Former Rangers star Bilel Mohsni admits punch-up wrecked his career but 'likable lunatic' vows to take second chance at Dundee United

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Former Rangers star Bilel Mohsni admits punch-up wrecked his career but 'likable lunatic' vows to take second chance at Dundee United

• Mohsni clashed with Motherwell striker Lee Erwin after play-off final in 2015
• The defender karate-kicked Erwin in retaliation for being shoved by the striker
• The 30-year-old has vowed to change opinions after signing for Dundee United

By Brian Marjoribanks For The Scottish Daily Mail

 

On an apocalyptic afternoon in Lanarkshire back in May 2015, the battle for a place in the Scottish Premiership descended into a brawl.

Seconds after Rangers had succumbed to an humiliating 6-1 aggregate play-off final defeat by Motherwell, a row over a snubbed handshake sparked violent scenes on the pitch.

In extraordinary pictures beamed across the UK, Ibrox defender Bilel Mohsni karate-kicked Lee Erwin in retaliation for being shoved by the striker, before the defender crashed a fist into his opponent's mouth as players from both sides piled in.

 

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Rangers defender Bilel Mohsni punched Lee Erwin after play-off final in 2015

Erwin was left bleeding from the mouth during a television interview carried out on the pitch with BT Sport.

The hot-headed Mohsni then had to be restrained from rushing off the Rangers team bus to start Round Two outside the ground.

 

When he eventually calmed down, the Tunisian was left fearing he had inflicted a knock-out blow on his own career.

Once described as a 'likable lunatic' by Ally McCoist, Mohsni was calmness and charm personified on Thursday as he was officially unveiled as a Dundee United player - as first revealed by Sportsmail earlier this month.

Older, perhaps wiser, his wild long hair has been replaced by a close-crop - but the 30-year-old still harbours some resentment about the fallout from Fir Park.

 

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Mohsni karate-kicked Erwin in retaliation for being shoved by the striker after final whistle

'Since May 31, 2015, I've had no luck at all in football. Everything has gone wrong,' said Moshni. 'What happened was a mistake, but I was heavily punished for it.

'At the end, Motherwell won so they should have celebrated with their fans but instead he (Erwin) came at me, swore at me and told me to shake hands with him.

'I wanted to go to speak to the manager and the chairman to see if I was getting another contract.

'But he (Erwin) pushed me and hit me, so I reacted. I didn't think properly, I know that. And all the way from Glasgow to Paris in my car I knew I had made a big mistake. I thought to myself: "Maybe football is over for me".

'I had teams in the English Premier League wanting me but after what happened that was finished.

 

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The 30-year-old has vowed to change opinions of him after signing for Dundee United

'I was lucky to find a club in France (Angers) but then they (the SFA) gave me the big ban and I couldn't play.

'I got a seven-match ban. Three or four games would have been okay, but seven? And the Motherwell player got nothing. All of the players who were involved in the incident got nothing apart from me.

'It really affected my career because serving a seven-game ban in France took three months. I was missing for a lot and it cost me so much. Because I wasn't playing, I lost my place in the national team and I didn't get to go to the Africa Nations Cup (in 2017).

'What happened was a mistake and I know it was wrong, but they nearly banned me from football over it. I have never forgotten. It has always been on my mind.' 

Mohsni is also critical of the way he was treated by interim Rangers boss, Stuart McCall, in 2015.

 

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Mohsni was calmness and charm personified when he was unveiled on Thursday

'After that match at Motherwell, the manager at Rangers said he was sacking me - but I was out of contract anyway,' he said.

'He didn't help me. When he joined (after Ally McCoist quit) he put me straight out of the team and when I came back from international duty, I missed the first leg of the play-off.

'I was frustrated and then he put me on with 10 minutes to go when we were 6-1 down on aggregate. What was I going to do? Am I Superman, who was going to score six goals?' After six months without a game for Angers, Mohsni joined French Ligue 2 side Paris FC before heading for Etoile du Sahel in Tunisia in September 2016.

There, he says, he was unpaid and unplayed but a huge price tag was placed on his head when any clubs showed an interest in ending his Tunisian turmoil.

'Etoile Du Sahel didn't pay me and I never knew why,' said Mohsni.

'The rest of the team got their money but I didn't. This is my luck in football!

'Because they didn't pay me I took them to FIFA but that just made it worse. I was dropped from the team, then the squad and then from the stands. They even closed the gym and locked the door so I couldn't go in there to train.

'The chairman there is a politician so when I went to FIFA it wasn't good for him. He was not happy.

'I told them to cancel my contract - don't pay me and I will just leave. But they said no.

'They blocked me from moving by telling me if I wanted to sign for another club, the club in question would have to pay £5million for me. They didn't pay me wages but they were asking for £5m for me!

'Finally, FIFA got it sorted now I have been able to sign here.' Mohsni admits he never thought he would be back in Scottish football after that afternoon almost three years ago.

But he has vowed to change opinions of him and help Csaba Laszlo's side to promotion via the play-offs.

