SFA MUST FIND THE LEAK

ONE thing we have learned from the Dougie McDonald investigation is that in matters relating to Celtic the Scottish Football Association appears to be as watertight as the Titanic.

And that is the something which new and already beleaguered chief executive Stewart Regan must now address.

Regan must ask some hard questions following the leaking of referee observer Jim McBurney's report on Dougie McDonald's handling of the Dundee United-Celtic game in general, and the penalty U-turn incident in particular.

It is believed the report McBurney delivered to the SFA first leaked into the public domain through a website which many journalists believe has impeccable sources within Parkhead.

No harm to the website. Finding things out is its job. And increasingly it is on the web, as opposed to the traditional form of the old inky business, where information is to be found.

And no harm either to the newspapers and television stations who pounced on the revelations and passed them on to their readers. Or to the reporters who won't highlight the fact that somewhere there is a whistleblower. That would be a bit like cutting off their nose to spite their face.

But there is another pertinent question to be asked. It is, why was there no such leak regarding the indentity of the retired referee, ex player and former manager who recently sat on judgement on Allan McGregor?

The answer must surely lie in the indentity and motives of the whistleblower. Any study of people who leak, and there have been many within politics and the civil service, shows they blow the whistle on things with which they do not argree.

Now, regular readers who know  I have called for greater transparency in the way the SFA goes about its business, may claim my views show a lack of consistency. They would be wrong.

My complaint about the way the McGregor affair was handled was the fact that those who sat on judgement on McGregor were cloaked in secrecy.

Against that, those who debated and decided on the issue involving McDonald and his change of mind at Tannadice, were named.

But, while justice must be seen to be done, there must also be a degree of confidentiality in  day-to-day dealings within the SFA.

Referees, on seeing McBurney's report splashed all over the place, will now be more careful what they say to an observer. Indeed they may not wish to enter into any discussion with an observer in the immediate aftermath of a game.

And observers themselves will now worry if anything contained in their report finds its way onto a website and then into the press, should it suit the agenda of a whistleblower.

This will make life harder for referees and their assistants, for the observers, and for the head of the refereeing department, Hugh Dallas. It will also make it more difficult to get at the truth.

New SFA chief executive Regan therefore has a job on his hands to restore confidence in the system within an organisation which many now believe seems to have never heard of the old saying about sauce for the goose being sauce for the gander.

He went some way towards that by stating clearly  there is no institutional bias against Celtic within the Scottish Football Association, and the fact he had to make such a statement is itself a sad indictment of where we are.

Regan also made it clear  there will be no SFA probe into Celtic's latest complaint - the one involving the penalty Willie Collum awarded to Rangers at Parkhead.

One thing though which has been lost in the hysteria which has surrounded this sad, sorry, and a times sordid, little tale, is that when McDonald initially claimed he overturned his decision on the advice of assistant, Steven Craven, he was doing so for the best of motives.

Regan made it clear that McDonald knew that if he changed his mind over the penalty award, he would be marked down by the observer, and he had no wish for Craven to suffer a similar fate. In that he showed loyalty to a colleague, and in doing so put himself in the firing line.

There was also the pointed remark from Regan about other matters being involved in Craven's resignation, and that the SFA are looking at those other matters in an internal discussion.

Regan must be hoping that whenever those talks take place, whatever is said in confidence, behind closed, doors, does not become the latest leak to hole the SFA below the waterline.

SCOTLAND SHOULD BACK ENGLAND

IF there is anyone out there who wants  England's bid to stage the 2018 World Cup to fail, it's time they took a hard look in the mirror and had a long talk with themselves.

Of course I am well aware that Scotland harbours many who suffer from a blind hatred of England and all things English.

Just as I am equally aware that, while enjoying a wind up with our British cousins, there are even more Scots who feel affection for them.

However, neither emotion should play a part in Scots giving their full backing for England to stage the 2018 tournament. What should be the over-riding factor is fairness.

For a start, by the time the next but one World Cup comes around, it will have been 52 years since the only time the tournament was hosted there.

In that time it has been staged twice in Germany and twice in Mexico, with Spain, Italy and France the other European countries to have hosted it.

