I can feel Stewart Regan's pain...

[Frankie 8,843]

Northampton Loyalist gives us his views on recent events within the SFA and asks if it is possible that we can move on with Regan in charge...

 

http://www.gersnetonline.co.uk/2010/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=344:i-can-feel-stewart-regans-pain&catid=1:articles&Itemid=67

 

I can feel Mr. Regan's pain. Having spent most of my life and all of my formative years south of Hadrian's Wall, I can testify to the culture shock he is experiencing first hand. Growing up, religion was never an issue. My school friends and I never discussed matters Godly outside of RE lessons and on the odd occasion that church was attended, it was always the Church of England. If there were Catholics in my school, and I would be shocked if there were not, they either attended these services (and received communion) or made arrangements unknown to myself. The point being, it was never, ever an issue that merited comment.

 

My first wife was born Church of England and her parents 'converted' to Roman Catholicism when she was 4 in order to get her into the best school in Northampton. To my knowledge, she nor they set foot in a Catholic church after admittance to the school. The point of all of this? Religion is not something that is taken beyond the realms of minor interest in Middle England. I cannot imagine a family of the Scottish Protestant tradition converting, even as a token gesture, to Roman Catholicism in order to send wee Billy to St. Mary's because of the latest OFSTED report. As much as religion in England is a non issue between the various Christian sects, in Scotland it is a still smouldering holy war.

 

Mr. Regan has taken a very high profile job in an already volatile profession at a time when the 'Sectarianism' issue has never been more topical. Scottish football, for all its glorious passion and thundering romance has an underside, a smouldering cancer that runs through every level of the game. Celtic can't lose a game but for a Masonic conspiracy (the same Masons who forbid any talk of religion in their lodges. Apparently). A referee can't make a mistake without it being a deliberate action in the war to oppress the oppressed and religion must be kept out of football except when one particular club want to broadcast their adherence to one particular sect. The same club who bleat about being poor downtrodden representatives of poor downtrodden Roman Catholics wear their religion like a badge and never, ever, fail to mention how 'Catholic' they are, despite claiming to be a club open to all.

 

Cricket in England is a game played by proper middle class boys at proper middle class schools and by proper middle class gentlemen in proper middle class villages. There is a rule that allows only one Johnny Foreigner to play for any one County team and unless you are a gambling Indian or like to tamper with your balls, controversy is something that happens to other sports. Football the world over is a game for the working man, despite recent attempts to 'elevate' it beyond that. While a cricketing crowd will contain men reading books and women knitting, a football crowd will contain men swearing and women swearing louder. Scottish football is perhaps the closest to its roots out of the British nations, still working class, still passionate and still bearing the scars of a divided society. There is little in common between English county cricket and football, even less with Scottish football.

 

Mr. Regan made a good fist of his work with the Yorkshire County Cricket Club as chief executive and he earned himself a move north of the border, taking up an equivalent role within the SFA. On doing so he walked into an already fractured organization reeling from the controversial (not because of his ability, because of the club he used to play for) tenure of Gordon Smith and within four months he has found himself smack bang in the middle of a problem that so far he has neither the experience, the savvy nor the bottle to deal with. How can a middle English, Middle class cricket executive have the tools in his locker to deal with a problem that has been boiling under the surface for decades? Where is he meant to summon up the strength of character from, to tackle a club that is clearly out of control and willing to play any card it can think of in order to leverage an advantage?

 

Mr. Regan was on a radio show the other day, being interviewed by Nicky Campbell of BBC Five Live. He uttered these words after being egged on by the host.

 

"Clearly there are sectarian issues at play," Regan said. "I think that's something that has been around for a long time and its naive to think that can be removed overnight. There are a lot of efforts by many people to change the culture. This is a cultural issue, it's deep-rooted and will take time to change."

