour – or rather the critics actual words were That Bill Copeland’s getting beyond a joke!!
Bill’s wit has also hit the airwaves as a guest on BBC Radio Scotland’s early morning topical news and chat programme The Fred MacAulay Show.
Clark on his cheating of John Hartson.
There are other subjects that Clark thinks are funny and worth sharing for his after-dinner fees.
In the video above he makes jokes about the sexuality of Justin Fashanu then makes reference to Andy Tod of Dunfermline having ‘shed more blood than a coachload of virgins on a Club 18-30 holiday’.
What a lad eh.