'I'm happy to be here. I want to take this chance,' said Mohsni, who is in line to make his debut at home to Dunfermline tomorrow. 'It is a few years on from the incident and I want to show everyone I have grown up.

'I've had to fight for everything in my life and I am a winner. I am passionate, I give everything in games and, hopefully, I can do well here.

'The team here can still go up. I have been watching and training and there are good players here.

'It is down to confidence. If we can win a few games, then we can win some in a row but first it is all about getting that winning mentality.

'I just want to show people that I am a good player. They shouldn't just remember me for what happened in 2015.

'I will be aggressive with Dundee United but it will be controlled. I won't be fighting with anyone!'

[Bill 13,717]

Such a pity it’s Dundee United. 

[MacK1950 2,399]

Yes but he is unlikely to play against us unless we are drawn in a cup competition

[ian1964 10,761]

15 minutes ago, MacK1950 said:

Yes but he is unlikely to play against us unless we are drawn in a cup competition

If they don't go bust before then!

[ian1964 10,761]

'PRETTY TOUGH'

Inverness ace Coll Donaldson says ‘toxic’ Dundee United fans nearly made him quit the game

The 22-year-old says the abuse United faithful give their own players makes them unhappy to go to work.

 

HE raised the Irn Bru Cup with Dundee United last season.

But now Coll Donaldson has lifted the lid on the HELL he suffered at Tannadice.

The Inverness defender has revealed how savage abuse from the stands left him on the verge of chucking football altogether.

And he was so disillusioned he nearly stayed put on his summer holiday in America.

Ex-Livingston and QPR defender Donaldson, 22, became a hate figure for the supporters at Tannadice and has branded the atmosphere there TOXIC for the current group of players.

Now starring for the Caley Jags and enjoying the game again, he’s hoping to cap a happy few months with another winner’s medal today.

He said: “Coming here has been a breath of fresh air because I am enjoying my football again.

“I was at the point where I didn’t know whether I wanted to play football before I left Dundee United.

“It was quite severe, I wasn’t enjoying it and there was no fun left in the game for me. I didn’t like going into work every day because I was unhappy.

“I wasn’t playing, I was working all week but there wasn’t anything at the end of it and it was pretty tough.

“No matter how well I played I never got a chance, although to be fair the other two boys were doing well.

“My relationship with the fans at United had also gone downhill and when I spoke to the manager he told me he was keeping me out of the team to protect me a bit.

“When someone was injured he would look at me and think ‘what if it goes wrong?’ because then things would become worse.

“So from that point of view, I was totally at a loss because I had a manager who said he believed in me but I was so low in confidence and so low in self-esteem that he couldn’t trust me.

“At the start I just brushed aside the abuse I was getting. I was playing in the team and was able to ignore the stick from the fans.

“I’m not naive enough to think that people will love you and wouldn’t doubt you in football, but I was able to get through it when I was playing.

“There was one day I made a mistake to lose the opening goal but we came back to win 2-1 — and the fans still gave me abuse for it.

“We had won the game but they still wanted to hammer me.

“It wasn’t just me, it’s toxic there.

“Even when you leave it’s the same. I am still pals with Robbie Muirhead who is down in England with MK Dons now and has done well for them.

“He still gets people tweeting him and giving him abuse for his time at Dundee United even though it was two years ago now.”

Donaldson was on the bench against United last week as he comes back from injury and admits he was horrified at the abuse handed out to their current side.

He said: “I saw it last weekend when we played them, they started the better of the teams but we got a corner after 15 minutes and they were all booing them.

“For us winning a corner, they started hammering their own players.

“I don’t envy any of the Dundee United players playing there because they are under massive pressure every week.

“When I was there I doubted myself, I doubted whether I was able to play at this level even though I’d done it before. I came very close to giving up.

“I was in America in the summer. I go out to Virginia every summer to stay with Brian Welsh who was my youth coach at Livingston.

“I am close friends with his two boys so I go to see them and I spoke to him about it.

“He is having the time of his life coaching out there and he told me that I could move over and play part-time, do a bit of coaching.

“I genuinely wasn’t going to come home. I was just going to stay.

“But my only reason was I had signed a contract for another year so I felt I better give it a go.

“It didn’t work out though, I went to Poland for 12 days and the manager there told me he wanted to sign me.

“But the chairwoman didn’t because she thought it was rude I couldn’t speak Polish.

“I went to a few clubs in England, Stevenage and Morecambe but things didn’t work out.

“So that also contributed to me falling out of love with football.

“But since I came here the gaffer has been brilliant with me and I am enjoying it again.

“Hopefully this weekend will be a happy experience.”

Winning last year’s cup spurred United on to the play-off final and while getting there seems a stretch for Caley right now, the defender hopes a victory against Dumbarton today would put a similar spring in their season.

He said: “Last season winning this trophy set us up for the last run of league games, it gave us the momentum we needed to get into the play-off final.

“It gave us confidence to kick on and hopefully winning this weekend would do a similar thing for us.”

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/2407406/coll-donaldson-dundee-united-fans-inverness-quit/