Act before it’s too late

The campaign of hatred and abuse directed at Neil Lennon needs to be swiftly stamped out before an ugly situation becomes a deadly one.

Over the past few years, first as a player for Celtic and now as manager, he has grown into a figure of hatred the likes of which I don’t think we have seen before in football.

The first evidence of the depth of ill feeling towards him was seen back in 2008 when two men attacked him in the street. But it is over the past few months that it has started to escalate into something truly scary.

Apart from numerous death threats there have been live bullets sent to him by post and, most disturbingly, he was one of the intended recipients of three letter bombs that were recently intercepted by police.

There was even a firearms incident at Celtic’s training ground last week with several people arrested at the scene. And you can be pretty sure they weren’t there to intimidate the kitman or scare away the crows.

Then, last Wednesday night, during Celtic’s away match with Hearts, Lennon was assaulted by a supporter as he stood on the touchline. (Please note I use the word supporter in the loosest possible sense. An individual who has slipped back down the evolutionary ladder would be a more accurate description.)

And the main reason for this astonishing campaign of hatred: Lennon is a Catholic.

Admittedly, the Celtic boss is opinionated, stubborn and – publicly at least – the sort of person who could start an argument on his own in a phone box. Throughout his career he has been a controversial figure. He was, for example, forced to retire from playing for Northern Ireland after receiving death threats way back in 2002.

But the fact remains that he is now being subjected to a terror campaign on the basis of his religious beliefs.

And that is an incredibly sad situation for Scotland as a country, Lennon in particular, and football as a whole.

To me, religious persecution is something we should be reading about in the history books, not the newspapers.

It makes you wonder what is going through the minds of the people sending these threats, bullets and bombs. Lennon, love him or loathe him, and apparently there are plenty in both camps, surely doesn’t deserve this level of intimidation.

What would have happened if one of those letter bombs had made it through to his house and Lennon had opened it? Or what if the idiot at the Hearts match had had a knife or blade in his hand?

Would we be sitting here talking about the most public football murder since Andrés Escobar was shot for scoring an own goal during the World Cup?

Is that what Scottish football wants on its conscience?

As it is now, Lennon and his family live under round-the-clock security and they even have a panic button in their house. Is that a reasonable state of affairs for a football manager in the 21st century? But what choice do they have, especially with a young daughter who might have opened that letter bomb herself.

Sectarian rivalry has long existed in Scotland, and nowhere has it been more evident over the years than between the Old Firm rivals of Rangers and Celtic.

But I did, somewhat naively as it turns out, think it was gradually starting to fade away. Yet this Lennon situation shows that is simply not the case.

What I don’t understand, however, is why Lennon in particular has become the focal point of such passionate hatred and how it has spread so widely? Wasn’t Martin O’ Neill a Catholic too?

The Scottish Football Association, Premier League, government and even Rangers have condemned the fan attack and it seems like serious efforts to clean up the Scottish game will now be taken.

However, why did it take the authorities until Wednesday to realise serious trouble was brewing? I mean, surely the letter bombs were evidence enough that things were spiralling dangerously out of control.

The other thing I find quite remarkable is that Lennon has not yet walked away. I’m reasonably confident he doesn’t need the money and absolutely certain he doesn’t need the fear. Surely he must be more worried about his and his family’s safety than managing a football team

Is it down to pure defiance in the face of adversity? Is he simply refusing to let the moronic minority win?

Only a few weeks ago in this column I was passionately defending Scottish football fans against claims of racism. But sectarianism is just as bad an offence, if not a worse one.

The expression suggests you should never mix sport and politics. You can add religion to the equation too.

Fifa’s new low

Just when they thought things had calmed down, Fifa is once again at the centre of accusations of bribery and corruption.

During a parliamentary hearing on England’s failed 2018 World Cup bid, former Football Association chairman Lord Triesman claimed that no less than four of the people on Fifa’s executive committee asked for ‘something in return’ for supporting England’s bid.

Triesman claims the things requested ranged from investment in football infrastructure, to television rights to popular games. All of which, if true, would be completely outside Fifa’s code of ethics.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has promised to investigate the claims and has asked for evidence of the claims to be given to body that rules world football. Which is now on its way to them.

I am not going to jump the gun here and say all four of those men are guilty. They may or may not be, and further investigations will be needed before we can say one way or another.

But what I will say is that this latest series of allegations further tarnishes the already damaged reputation of Fifa. And it makes the shadows that have been cast over the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups longer and darker.

Even if there is actually no corruption at all within the organisation – and that’s as likely as there not being any hair products in David Beckham’s bathroom – the wider public have lost faith in the people who run football.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again. The only way that faith is going to be restored is by a complete overhaul of Fifa and its voting processes.

With so much power in the hands of so few men on the executive committee, and the fact that they can vote in secrecy, there is no way Fifa can do anything to restore faith if it maintains the current set-up.

I’ve never made any secret of my lack of admiration for Blatter but I will tell him this: you want another term in charge of the beautiful game? Then campaign on the basis that you admit there are problems and that you plan to sort them out. In other words, pull your head out of the sand.

After all, these problems have all come to the surface while Blatter has been at the helm. And to the average member of the public that can mean only one of two things: he is in on the deals himself or is oblivious to what is going on around him. Neither of which is acceptable.

If he is not prepared to admit Fifa has a problem and set out to fix it, then he should stand aside and let someone else take over. Someone who is not afraid to ruffle a few feathers and restore some credibility to an organisation that is down to its last few shreds.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com