Hugh Dallas episode reeks of nasty opportunism - Roddy Forsyth

[ian1964 10,720]

Roddy Forsyth: soap opera surrounding Hugh Dallas episode reeks of nasty opportunism

So the conspiracy theorists were correct all along. The truth, at last, is out there and Scottish football is in turmoil, although it took disruption to the fixture card to bring the whole sorry mess into the open.

 

This goes back to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, of course. The oil has gummed up the ocean bed and switched off the North Atlantic Current, which keeps Europe from freezing.

 

We are at the start of a new Ice Age. You don�t believe it? OK, what game are you going to watch this weekend?

 

In lieu of a match programme, you might want to read the findings of Dr Gianluigi Zangari, theoretical physicist at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Italy who says that the Earth�s central heating system has broken down because of the oil spill.

 

When the archaeologists of the future dig down through the tundra around Hampden Park they are bound to ask how the planet could have been plunged into deep cold just after a Krakatoa of hot air erupted over the subject of Scottish referees ââ?¬â?? and why there were so many unresolved issues even when the volcanic row became dormant.

 

A couple of facts could be established, mind you. Hugh Dallas was not sacked as the Scottish Football Association�s head of referee development for being satirical or sectarian in forwarding a widely circulated email about the Pope.

 

His forced departure was because he had breached the SFA�s rules about IT, which prohibit the dissemination of potentially sensitive or offensive emails.

 

Dallas was dismissed, plus four more employees, because of that infraction. Other SFA staff members were warned about their conduct in the same regard. It appears that the five who were sacked had forwarded the email beyond the confines of the SFA offices, while those who were warned did not.

 

At which point the unanswered questions begin. Why did the SFA begin its disciplinary process all of six weeks after the circulation of the emails had been discovered?

 

Were the sackings disproportionate? Was the nature and outcome of the disciplinary procedure in any way influenced by the much publicised intervention of Peter Kearney, director of the Scottish Catholic Media Office?

 

It would be a surprise if m�learned friends were not examining this very point on behalf of the sacked quintet. Indeed, I believe that is exactly what they are doing.

 

Kearney�s role also warrants scrutiny. He was rejected as a SNP candidate for both Westminster and Holyrood by the voters of Coatbridge and Chryston but he retains sufficient political nous to be certain that his pronouncements about the email in question would generate enormous publicity.

 

So, on whose authority did Kearney act? Did he have the prior approval of Cardinal O�Brien or did the Scottish Catholic Church press officer go freelance on this issue?

 

Of the email depicting the Pope, Kearney said: ââ?¬Å?We will not tolerate it. We will not laugh it off or see the funny side ââ?¬â?? because there is no funny side.ââ?¬Â

 

Does that, then, apply to the edition of Have I Got News For You? which employed the same image as the Hampden email when the BBC�s irreverent news review programme was transmitted in the week of the Papal visit to the UK in September?

 

And, if so, where was the implacable protest, the declaration that such a display indicated that ââ?¬â?? to use Kearneyââ?¬â?¢s words ââ?¬â?? hostility to Roman Catholics that is ââ?¬Å?deep, wide and viciousââ?¬Â.

 

If Kearney did have the approval of Cardinal Oââ?¬â?¢Brien for his insistence that Dallas be sacked if found to have forwarded the email, is His Eminence satisfied that justice was done by extending the same sanction to a practicing adherent of his own faith and a man of 60 who, having recently lost his wife, has now been deprived of his livelihood at the SFA ââ?¬â?? and if so, what does that say for the application of Christian charity?

 

In Kearneyââ?¬â?¢s denunciation of the Hampden email and others like it he declared that priests in West Lothian and Renfrewshire had been attacked by ââ?¬Ë?thugsââ?¬â?¢.

 

Given that a childcare specialist in Wales was forced to leave her home by a self-styled vigilante mob who could not distinguish between a paediatrician and a paedophile, one could certainly believe that innocent Roman Catholic clergy might be at risk from similarly ignorant or bigoted buffoons.

 

Yet where were the reports or police investigations into these incidents? I ask because, within five minutes of three complaints being received by Strathclyde Police about Dallas, a tabloid newspaper reported in its online edition that the Hate Crimes Unit was investigating him.

 

Strathclyde Police do not have a Hate Crimes Unit and they are not ââ?¬â?? and never were ââ?¬â?? investigating Dallas. And we may ask why Kearney did not denounce the knuckle draggers who phoned death threats to a religious education teacher at a Roman Catholic High School in Lanarkshire ââ?¬â?? who just happened to have awarded Rangers a debatable penalty kick when Celtic lost 3-1 in the Old Firm derby on Oct 24.

 

Whatever may be the rights and wrongs of the Dallas episode ââ?¬â?? and I think that he was stupid to have forwarded the email even if he thought it was a harmless joke ââ?¬â?? the outcome reeks of nasty opportunism.

 

Speaking of which, the forced departure of Dougie McDonald was a declared aim of the Celtic directors ââ?¬â?? stated with considerable force by the Parkhead chairman at the clubââ?¬â?¢s chairman at the annual general meeting three weeks ago.

 

Why, then, was it left to Paul McBride QC ââ?¬â?? in a rare distraction from his duties at the Tommy Sheridan perjury trial at the High Court in Glasgow ââ?¬â?? to speak as someone ââ?¬Å?close to the clubââ?¬â?¢s boardââ?¬Â and say that they had experienced ââ?¬Å?a sense of quiet vindicationââ?¬Â at the refereeââ?¬â?¢s decision to resign, McDonald having lied to their manager about a penalty kick decision at Tannadice in October.

 

There was nothing quiet when John Reid was whipping up the gallery at the AGM, but the former so-called ââ?¬Ë?big beast of the Labour Partyââ?¬â?¢ has gone all coy now.

 

Nor is there a squeak from anyone else at the club whose commitment to transparency is flexible enough to include threats of non-cooperation to broadcast outlets who transmitted Gary Hooper�s dopey remarks about Scottish referees.

 

Anyway, as I say, it�ll all be academic once the permafrost kicks in. And it�s precisely because Russia knows how to cope with the coming freeze that Fifa awarded them the 2018 World Cup. Think I�m kidding?

 

Is the Pope a Catholic?

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/scottish-premier/8177228/Roddy-Forsyth-soap-opera-surrounding-Hugh-Dallas-episode-reeks-of-nasty-opportunism.html

[Frankie 8,548]

Decent article from Forsyth but it is strange that he didn't say any of this when on the radio last week...