I’m certain that there’s abundant untold story behind Craig Whyte’s entrance to Rangers FC and how he came to own the club. While in place he got the initial backing which a football support will extent to components of their club. Whyte played on this faith and peoples hope and used this misplaced confidence to buy himself time.
Hindsight shows Whyte to be one of the worst things to ever happen to Rangers. I don’t know one Rangers supporter happy with how he went about things, some of the stunts he pulled and how he was ultimately able to cut and ran without a scratch on his metaphorical person. The unfortunate thing is that he was part of our club.
Whyte played his role in what may have been an inevitable implosion but many think he made it a lot worse than it needed to be. I for one consider the 5 years spent walking around the wilderness to be sufficient atonement for our owner’s mismanagement and in a footballing context it can be considered a very, very harsh sentence. No-one wanted it, no one asked for it but Ranger’s fans now own and accept that chapter in our history. It happened. He wasn’t one of us, he put self-interest and interests of others before that of the club, he didn’t act in any way befitting an owner of Rangers but it was allowed to happen and he did what he did.
At the time we were told to accept and be contrite about Whyte’s actions. And many commentators told us the club and support had to pay for his crimes because that’s just how it is.
It was known long before the recent (and ongoing and soon to be ongoing) trials that Celtic FC were not separate and distinct from Celtic Boys Club. The charges against Torbett, Cairney and King and the information and testimony in the public domain relating to events leaves it in no doubt that Celtic FC were very much involved in and also directed and managed what went on at Celtic Boys Club.
In effect, Celtic Boys Club were part of Celtic FC and resources, personnel, buildings and funds were shared between the two.
It is not point-scoring to be appalled by it or to want to see justice served. Or to prefer that any of this stuff never happened or prefer that Celtic FC had acted properly, nipped it in the bud and minimised the unfortunate, life-wrecking effects of this. But it did. It is normal and decent to push for justice and closure – the same cannot be said of those that shut down those fair calls. It happened at Celtic FC and a paedophile ring was allowed to develop and run for a long, long time. It is understandably that it could be an awkward subject to broach for those involved, particularly when there’s a hierarchy involved, with many reputable and formidable characters at the top, and at a place that trades in the hopes and dreams of aspiring footballers. But the duty of care was failed by many, many people. Not the kids, there can be no blame there, but by the adults. And somehow a tribal omerta was set around the whole thing. Partly by the predators to protect their enterprise and partly by Celtic FC and their support to deny their accountability and responsibility, as though somehow pretending it never happened would actually make that so, to somehow dissociated their shame from the club they invest time and hopes in.
And that’s the crux. It shouldn’t have happened. But it did. It should’ve been stopped sooner. And the club set its stall out early to pretend it never happened (possibly an exchange of tactics advised by the then besieged Catholic Church). Today that stance has morphed into a cold, calculating legal separation of corporate entities. Purely business. To deny the crimes, to deny the cover-up and most importantly for Celtic FC to deny their part in it.
But here is what people know and people are angry about. Crimes were committed and crimes were and are still being covered up. Justice must be served against the individuals, first and foremost, but also against the structure which enabled it and it was very much part of. Unfortunately for its fans that means the football club – Celtic FC. The club must own its crimes.
Upping the output 