By Stewart Weir
Saturday
On most Saturdays, Soccer AM is our breakfast show of choice. Actually, it’s my choice and everyone else conforms.
In the aftermath of the Old Firm debacle, there have been interviews galore on the matter. One featured on Sky Sports News, with assistant chief constable Campbell Corrigan of Strathclyde Police giving his take on things.
You can almost hear the words of some wee camera bod saying “Oh, it will be fine.” Except it wasn’t, as you can see.
Great IT skills in evidence. More worrying is that someone, somewhere, promoted this chap to this position…
![hendry1]( "hendry1")
There but for the grace of God and all that. Oh, and certain web editors need not apply…
Monday
Over the weekend you may have missed the momentous decisions taken by IFAB, the International Football Association Board, when they had their annual get-together in Wales, with the deep-thinking Sepp Blatter in attendance.
Firstly, snoods – a fashion accessory no footballing would-be can be seen without in this chilly “mind yir wee chest out there” weather – have been banned for next year.
“The IFAB agreed that in relation to Law 4 – Players’ Equipment, the wearing of snoods should not be permitted,” said football’s law-makers.
The second big decision was that goal-line technology won’t be tested for at least another year.
I’ve got it wrong over the years. The F in FA obviously stands for Fashion, not Football. Unless FA begins in F and ends in All…
Tuesday
The Old Firm shame summit meets at St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh, where the outcome is to censure both Celtic and Rangers (in alphabetical order) or Rangers and Celtic (in order of red cards and championships) sufficiently harshly that there is every chance we could have a re-run of this momentous knuckle-rapping exercise some ten or 20 years from now.
Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond stated it would be “a council of despair” if matches had to be played behind closed doors at any time in the future, one of the possible measures considered to tackle public disorder in and around the Glasgow derby.
“That would be acknowledgement that this problem cannot be tackled, cannot be defeated, cannot be overcome,” said the first minister.
Now, if the polis think they’ve got bother knowing where 50,000 or 60,000 are going to be for three hours of an afternoon, they might find their resources slightly stretched if that horde was running wild while an Old Firm game was being played only for a TV or radio audience.
Was calling in UN forces an option in these discussions? Of course not – they wear blue helmets. Conspiracy!
Wednesday
Having used his bus pass to get there and a free-entrance ticket to Exeter racecourse to enjoy a day’s at the horses, Steve Whiteley ended the day £1.45 million richer after his £2 Tote jackpot accumulator came romping home.
The final winner was a 12–1 shot called Lupita, whose jockey Jessica Lodge, I was interested to read, had never come first despite having had 28 rides previously. Make of that what you will.
Thursday
While you can argue who is the best fighter of a generation, or of a nation, or pound-for-pound, debate about where people rank over the generations is more difficult.
So trainer Billy Nelson’s suggestion that his fighter, Ricky Burns, will soon become renowned as Scotland’s greatest-ever boxer was sure to spark a heated debate.
Better than Benny Lynch, Ken Buchanan and Jim Watt? Better than Jackie Paterson, Walter McGowan or Paul Weir? Enough to start a fight in an empty house. Something another former world champion, Scott Harrison, possibly could do.
Burns’ manager Alex Morrison quickly distanced himself from Nelson’s comments. “Billy Nelson has done a terrific job with Ricky and has improved him to different levels,” Morrison said. “But he should remember that is where his role ends and let Ricky do his talking in the ring.
“He does not need pressure like this put upon him. My ambition for Ricky is that he leaves the ring like Jim Watt did, with his health, money, popularity and looks intact.”
Sadly, something Scott Harrison hasn’t managed. For boxers, sometimes their biggest battles are away from the ring.
Friday
Rangers return home with a scoreless draw against PSV Eindhoven in the bag. The Gers had won there in 1978, and did the same again in 1999, when Jörg Albertz blasted them to a Champions League victory, a game I witnessed.
On the way out of the stadium that night, I was intrigued by one auld fella saying that was three times he’d been in Eindhoven and won.
I could only count two, so I asked when the other contest had been.
“1945, son…”.