It has even been held in America, where they think it's a wee lassies' game, and where they call it soccer, though the Yanks are bidding to put on the World Cup razzmatazz for the second time.

So the time is now right - maybe even overdue - for FIFA and Sepp Blatter to ensure that there is no hint of backroom political wheeling and dealing, and that open honest fairness is the order of the day.

My belief if that if Scotland joined in, in helping the English bid in an equally open way, it would show a generosity of spirit which would help England and, at the same time, enhance this country's reputation.

So let's see first minister Alex Salmond step up and proclaim that, as a patriotic Scot, he wants our nearest and best neighbour to win the race to host the Word Cup in 2018.

And let us also hear the same from Scottish Football Association president, George Peat.

It would also be helpful if other leading figures within Scottish football joined a Scotland-is-backing-the-England-bid campaign.

Rangers chairman, Alastair Johnston should speak out, while his counterpart at Celtic, former Defence Secretary in a British Government, John  Reid's voice would be powerful, and possibly influential too, given his status within the Establishment.

But most of all let us hear from the Tartan Army and their two often quoted spokesmen Hamish Husband and Tam Ferry.

They are both keen to prattle on about the Tartan Army at other times, so let us hear from them now. For it is time for old antagonisms to be put aside. The Tartan Army could even enhance its reputation by being all grown up about this issue.

Of course it would be lovely if we in Scotland could stage a amajor tournanment, but the size of our wee country makes the World Cup an impossible dream.

However, if England succeeds, there are benefits for Scottish football, and for the tourist industry north of the border.

Some of the nations taking part might seek to base themselves within easy reach of Celtic's Lennoxtown and Rangers's Murray Park, and use their training facilities.

Hibs and Hearts could also see their revenue boosted during the cash-flow dry summer months as it is a sound bet there are counties who would chose the Edinburgh area as a good base.

And, with the compact nature of Britian, many of the hundreds of thousands of supporters who would flock to the tourney from all over the world, would be sure to want to make a visit to Scotland a part of their World Cup experience.

It makes sense financially And it makes sense morally too.

There are plenty of Scots - Hollyrood justice secretary Kenny MacAskgill at their forefront - who seek to portray the Scottish people as morally superior.

A sort of political slant to the old drunk man's   "Wha's Like Us? toast, if you like.

Now the opportunity is here for all Scots to show just what kind of moral fibre they are made of. To put aside the oldest football rivalry in the international game and to do what is right.

It may even prove to old cynics such as this observer, that Scotland - and not just in a football sense - has at last grown up.

THAT PENALTY EXPLAINED

WHAT has puzzled me since Rangers won the Old Firm game, is the continuing row about why referee Willie Collum awarded a penalty.

There have been numerous versions put forward as to why Collum pointed to the spot, and just as many as to why he should never have made the decision.

But the one which takes the biscuit, and which is going the rounds in Celtic circles, is that Collum should not have given a penalty because he did not see any offence to lead him to that decision.

It is a preposterous notion that any referee would ever give a decision based on something he did not see, and here are many instances of an official saying that he could not give a free kick because, from the position he was in when the incident happened, he could not see it.

A referee cannot give what he does not see. It is a clear cut and simple as that.

So what was it that Collum saw which led him to believe Rangers deserved a penalty when Kirk Broadfoot flew threw the air inside the box with Daniel Majstorovic in close attendance?

Well, the evidence is out there, and if anyone choses to view the clip of the incident with  eyes and mind open they will see what Collum saw when he turned back towards the two players.

To start with the ref had attempted to get out of the way of the ball and, in doing so, turned his back on where the ball broke to, which was into the path of Broadfoot, with Majstorovic shaping to make a challenge.

By the time Collum's eyes were back on the ball, so to speak, what he saw was Broadfoot in mid-air with both of Majstorovic's hands planted smack bang in the the middle of the Rangers man's chest.

Therefore it was reasonable for the referee to spot that as an offence and act accordingly.

Much has been made of the way the Celtic defender made efforts to pull out of any challenge, and much has also been made of allegations of Broadfoot diving. The clips of the incident provide pros and cons for both shades of opinion.

