Once again, Scottish football has proved itself embarrassing, rotten to the core. Walter Smith, manager of Rangers FC, neatly summed it up after Sunday’s SPL encounter with Hibs: “Nobody in Scottish Football wants us to do well”. He was, of course, referring to Rangers’ hectic schedule that will see them entertain Motherwell on Wednesday at Ibrox, before Dundee United also make the trip to Govan on Saturday. Rangers had hoped for the latter of these matches to be postponed to give them a free week before their UEFA cup final against Russian outfit Zenit St Petersburg, who themselves have had 3 games postponed to aid them in the run up to their historic first European final at the City of Manchester Stadium. Zenit manager Dick Advocaat, himself once in the Ibrox hotseat, expressed sympathy with his opposite number Smith, claiming the Scottish authorities had “let him down”. The decision is made all the more incredible by the fact that Celtic’s run to the final of the same tournmanent in 2003 was aided by their game against Dundee being brought forward to give them a week to prepare. One wonders if the Bhoys were in Rangers position now, whether the SPL would be quite so un-accommodating. Dundee United also have much to answer for for rejecting Rangers’ request…although in reality every club in the country would probably have done the same….”NOBODY WANTS US TO DO WELL”…the words of Walter Smith certainly ring true as a savage indicement of the pettiness of Scottish football, an embarrassment to the country.
