No religion in Football!

"It's only a game!" or so we think. Politics and religion should NOT come into reckoning where football, and any other sport for that matter. But yesterday’s debacle at Hampden Park between bitter rivals Hearts and Celtic left a very bitter taste in a few mouths.

A minutes silence was to be held in memory of Pope John Paul II. This descended into a farce as Hearts fans booed and jeered as referee Stuart Dougal blew his whistle to mark the begining of the supposed minutes silence. 22 seconds later, Dougal gave up and blew the whistle once again which was met by a loud chorus of boo's from the large Celtic contingent.

Almost suddenly, the said large Celtic contingent, to a voice, blasted out the soldier song, whereas the Hearts supporters bellowed out the old "Hello Hello" ditty. This made for a very tense atmosphere between the two sets of supporters.

The aftermath on this very forum was something to behold. Celtic fans vigorously defending their Catholicism, and Hearts fans denying their involvement. Rangers fans, always on the wind up were aplenty with their own views which made for torrid reading to any onlooker. This goes to show that the bigotry problem in Scotland is as rife as ever. In my personal view, there is not an awful lot that ANYONE, let alone Jack McConnell can do about this situation. This is obviously not just a Celtic - Rangers problem. This is Scotland wide. Even the Hibs - Dundee United didn't get away with it, although to a much lesser extent, at their semi final on Saturday.

So to sum up, the death of a world religious leader is obviously a great blow to the followers of that particular faith, whereas the opposing 'faith' used this to make their voices heard, even though there was no point to make. Football and religion do not mix. Never will, and never should. In my opinion, the SFA's decision to hold a minutes silence was an own goal on their behalf, as there was no doubt in any football fans mind that this would have occurred. And it did. Hearts name has been dragged through the mud once again this season and if this is the SFA's idea of point scoring, then it's 1-0 SFA.