But what those clips clearly show - with no shades of grey - is that the Celtic man placed his hands on the chest of the Rangers player, and that Willie Collum saw that.

Now this was a split second judgement in the midst of an Old Firm game, and one which had swung away from Celtic and in favour of Rangers in the opening 20 minutes of the second half.

The play was fast and furious. The calls Collum had to make were many. And all of them brought protests and howls from the players, not to mention the baying of the crowd.

It was a split second judgement which Collum had to make right there and right then. He did not have the luxury of viewing it a dozen or so times in slow motion and from various angles.

All he saw was Broadfoot in mid air and Majstorovic with his two hands on the chest of the Rangers man. Was he not entitled to think - in that blink of an eye - that it was a penalty?

Had, for instance, the incident had happened at the other end of the field and involved, for example, Anthony Stokes flying through the air with Madjid Bougherra's hands on his chest, would Collum's decision have been to award a penalty?

Of course it would have been.

Frankly, I fail to see what all the fuss has been about. And I wonder just what Michel Platini, who was there to see it, and who spoke out the next day in support of referees, thought about all the ballyhoo.

As a football man, Platini would no doubt have taken time to view what happened on the many clips available on the internet, and he would have seen what Collum saw, and therefore understood the referee's decision.

And, like me, the UEFA president may well have wondered just what all the fuss has been about.  Though unlike me, he would have been able to dismiss it all with a fine Gallic shrug.

RANGERS THEN AND NOW

IT was Mark Hateley who kicked off the debate about comparing the current crop to those who starred in the Rangers nine-in-a-row era.

In the aftermath of the way the champions fought back to victory against Hearts at Tynecastle, after having recovered from two down to win against Aberdeen at Pittodrie, Hateley drew a favourable comparison between then and now.

Now, after Rangers came from behind to triumph against Celtic at Parkhead for the first time in 33 years, Walter Smith has joined in and announced he is as proud of the modern Rangers as he ever was of any of the teams he fashioned in the past.

Though, unlike Hateley, Smith was careful not to be too specific and never mentioned the various line-ups which figured between the summer of 1988 and the spring of 1997.

But if you cast your mind back about a year you may recall Smith taking at least one of those nine-in-a-row men to task for making a disparaging comparision.

That came at a time when it was fashionable for pundits, and many media men to moan about Rangers being one of the worst in the club's history.

At the time I was quick to argue this point, citing the sides which played during the end of John Greig's era as manager, and when Jock Wallace returned for his second stint.

That led to some of of the knockers regrouping and saying that what they really meant was that the Smith team which took the title in 2009 was the worst to win the championship.

Which again led me to history and season 1958-59 when, with Scot Symon in charge, Rangers lost 2-1 to Aberdeen at Ibrox on the last day of the season, and needed Celtic's win over Hearts at Parkhead that same afternoon to give them the crown.

The relative merits of different teams from different eras will always provide a banquet upon which fans love to gorge.

Opinions will vary, and older heads will always hold the advantage of having seen more. A Partick pal of mine, Robert, brooks no argument with his assessment that the football played for two years under Dick Advocaat was better than anything he has seen from Rangers.

I often take issue and point to that period during the nine-in-a-row run when Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup were together, as being just as good.

Of course, on the subject of an older - and baldy head - I am able to pull rank and return to the early 1960s and the outfit of Jim Baxter and Ian McMillan, plus Millar, Brand and Wilson.

For me, there is no comparison between the Rangers team of the last couple of seasons and the one which contained Gazza and Laudrup.

There are though, more than a few similarites between the sides Smith can field now and the ones he put together, and which laid the foundations which Gazza and Laudrup built on to complete nine-in-a-row.

The fighting spirit of that side, with John Brown always seen as its brave heart and Richard Gough its courageous captain, can be seen in the strong and steady approach of David Weir and the way Madjid Bougherra can lift his side when he breaks forward.

While in goal, Andy Goram often appeared to be the only thing which stood between Rangers and defeat back then. One night at Pittodrie springs to mind when he almost single handedly defied a fine Aberdeen side and Hateley scored in a 1-0 win.

