UEFA must investigate corruption at the heart of Scottish football

In 2005, Robert Hoyzer shook German football to its foundations with the revelation that he had been involved in match-fixing in the 2nd Bundesliga.

Hoyzer had sent off SV Hamburg’s Emil Mpenza and awarded two penalties to Paderborn who had been trailing 2-0 at the time.

Hamburg’s players’ complaints of bias were vindicated.

In 2004, Czech club Synot were fined 15,000 Euros and docked 12 points when the club were found guilty of bribing referees. The crisis worsened when 17 referees and club officials were charged with corruption.

Some of the biggest clubs in football were found guilty of corruption in Italy and punished severely.

Today, Celtic should call upon UEFA to investigate corruption in the Scottish game.

With an SFA Chief Executive who has not even pretended to be impartial, and whose comments, submitted prior to his appointment but which were published afterwards, did much to question his capacity for objectivity, it seems unlikely that any such allegations in the Scottish game will be taken seriously by our authorities.

The SFA decision to respond to charges of sectarian singing at Rangers with “no action” closely followed Smith’s appointment and since then their fans have been guilty of disgusting racism at home and away matches without censure.

However, the performances of Mike McCurry in Rangers matches, notably against Dundee United today, demand special attention.

With Dundee Utd 2-0 down, McCurry failed to award a clear penalty that should also have resulted in a red card for David Weir.

Later in the same game an own goal by Weir was disallowed for offside.

A few moments later, the Rangers player Daniel Cousin received only a yellow card for a head butt.

None of these decisions can be justified in any context. The fact that they all favoured Rangers who are challenging for the SPL demands attention.

If the Italians, Germans and Czechs can acknowledge corruption, why should we suppose that it does not exist in the Scottish game? And if the Scottish authorities will not take action, UEFA must be asked to investigate.

Craig Levein on the match

The words of shame that Scotland ignores

Today, before a ball has even been kicked, Rangers supporters can clearly be heard on Setanta singing their "Famine's over song" at Easter Road - the one that self-appointed social commentators like The Herald's Darryl Broadfoot and PA Scotland's Ronnie Esplin (who supplies a large chunk of the Scottish press with reports) think do not merit condemnation. These same people who supplied endless columns and reports on Artur Boruc's T-shirt and told us, falsely, that Celtic would face a UEFA investigation for alleged "sectarian" singing after a journalist sent Youtube clips to Europe's governing body, think this latest song unworthy of mention.

In case anyone is in any doubt, here the words are printed in full.

Why don't they go home.

I often wonder where they would have been
If we hadn't have taken them in
Fed them and washed them
Thousands in Glasgow alone
From Ireland they came
Brought us nothing but trouble and shame
Well the famine is over
Why don't they go home?

Now Athenry Mike was a thief
And Large John he was fully briefed
And that wee traitor from Castlemilk
Turned his back on his own
They've all their Papists in Rome
They have U2 and Bono
Well the famine is over
Why don't they go home?

INSTRUMENTAL

Now they raped and fondled their kids
That's what those perverts from the darkside did
And they swept it under the carpet
and Large John he hid
Their evils seeds have been sown
Cause they're not of our own
Well the famine is over
Why don't you go home?

Now Timmy don't take it from me
Cause if you know your history
You've persecuted thousands of people
In Ireland alone
You turned on the lights
Fuelled U boats by night
That's how you repay us
It's time to go home.

Rangers 2008 - Scotland's shame. The Scottish media and football authorities - complicit by your silence.


Update: In Monday's Herald, near the bottom of Darryl Broadfoot's piece calling for a knighthood for Walter Smith and demanding unstinting praise for Rangers (with an ill-considered swipe at the Celtic of Tommy Burns) carried this comment :

"Intense rivalry makes the Old Firm unique. Intense loathing and religious intolerance makes them a national embarrassment.

"For example: the 2200 fans inside the Artemio Franchi stadium were impeccably behaved yet spoiled a magical trip to Florence with a drink-fuelled chorus of Why Don't You Go Home - a reference to the Irish famine - at 3am as the players and backroom team attempted to board the charter home."

Although it is not clear that the term "impeccably behaved" is appropriate, at least, coincidentally, the issue has now been mentioned by Broadfoot, albeit arguably "shoehorned" into a piece of unbridled sycophancy, perhaps as an afterthought. Now, will the issue actually be addressed in the manner of the Artur Boruc's T-shirt which was linked to a death on Sunday night and an assault on Aiden McGeady with Boruc caricatured as a bringer of mayhem? We watch with interest.