When even Jim Farry blocked a royal postponement

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25 years ago, Scotland were due to play a World Cup qualification game against Belarus on the day of Princess Diana’s funeral.  The SFA, then run by chief exec Jim Farry, the same man who was eventually removed from office for delaying Celtic’s registration of Jorge Cadete, decided the game should proceed as planned.

Whatever you think of Farry, he acted without concern for the royalist contingent.  Despite the SFA’s offices being vandalised and Scottish Secretary, Donald Dewer, applying political pressure, Farry dug in:   ”We have taken heed of the various viewpoints, but let’s be reasonable about this, life does and must go on.”

He did not act alone, the SFA International Committee were involved, and they included Celtic’s Jack McGinn, and the Greatest Football Administrator the world has ever known, Campbell Ogilvie!  This was a strange time in Britain, maybe the strangest few weeks of the last century.

Royalists were split between backers of the self-styled Queen of Hearts (honestly), and those in the minority, who sided with the actual Queen.  The Queen, a bit like Farry, held out as long as she could against the indulgent wallowing infecting millions, by resisting calls to lower flags to half-mast.

Before the end of the week, royal flags were lowered and the Scotland game was postponed.  Those of us who never took an interest in royalty were often heard saying “Let’s be reasonable about this”, but were largely ignored.

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740 Comments

  1. BRRB 11.36am

     

     

    Sunday should be your day of rest …

     

     

    Unless you & Leggy are still in mourning :-)

     

     

    Petec 11.28am

     

     

    Think wee Ben Doak was our only young striker of note, sadly breaking through at Celtic (especially) as a striker is a hard thing to achieve

  2. reading the room…

     

    just back from 5’s (well 6 v 6)

     

    10 tims, 2 blue noses

     

    10 folk def against the n korean style forced mourning…

  3. spikeysauldman on 11th September 2022 11:59 am

     

     

    reading the room…

     

     

    just back from 5’s (well 6 v 6)

     

     

    10 tims, 2 blue noses

     

     

    10 folk def against the korean style forced mourning…

     

     

    …………………………….

     

     

     

    Did you Jack McGinn?

     

     

    There are some awesome fitba players out there.

  4. Charles will be manipulated BIG TIME by those behind the DEVILs curtain……

     

    Never forget Satan is the biggest Coward on his given to by Our Lord & Saviour, Planet.

  5. Day 3 in the Cults induced mental health breakdown.

     

     

    Are we awfydoon yet?

     

    Feeling void for someone unknown?

     

    If so

     

     

    Give your head a wobble and grasp reality.

     

     

    KoreanCsc

  6. AN TEARMANN on 11TH SEPTEMBER 2022 12:26 PM

     

     

    Thanks for the link.

     

     

    Oh, and well done the Shamrock Rovers fans and Trevor Sinclair…

     

     

    F*** the Queen and her fascist regime.

  7. Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5.

     

     

    SEYTON `The queen, my lord, is dead.

     

     

    `MACBETH

     

     

    `She should have died hereafter;

     

    There would have been time for such a thing.

     

    Ideally Sunday

     

    So that we could have taken three points

     

    Against Livi

     

    And the Huns might have dropped some at Aberdeen.`

     

     

    I am not sure if I have remembered that scene completely accurately.

  8. Napoli game moved to Wednesday.No away fans allowed.” For sporting integrity” ?????????.

     

    No tickets for Naples return will be issued.

  9. Jackiemac 1.18pm

     

     

    Skybet showing the Huns game now Wednesday at 8pm

     

     

    Wtf … is that all about … maybe they stop mourning after Tuesday

  10. In case the Napoli fans don’t share the packed hordes idea of “Staunchness”.and don’t shed buckets of faux grief.

  11. I don’t understand the no away fans at either game. Loads of both sets of supporters will have booked flights etc 🤔

  12. Why are the police so “stretched” on Tuesday but ok on Wednesday ???

     

     

    If I was in the boardroom of Napoli I’d been saying game is on Tuesday if the Huns can’t play we get the 3pts

     

     

    Ciao

  13. The authorities are crapping themselves that the mins silence is disrupted, I see the the Celtic and Lpool fans are getting the blame for the cancellation of the weekend fixtures for the same reason

  14. Maybe because the travel agent used by the huns,made an absolute arse of trip to Amsterdam, and didn’t want any more grief

  15. Attention all subjects and slaves.

     

     

    Contrary to earlier reports HM The Queen isn’t dead, it was merely her holding company that died.

  16. A real nasty wan for Napoli fans.

     

     

    Newco will still get smashed.

     

     

    Its a token gesture and self centred. Like their existence.

  17. “Rangers’ Champions League match with Napoli has been put back 24 hours to Wednesday at 20:00 BST, Uefa has announced.

     

     

    Uefa said the rescheduling was “due to the severe limitations on police resources and organisational issues related to the ongoing events surrounding the national mourning for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II”.

     

     

    It added “away fans will not be authorised” at Wednesday’s match or Napoli’s home meeting with Rangers on 26 October.”

  18. The police are meant to be “stretched” on Tuesday but ok on Wednesday …

     

     

    Wonder how many police will be required to look after a couple of hundred Italians now with nowhere to go on Tuesday, am pretty sure the Italian fans will still travel if they have booked flights/accommodation ..

     

     

    Only the Huns could f up their own CL experience

     

     

    No away fans won’t change the fact their team is out of its depth

  19. Backslapping, arselicking, boak inducing pish all day and night

     

     

    And worse than that, the cortege is no comin’ through the hun hell hole that is Bo’ness!

     

     

    Shockin’ so it is!

     

     

    Oh an kin ye play GSTK again? It’s been at least 5 minutes since it was last on.

  20. HS- you know the huns will be up to something here….do they know next weekend’s games are off? Surely better getting another 24 hours rest?

  21. I was in Milton Keynes when Celtic smashed Aberdeen 5-0 at Pittodrie when Johnny Barnes was the dude Managing our Team.

     

     

    Ange has real Substance and is gonnae go on to do Great future things, IMO.