Glenn Gibbons: Plenty of ins and outs in the Hall of Fame debate

ONE of the more rewarding consequences of membership of the judges’ panel of the Scottish Football Hall of Fame is the debate stimulated by the annual induction process and the inevitable series of challenges to the selectors’ inclusions and exclusions.

Certain submissions by fans, however, merit examination and discussion because they often raise points that demand respect and, in some cases, clarification.

One internet poster, for instance, expressed his dismay with the view that, since Halls of Fame are an American concept, “I do wish the SFA would adopt North American practices, whereby nobody can be inducted until they have been retired five years”.

The first weakness in this otherwise seemingly reasonable argument is that the HoF is not an SFA project, but comes under the umbrella of the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park.

Given the difference in scale between Scotland and the United States, too, it is hardly a case of comparing like with like. The number of exceptional athletes produced by the various sports from one generation to the next in America is a luxury that has been on the wane in this country’s national game for at least the past decade.

Another complaint involved omissions, with the claim that Celtic’s European Cup-winning side should be included en bloc (“they won as a team”) as should the so-far unrecognised participants in Rangers’ Cup Winners Cup triumph in Barcelona, Aberdeen’s heroes in the same event in Gothenburg and Scotland’s Wembley Wizards of 1928.

Extending that particular argument to the US, there would be a case for insisting that the peerless quarterback, Joe Montana, should have been accompanied into the Pro Football Hall of Fame by the 60-odd other players who made up the San Francisco roster on each of the four occasions on which Joe Cool led the 49ers to Super Bowl success.