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And Saturday ends in front of the box. Oh, the exciting life I lead. Now, I don’t know the viewer demographics for the late-evening new bulletin on BBC1, but I think “Aunty” believes it is watched only by Usain Bolt, cats, and the odd Time Lord with the Tardis already warmed up. They used to say: “Match of the Day follows (except for viewers in Scotland, who can watch The Beechgrove Garden), so if you don’t want to know the scores, look away now.” But last weekend, Sean Fletcher’s preamble went something like: “Match of the Day follows so if you don’t want to know the scores time to leave the room Arsenal drew with Sunderland nil–nil…”. Maybe the Beeb thinks that while we may shop for our TVs at Comet, Currys or Rediffusion, we buy our furniture from Martin-Baker, manufacturers of ejector seats … Sunday More than a decade ago, I was hiring staff for a big, new, shiny online adventure. Remember, this was 2000. So the wording for the advert read along these lines: “Now if you know your sport, and can spot the difference between Stephen and Colin Hendry…”. Both leaders in their field, both blond, both Scots, both well-known. A natural question to ask. So imagine my surprise, and mirth, when I came across this offering from the web version of the Sunday Express, and what it was eventually changed to after a day or so:
There but for the grace of God and all that. Oh, and certain web editors need not apply…
Monday
Over the weekend you may have missed the momentous decisions taken by IFAB, the International Football Association Board, when they had their annual get-together in Wales, with the deep-thinking Sepp Blatter in attendance.
Firstly, snoods – a fashion accessory no footballing would-be can be seen without in this chilly “mind yir wee chest out there” weather – have been banned for next year.
“The IFAB agreed that in relation to Law 4 – Players’ Equipment, the wearing of snoods should not be permitted,” said football’s law-makers.
The second big decision was that goal-line technology won’t be tested for at least another year.
I’ve got it wrong over the years. The F in FA obviously stands for Fashion, not Football. Unless FA begins in F and ends in All…
Tuesday
The Old Firm shame summit meets at St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh, where the outcome is to censure both Celtic and Rangers (in alphabetical order) or Rangers and Celtic (in order of red cards and championships) sufficiently harshly that there is every chance we could have a re-run of this momentous knuckle-rapping exercise some ten or 20 years from now.
Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond stated it would be “a council of despair” if matches had to be played behind closed doors at any time in the future, one of the possible measures considered to tackle public disorder in and around the Glasgow derby.
“That would be acknowledgement that this problem cannot be tackled, cannot be defeated, cannot be overcome,” said the first minister.
Now, if the polis think they’ve got bother knowing where 50,000 or 60,000 are going to be for three hours of an afternoon, they might find their resources slightly stretched if that horde was running wild while an Old Firm game was being played only for a TV or radio audience.
Was calling in UN forces an option in these discussions? Of course not – they wear blue helmets. Conspiracy!
Wednesday
Having used his bus pass to get there and a free-entrance ticket to Exeter racecourse to enjoy a day’s at the horses, Steve Whiteley ended the day £1.45 million richer after his £2 Tote jackpot accumulator came romping home.
The final winner was a 12–1 shot called Lupita, whose jockey Jessica Lodge, I was interested to read, had never come first despite having had 28 rides previously. Make of that what you will.
Thursday
While you can argue who is the best fighter of a generation, or of a nation, or pound-for-pound, debate about where people rank over the generations is more difficult.
So trainer Billy Nelson’s suggestion that his fighter, Ricky Burns, will soon become renowned as Scotland’s greatest-ever boxer was sure to spark a heated debate.
Better than Benny Lynch, Ken Buchanan and Jim Watt? Better than Jackie Paterson, Walter McGowan or Paul Weir? Enough to start a fight in an empty house. Something another former world champion, Scott Harrison, possibly could do.
Burns’ manager Alex Morrison quickly distanced himself from Nelson’s comments. “Billy Nelson has done a terrific job with Ricky and has improved him to different levels,” Morrison said. “But he should remember that is where his role ends and let Ricky do his talking in the ring.
“He does not need pressure like this put upon him. My ambition for Ricky is that he leaves the ring like Jim Watt did, with his health, money, popularity and looks intact.”
Sadly, something Scott Harrison hasn’t managed. For boxers, sometimes their biggest battles are away from the ring.
Friday
Rangers return home with a scoreless draw against PSV Eindhoven in the bag. The Gers had won there in 1978, and did the same again in 1999, when Jörg Albertz blasted them to a Champions League victory, a game I witnessed.
On the way out of the stadium that night, I was intrigued by one auld fella saying that was three times he’d been in Eindhoven and won.
I could only count two, so I asked when the other contest had been.
“1945, son…”.
Donate to us: support independent, intelligent, in-depth Scottish journalism from just 3p a day
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