Football Crazy

I read a depressing tale the other day which told a story of football fans in Israel, supporters of the Beitar Jerusalem - who torched their own club as part of a protest at the club's decision to sign two Muslim players.

The 'fans' set fire to the club's offices destroying trophies and medals - after the club turned its back on a long-standing tradition of refusing to sing Arab or Muslim players.

The two players who have broken the mould - Gabriel Kadiev and Zaur Sadev - are Chechen and at a recent home game four of Beitar's anti-Arab, anti-Muslim supporters - were arrested for racist chanting and harassment of their own players.

Israel football authorities have previously banned Beitar supporters from attending matches - and have also docked points from the team when fans started racist chants at games.

The Russian owner of the club - Arcadia Gaydamak - has refsued to back down in the face of this violence and intimidation - but instead has beefed up security at the ground and provided bodyguards for his two new players.

Good for him, I thought - but it's a game for goodness sake - what is the world coming to when  people behave in such a ghastly, prejudiced, and bullying way?

The I thought to myself that it was not so long ago that Scotland had a similar problem - because for many years with the famous Glasgow Rangers Football Club - refused to sign a Catholic player.

And for years the political estabishment and the football authorities turned a blind eye to what was going on - until a new kind of Ranger manager in Graham Souness decided to tackle the issue head on - by signing Mo Johnston (a Catholic and former Celtic player) in July 1989.

So less than 25 years ago Glasgow was afcing a similar showdown with the 'knuckle-dragging' elements within Rangers football club - and the rest is history, as they say.

Here's an extract of what one newspaper (The Belfast Telegraph) said at the time:

"Our switchboard was also virtually jammed with furious callers complaining that the Telegraph was deliberately stirring up sectarian tension in Northern Ireland by printing such a ‘fairy story’ so close to the Twelfth.

But by mid-afternoon Rangers had confirmed what was at the time, and arguably still is, the most controversial capture in British football history — and when the Telegraph’s final, updated edition rolled off the presses that day, the ‘fairy story’ was accepted as being very real indeed.

It was a development that left both Rangers and Celtic fans reeling; the Hoops had themselves been hoping to re-sign the nomadic Johnston from French club Nantes.

The player had even publicly stated his desire to rejoin the Parkhead outfit, for whom he had scored 55 times in his previous three-year spell.

It was clear, therefore, that the Bhoys would never forgive Mo for this ultimate act of footballing treason; the main question was, however: would Gers supporters accept him after 116 years of following an almost exclusively all-Protestant club?

There were demonstrations, and some dyed-in-the-wool fans burned both their scarves and season tickets and vowed never to return to Ibrox.

But most Rangers fans decided to give Johnston a chance, and he repaid their faith by helping to deliver two championships and scoring 46 goals in 100 or so games — including, almost inevitably, an Old Firm winner against his former pals.

Speaking long after these events, Souness recalled the day he turned Scottish football upside down in 1989.

“There was an element of mischief in it,” he admitted. “I believed we were hurting Celtic by signing him. Every Rangers manager had said in the past that they’d sign a Catholic, but I meant it. I was married to a Catholic, my children were Catholics. Religion was never an issue with me.”

So good luck to Gabriel Kadiev and Zaur Sadev is all I can say - because it's the  bullies and bigots who deserve to be driven out of the club - for everyone's sake.