The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Archive for the ‘football’


The Old Billy Boys Club 179

Posted on September 01, 2018 by

While ploughing through hundreds of pages of hysterical drivel about Alex Salmond in the Scottish press this week, extra-alert readers may have also been aware of quite a stushie going on between the SNP-controlled Glasgow City Council (GCC) and a group of representatives and fans of Scotland’s newest professional football club The Rangers FC, such as Tory list MSP Adam “WATP” Tomkins (pictured below).

And it’s quite the alliance.

Read the rest of this entry →

Sliding-out doors 187

Posted on July 12, 2018 by

Most of Scottish Twitter has been enjoying itself greatly for the last few hours after England’s exit from the World Cup, but scattered in amongst the amusing memes has been a fair amount of angst about victors Croatia – a nation of 4 million people – being in the final when Scotland once again failed to qualify.

And while we’ll more than happily listen to any amount of criticism of the unbelievably incompetent, hapless clowns who’ve been in charge of the SFA/SPL/SPFL for the last several decades, that judgement is a bit harsh on the players and coaches and the nation as a whole. Because there really hasn’t been much in it.

Scotland’s qualification for World Cup 2018 hinged and ultimately faltered on a split second and a single badly-chosen pass in stoppage time.

That really is how close it was.

Read the rest of this entry →

Black-Is-White World 111

Posted on July 01, 2018 by

One of the uglier facets of opposition to the hugely-popular but now-repealed Offensive Behaviour (Football) Act was the 100% uniform stance against it in the Scottish press. Despite the Act being backed by a large majority of voters across every demographic and political divide, not one print or broadcast journalist ever stood up for the public.

The reason, of course, is that bigots (and lurid stories about them) are a large part of what keeps the Scottish media’s life support machine functioning, and so the media panders cynically to the extremist sections of the Celtic and “Rangers” support who still buy papers for the latest transfer gossip and soft-soap interviews with ex-players.

And so it is with a remarkably mad front-page lead in today’s Sunday Herald.

The paper reports that “over half” – 44 out of 86 – outstanding OBFA charges have been “converted” into other types of offences and are still being prosecuted by the independent Crown Office, claiming without explanation that this is “an embarrassing move for the SNP Government”.

But it rather seems like the opposite is true.

Read the rest of this entry →

The Stereotypes 151

Posted on July 01, 2018 by

Much of central Cowdenbeath was closed down for several hours by the police yesterday to facilitate an Orange Order parade attended by DUP leader Arlene Foster. (Curiously, Ruth Davidson, who’d been vocal in her complaints about traffic disruption in Glasgow due to the recent Yes march, had no objections this time.)

Foster made an audaciously ironic plea for a nation “free from intolerance and hatred, right before the next speaker stepped up to denounce large sections of the local population as “enemies of Christ”.

The rest of the parade took its usual form.

Read the rest of this entry →

Anatomy of an embarrassment 186

Posted on May 31, 2018 by

And no, we don’t even mean the FOUR spelling mistakes in this 42-word tweet.

We mean the bit that we’ve highlighted above in blue. Because what Scottish Labour’s lowest-watt bulb was gloating about earlier today was that Lord Bracadale concluded there’d been no gap created in the law by the Kelly-driven abolition of the OBFA.

And that’s… well, that’s not quite what Lord Bracadale said.

Read the rest of this entry →

A historic breakthrough 579

Posted on March 12, 2018 by

We could all do with some cheering up at the moment, so it’s with great pleasure that we can announce fantastic news for Scotland – the ancient plague of sectarianism has finally been defeated once and for all!

At least, we assume it MUST have been, because this week the Scottish Parliament is set to give its final assent – thanks to Labour, the Tories, the Liberal Democrats and the all-important Scottish Greens – to abolishing the Offensive Behaviour (Football) Act, against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the Scottish population.

And as we can plainly observe from events yesterday, they would only be doing that if sectarianism was no longer a problem and it was safe to send out an encouraging message to the bigots that their worldview is now acceptable in Scotland again.

