It seems to be practically every time Bisto FC are getting beaten that extra time is added on; and not just one or two minutes either. Yesterday's official added time was 5 minutes but most observers are saying that it was more than twice that. At full time Falkirk had won 2-1 but the man from Specsavers decided to keep the game going until Bisto FC had equalised. He was probably hoping they might get a third before he had to call a halt. There was probably a limit to how much time he could give them but the 11 minutes that were added on would make even Alex Ferguson blush. Falkirk were cheated, pure and simple.
And now it's been made plain that Falkirk can't even lodge (no pun intended) a complaint. Celtic merely asked for clarification and look how our authorities and media have responded. Effectively, nobody is allowed to raise any voice of complaint against the blatant cheating in the Scottish game. On the contrary, when the cheating doesn't go far enough to help the Ibrox team, as in 2008, our media will keep going on and on about it as if Rangers were the ones that were cheated! Corruption doesn't even begin to describe it.
Still on the subject of corruption and cheating, it seems we've all to accept that Meekings's handball was not deliberate, even though it's as plain as can be that it was. We even had Barry Ferguson, of all people, joining in, saying, "There is no way Meekings intended to stop that ball going into the back of the net." That is a complete lie and Ferguson and all the rest of them know it. Ferguson also has the customary dig at Celtic. "If it was another club they might have gone about it another way." That's right, Barry. If it had been your old club (unlikely as that seems) they'd have been straight onto a lawyer and into the courts, while our media would be demanding a replay. Don't give us your pish!
Ferguson saves the best for near the end of his wee tirade. "I’ve been involved in football for a long time and I’ve suffered bad decisions." Yes, we know that son. There was the time you deliberately handled the ball to set yourself up to score against Hearts. There was another time where you pushed a referee onto his arse and didn't even get spoken to. And then there was the time against Celtic where you stopped the ball with your hands in the area but no penalty was given since you were apparently 'protecting your face'. I wonder if anybody else would have got away with that one! Yes, you've had some bad decisions, but not many of them went against you!
Everybody seems to be caught up in the 'unfairness' of banning somebody retrospectively for a clear infringement, with intent, when there's video evidence that shows exactly what happened. If that's unfair, then how fair is it to ban somebody when there's no evidence whatsoever? Aleksandar Tonev was banned for a massive SEVEN games purely on the word of another player. The officials saw and heard nothing and there was no corroborating evidence at all. And yet the ban was upheld on appeal. A Show Racism the Red Card spokesperson said at the time that "this sends out a clear message to players and fans." It most certainly did. Accuse a Celtic player and everyone will believe you with no proof or witnesses to back you up. The Meekings affair has also sent out a 'clear massage': you can get away with cheating as long as it's against Celtic!
The furore in the press about this business has opened up some old wounds, with Jimmy Calderwood demanding an apology from Chris Sutton for what he said about Dunfermline in 2003. I was pleased to see that Sutton pretty much told him to piss off. He had nothing to apologise for. Remember when the new season started in August 2003? Celtic's first game was against Dunfermline at East End Park. Unlike in their last game of the previous season, the Pars played out of their socks to hold Celtic to a 0-0 draw. Everybody praised Calderwood's team for their tenacity. There wasn't much tenacity on display a few weeks later when Dunfermline went to Ibrox, where Calderwood's team was slaughtered 4-0. I remember thinking at the time that Calderwood owed Sutton an apology! He still does.
In politics there's a development happening in Scotland that should concern everybody. There are two organisations called 'Forward Together' and 'Scotland In Union' that are directing folk to vote tactically to keep out the SNP. The 'Forward Together' mob, which has nothing to do with the Church of Scotland group of the same name, is trying to get Labour supporters to vote Tory in one Perthshire constituency and vice-versa in another. 'Scotland In Union', meanwhile, looks to be the more insidious crew, run as it is by an ex-army captain. I always check at the bottom right-hand corner to see who 'likes' and 'follows' the blog. That gives you an idea of who's involved. It looks like 'Scotland In Union' is an unholy alliance of Tories, UKIPers and The Peeppul. God help us all!
And God help us too if one of the projected possible outcomes of the General Election actually comes to fruition. While folk in Ingurland are getting all hot and bothered at the prospect of the SNP holding the balance of power, Nigel Farage is promising to support a minority Tory government, along with the DUP. The dinosaur jockeys are already viewing this as probable and are actually canvassing on the basis of being involved in government in Westminster. They've already got a stable of tyrannosauri lined up so they can ride into Parliament in triumph.
Can you imagine those lunatics holding the whip hand at Westminster? God only knows what kinds of concessions they'd wring out of a Tory government depending on them. With their UKIP fellow-travellers also forcing the hand of the Tories we could easily end up with a racist, right-wing UK. The DUP also has a rather unhealthy obsession with one particular football team. Instead of just being at the mercy of the Scottish football authorities, we might find Celtic having the whole might of Westminster ranged against it! As I said, God help us!
Special edition SFA watch for use in Bisto FC matches.
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