 

The man was being interviewed regarding the referees strike that is threatened last weekend's fixtures. Now, what he says is broadly correct, there are sectarian issues at play and it would certainly be na�¯ve to think an Englishman with little knowledge of the situation could step into a complex and decades old situation and remedy it in short order. The problem we have is that these words were put into no context whatsoever, no indication as to who has sectarian issues, no indication as to whether the referees are all bigots or the people complaining about the referees are all bigots, nothing. This is crass na�¯vet�© and will do nothing other than confuse the main issue and broaden out what should have been a relatively open and shut case of

 

"Celtic FC, shut the hell up. And by the way, here is your fine for calling every referee a cheat and questioning the integrity of the game in Scotland. And here is your points deduction for bringing the game into disrepute. Again. oh, and while we are here, Lennon is barred from the touchline for 6 games for calling the referee a 'F=&*ing cheat' and a further 4 for calling the forth official a 'D&*k head'. Hooper can pay his fine next week and then Mr. Lawwell can pop in with a cheque. Thank you!"

 

Instead, we have a statement that can be read anyway people want, twisted in that special way only certain Scottish journalists seem to manage and, if people choose, be seen as vindication of Celtic's complaints. Would a Scottish appointment to the chief executive position have allowed himself to be rail-roaded into such an inflammatory statement? I don't think so, simply because a Scottish appointment would understand something of the constant and volatile nature of life north of the border. I don't know Mr. Regan, I had never heard of him before his appointment to the role he currently has but he has done nothing to convince anyone that this job is not beyond him. The step up from running a cricket club to running a nation's football league is a big enough jump on its own, but tie in all of the under-currents and innuendo that surround the game up here and he has no chance. It is not even his fault, it is the fault of the men in blazers who appointed what was a safe option at the time.

 

Even the Scottish Catholic Church has decided to claim a moral authority over the SFA. Peter Kearney - the director of the Catholic media office in Scotland - wrote to Mr. Regan demanding that Hugh Dallas was fired for forwarding an email that was as widespread as any 'viral' on the internet and one that saw its graphics used on the BBC, amongst other places. Firstly, the notion that Roman Catholicism is somehow above being the target of a joke is absurd, particularly in a country that holds freedom of speech so dear but apart from this, and to labour the point, how was Mr. Regan supposed to cope with what looks like a fairly well timed and orchestrated attack considering his short time in Scotland? A lack of humour is not something that shocks when it comes from the overly pious amongst us but the refusal to allow Mr. Regan to conduct his affairs without the shadow of Papal threats and innuendo is bizarre. The fact that Dallas has since been forced out adds credence to the thoughts of Mr. Regan being out of his depth.

 

His appointment looked at first like a decent idea; Get the 'foreigner' in, nobody could have issue with that, particularly after having a 'Rangers man' in the role. It looked the safe option designed to head off any cries of conspiracy or collusion. It has back-fired already and shown that far from pandering to the lunatics that are given free reign to mingle with honest folk, they need to be dealt with head on. Any other approach, as we are witnessing to the detriment of our game, encourages ever more reproachful behaviour from them. Regan needs to fall on his sword and someone with a backbone needs to take a firm grip of this situation, name the perpetrators, punish them to the extent we never witness this sorry mess again and then move on and try to rebuild any kind of meaningful reputation.

 

I know who is at fault here, you know and every hack, whatever they choose to say in print, knows. We need a strong man to take the reigns and stop this pathetic shambles from going any further. Unfortunately, we all also know, that won't happen and we will see instead platitudes, conciliatory statements designed to hush by coddling and when this all dies down we will all know that it is there under the surface waiting for the next time Celtic football club realise they can't win on their own and need a little help.

[Frankie 8,843]

I think the last paragraph says it all really...

 

The events of the last 6 weeks or so really have shamed football in this country and while I'm sure we'd all like to see positive change at the SFA, the likelihood of that is further away than ever.

[Frankie 8,843]

While I'm at it, you've got to admire the pro-Celtic lobby for their work during this time. Sure, any decent individual would be embarrassed to act the way they have but they've got results and apply pressure as a group very well indeed.

 

Meanwhile we have a fractured fanbase slagging each other's sites off. Fan groups afraid to speak out against the club for fear of losing budgets. Other fan groups refusing to talk to anyone. A club afraid of its own shadow. And a church that seems more eager to back other faiths than speak out against them.

 

During a period where our club is thankfully still doing the business on the field, I'd hate to think what would be happening if we weren't leading the SPL.