Read the rest of this entry →

Friendly neighbourhood rival fans 135

Posted on December 28, 2017 by

Not too many surprises here. (Except, perhaps, the 18% of respondents who claimed to be football fans yet also said they had no interest in the World Cup.)

Excluding the disinterested the numbers were:

England 24%
England’s opponents 38%
Others 40%

And for people actually born in Scotland the figures came out at

England 20%
England’s opponents 41%
Others 39%

And that’s pretty much the natural order of things. If you’re a “Rangers” fan and you cheer for Celtic when they play (let’s not say “compete”) in the Champions League, or a Celtic fan who backed “Rangers” in the Petrofac Training Cup, you’re the weirdo.

The second-class licence fee 301

Posted on July 19, 2017 by

Today the BBC finally officially revealed what everyone already knew.

So now Scottish viewers definitely know where we stand.

Read the rest of this entry →

The Victim 452

Posted on July 16, 2017 by

Deep in the summer news desert, the papers today are struggling for material again. The Sunday Herald has a shock-horror front-page exposé about some photos from an Orange Lodge party that turn out to be from 2010 and 2013, while the Scottish Mail On Sunday reaches all the way back to 1940 to fill a couple of pages.

But the Sunday Mail’s timing is even weirder.

Read the rest of this entry →

Contempt undimmed 310

Posted on June 28, 2017 by

Last week the walking monotone drone that is James Kelly MSP lodged a motion (an inescapably appropriate term for his output, it must be said) at the Scottish Parliament instigating his private members’ bill to repeal the Offensive Behaviour (Football) Act, having announced his intention to do so in February after putting together a ludicrously bogus “consultation” on the subject last year.

As ever, Kelly trotted out a mixture of baseless assertions and flat-out lies about the Act in support of his move, because apparently the most pressing issue currently facing Scotland, in the view of Scottish Labour, is that bigoted thugs must once again be free to sing about being up to their knees in Fenian blood, or lionise murderous terrorists, at sporting events without fear of prosecution.

Read the rest of this entry →

Once in a lifetime 205

Posted on May 28, 2017 by

Tremendous news for the rest of Scotland’s football clubs as Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers promises never to win the treble unbeaten again, even if his side score more goals than the other team in all their matches.

That’s how it works, right?

Read the rest of this entry →

Once in a generation 124

Posted on May 27, 2017 by

…is roughly how often Aberdeen get to the final of the Scottish Cup these days. The last time was 17 years ago – a tournament which started in the last century and ended the year Rangers started paying their players with EBTs – when SFA rules meant that they had to play almost the entire game without a recognised goalkeeper.

(A tackle in the third minute broke veteran custodian Jim Leighton’s jaw, and because you were only allowed three players on the subs bench the Dons had no backup No.1 and had to put striker Robbie Winters between the sticks, with a predictable outcome. Leighton never played professional football again.)

In politics, Labour were only one year into the first ever administration of the modern Scottish Parliament, and still in the first term of Tony Blair’s rule at Westminster. The idea of the SNP winning an election, let alone holding an independence referendum, was the preserve of mad fantasists.

And the last time the Pittodrie side actually won the trophy was 27 years back, which is so long ago that most of Hampden was still open to the elements.

Still, it would be weird if we got to the final again next year and some of the Aberdeen support refused to go on the grounds that the matter of who was the best cup football team in Scotland had been settled forever today.

Or if Celtic won but had fielded an ineligible player and the SFA ordered a replay, but the Dons declined to take part because they’d played too many finals recently.

Just saying.

