Football, racism and prevarication

All it takes to make you feel less like you live in a leper colony is to watch European football and realise that problems of racism are not confined to Scotland or England.  I don’t know if many care in Hungary how their fans looked against England, going by the standard M.O. here, you suspect some will blame the media for highlighting that hoary old lie, the “tiny minority”.

The media and politicians certainly have a role in publicising racism, or covering it up, as has often been the case around these parts.  Memories of the 2011 League Cup Final stand out in particular, a moment when political affirmation of racist conduct pivoted behaviour in the stands that remains to this day.

This problem has touched every club but seldom been an issue for Celtic, you would literally need to go back decades.  When an incident happened in the 80s, fans took responsibility, which drew a clear line of what was acceptable, observed ever since.  Prevarication does not work as well.

Football is set to return to our stands and TVs this weekend.  We will see the results of prevarication.