Beautiful game with an ugly side

Published on Saturday 17 May 2008 19:38

A WEEK ago Scottish football was looking forward to a rare European treat. Even at 7pm on Wednesday, just 45 minutes before Rangers kicked off against Zenit St Petersburg in the Uefa Cup final, the stage seemed set for a memorable game played amid a carnival atmosphere in Manchester.

Many people have been blamed for the atrocious scenes that followed. Manchester City Council has rightly been held to account for – belatedly – laying out the welcome mat for Rangers fans without putting in place the basic infrastructure, especially toilets and working TV screens, to cope with as many as 200,000 of them. The preparedness and actions of the city's police are also called into question in these pages today by a senior officer from the Strathclyde force.

But only a fool would ignore the fact that the biggest villains in this disgraceful episode were those Rangers fans who went on the rampage when they could not see the game. Even if the local authorities handled the situation badly when they tried to herd the crowds away from the 'fan zones', there can be no excuse for the despicable, booze-fuelled thuggery of this minority of fans. Whether they came from Scotland, Northern Ireland or even England, they let down not just Rangers but the game of football.

Obviously, any individual proven to be involved must be punished to the full extent of the law. But the game needs to take a good, hard look at itself, and particularly at how it deals with the hard-core of morons who lurk in its fringes.