#COYR

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,778 Posts, 1,220,167 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Captain Caveman on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Heh! Gone “fishing” have we YL? About the only thing you’ll catch (in your piss-stained shoes) is an empty bottle…Jun 18, 07:55
    • Hatey McHateface on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: ““Is it my imagination or is our coloniser becoming bolder in its shameless extraction of Scotland’s wealth?” Every night before…Jun 18, 07:36
    • Hatey McHateface on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Whats this then? Three lengthy posts from NC, all of them written in the King’s English? Isn’t that the language…Jun 18, 07:28
    • Northcode on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “A little, hopefully informative and not overly didactic, light-hearted diversion. Aristotle is one of my favourite ancients and was a…Jun 18, 06:25
    • Northcode on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “The only plans they’re concerned with are their pension plans. And the only future they’ll be shaping will be the…Jun 18, 06:07
    • Northcode on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Great news! It turns out I was feeling a wee bit sensitive the other day and just needed some me…Jun 18, 05:40
    • Young Lochinvar on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Fred Flintstone aka (so called Captain Caveman) at 8.26am with a p1sh English beer hangover! Good morning jaikie!! Just up…Jun 18, 05:00
    • GM on Holiday Relief: “I PDF’ed most of his articles in the period after Iain died. I go back to them from time to…Jun 17, 23:46
    • crazycat on Holiday Relief: “The legislation only applies to England and Wales. It always used to be SNP policy not to vote in cases…Jun 17, 23:12
    • Insider on Holiday Relief: “agent x…… Well, we must all wait with bated breath to see what “post colonialism” tells us ! It will…Jun 17, 22:45
    • Towbar Sullivan on Holiday Relief: “This vote on Abortion – did the SNP go AWOL? There’s no record of them voting at all. WTF? https://votes.parliament.uk/votes/commons/division/2058Jun 17, 22:35
    • George Ferguson on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “@James 9:56pm Welcome to the World of lost deposits. I was a member of the SNP and Alba. I thought…Jun 17, 22:35
    • Scot Finlayson on Holiday Relief: “What is wrong with this British Labour government, Starving kids, freezing pensioners, allowing the mass rape of young girls, assisted…Jun 17, 22:23
    • James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Voting for me? Dunno what planet you’re on, George. I ditched my membership in 2018 when the missing money/Salmond stitch…Jun 17, 21:56
    • George Ferguson on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “@James An SNP thug. Nuf said. When you come up with intelligent policies I will start voting for you again.…Jun 17, 21:20
    • James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Ah. Freeport Forbes supporter eh? ‘nuf said.Jun 17, 20:58
    • George Ferguson on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “@James 8:26pm According to Grok I am an Architect from Bristol. Of course I think freeports is an opportunity just…Jun 17, 20:51
    • sarah on Holiday Relief: “Reading some of Iain Lawson’s blog articles today showed what quality of thinking and personality is missing from the SNP.…Jun 17, 20:32
    • James on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “Are you the same George Ferguson who bigs up Freeports?Jun 17, 20:26
    • agent x on Holiday Relief: “How much has the Scotland 2050 thing cost and who is paying for it?Jun 17, 20:17
    • George Ferguson on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “@Hatey McHateface 7:25pm And the tradegy is my wife was friendly with the Murkle cluster. Not long married I represented…Jun 17, 19:59
    • agent x on Holiday Relief: ““Orkney Islands Council has accepted it must remain part of the UK – after spending two years exploring opportunities for…Jun 17, 19:52
    • Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: ““preferred the presenter to be a bit more serious” Hmmm. Not with a name like Randy Credico. That handle will…Jun 17, 19:46
    • Chas on Holiday Relief: “783 times. I confess, I may have missed a few as I am not on here every day. Most people…Jun 17, 19:37
    • Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Wouldn’t a truly representative Scottish Citizen’s Convention reflect Scottish society at large – 52% opposed to Indy? That being the…Jun 17, 19:30
    • Hatey McHateface on Let’s Not Make Some Plans: “James will still be able to grasp his chipolata in the dark. That’s all that matters to him.Jun 17, 19:25
    • Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Nah. It’s them that’s supposed to laugh at you. You’ll never reach Step 3 if you’re doing Step 2 all…Jun 17, 19:20
    • sarah on Holiday Relief: “Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp talking a lot of sense in an email this evening. He says that SNP need to refocus on…Jun 17, 19:11
    • agent x on Holiday Relief: “I don’t think that Swinney’s I have a dream speech will knock Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s speech off top…Jun 17, 18:36
    • Young Lochinvar on Holiday Relief: “Indeed, or that of sneaky Pete and the 600 grand?Jun 17, 18:25
  • A tall tale



↑ Top