Scottish journalist Alan Pattullo has claimed that Rangers and Celtic should be “embarrassed” by their conduct amid the domestic league shutdown and global pandemic.
The columnist took to the Scotsman to berate the Old Firm duo after the Champions League participants from the German Bundesliga created a fighting fund for the rest of Germany.
Referencing the fact Bayern bailed out great rivals Dortmund back in 2003, Pattullo has called for a greater sense of community in Scottish football.
“It is hoped those in charge of clubs such as Rangers and Celtic might have the good grace to feel slightly embarrassed upon reading these words [Uli Hoeness on Dortmund] having presumably already banked the cheques received from the SPFL earlier this week,” said Pattullo.
“There has been little from either of them or any top-flight club in Scotland regarding the greater good.
“Of course, they have needs too. And compared to Germany for example, there is simply not the same level of funding to hand in Scottish football.
“But we must also accept there is something far wrong in our game when earlier this week our top three clubs, including third-placed Motherwell, received an early handout totalling almost £400,000 each from the SPFL.
“League 2 clubs’ share of the pot, meanwhile, was only £1,350. Barely enough to pay for floodlight bulbs they may be about to turn off for good.”
The stinging column may have been produced with the best intentions but Rangers fans will be quick to point out the reaction of fellow clubs in the wake of 2012.
Many were desperate to dance on the grave of Rangers, gluttonously unsympathetic to the supporters who bore the brunt of the financial mismanagement of previous Ibrox regimes.
Whilst the prospect of a Germany-like footballing community appears a nice one, it is about as realistic as Rangers and Celtic fans agreeing to let bygones be bygones.
Yes, many other clubs could be helped by the financial muscle of potentially Rangers and almost definitely Celtic, but many Rangers fans will spare the sympathy shtick.
The events of 2012 are almost certainly not long enough ago to have been forgotten and whilst rival clubs have no responsibility for what happened at Ibrox, they do for how they reacted.
Rangers could take a moral high-ground, hell, the club may well be willing to.
But spare us the notion that if this was Rangers going to the wall – which they may well be threatened with if football doesn’t restart – rival clubs wouldn’t react the same away all over again.
Perhaps therein lies the problem.