Allan McGregor is another keeper whose form for two years has often been outstanding, and who seems to inspire the same confidence in those in front of him as Goram used to

The main difference is that back then Smith had the option of buying big. Even before such glamour names as Gascoigne and Laudrup joined the ranks, he had lashed out plenty for Goram and McCall, plus, among others, Alexei Mikhailitchenko and Trevor Steven.

Nowadays those sort of players, with their massive transfer fees and huge wages, are well beyond the reach of Rangers.

And yet, with such limited resources since he returned in January 2007, with Rangers out of both cups and too far behind to even challenge for the title, Smith has, in three full seasons, won two SPL crowns, three League Cups and one Scottish Cup, plus taking the team to the UEFA Cup Final.

That surely gives the players who have contributed to to that success story, the right to be taken more seriously than they were just a year ago when all of the snide comments regarding them being the worst Rangers team ever, later modified to the worst to win the title, must have angered Smith.

In what those who have observed him for some time expected, Smith chose to keep his powder dry until the moment was right, and as ever his timing has been impeccable.

However, to earn the right to a true comparison with the teams which played through the first part of the club's nine-in-a-row era, this current crop will be required to hand the manager a retirement gift of a third successive SPL trophy.

If they can do that, then anything Smith would have to say about them would be well worth hearing.

COLLUM DEATH THREATS

HUGH DALLAS was probably the least surprised man in Scotland to learn  Willie Collum had been subjected to death threats in the wake of Rangers 3-1 victory over Celtic at Parkhead.

After all, Dallas, at Parkhead in his refereeing heyday, was felled by a coin which left him with blood pouring from a wound and needing stitches, when he took control of the Celtic shame game in May 1999 which Rangers won to take the title.

And afterwards, after he had reached what he believed to be the sanctuary of his own home, and was in the bosom of his wife and family, a brick was sent crashing through one of his house windows.

More recently, Steven Craven, the assistant who was involved in referee Dougie McDonald's about turn on that penalty award to Celtic against Dundee United, has quit the game following reports that he too had been threatened, and his two sons verbally abused.

It is amazing that on the day UEFA President Michel Platini, who had been Celtic's guest at the Old Firm game, was speaking out about the need for clubs and supporters alike to respect referees, Collum should have had to call in the police.

There was also, according to the Keith Jackson's latest outstasnding exclusive in the Daily Record, a sectatrian nature to the threats, though how that worked is a bit of a mystery.

Collum is clearly a man of deep convictions and teaches Reilgious Education at the Cardinal Newman School in Bellshill.

That he should be subjected to this - and I think we can safely assume it wasn't Rangers fans upset at his decision not to send off Anthony Stokes - is, as the Scottish Football Association rightly says, "behaviour which is abhorent and has no place in football."

But going even further back than Dallas being assaulted on the field and then attacked inside his own house, there is a pattern which has developed over the years.

I recall that when linesman George McBride flagged Jorge Cadette controversially offside in an Old Firm game at Ibrox, what followed appeared an organised campaign to blacken his name and call his integrity into question.

And during the same era there was the strange case of Jim McCluskey and the private investigators.

I was at Old Trafford on the day the story broke, and in those pre-internet days, knew nothing about it until my old chum, the late Jim Blair of the Daily Record, arrived with  a copy of that day's paper which carried the tale.

It was to the effect that one of the leading lights and best known names within the Celtic Supporters Association had hired a private eye to follow McCluskey and try to dig some dirt on him ahead of an Old Firm League Cup Final.

In the media room my many English colleagues soon gathered round to read this extraordinary story and their reaction was to hoot with laughter and derision at both the petty nature of such a support, and its sinister aspect.

I've got a pal who was based in Manchester with a national daily back then, and who still operates as a reporter in the city, who often recalls it and chortles. The image of Celtic, which the club always appear so keen to project in a good way south of the border, took a battering in England over the McCluskey episode.

But coming up to date, and examining what has happened to Collum, it is worth recalling the words which were so carefully delivered by Walter Smith after his team's triumph.

According to Smith, it was wrong to put so much pressure on the official in the build up, with the Rangers manager adding tellingly, that this was the second time in the days prior to the last three Old Firm encounters  this had happened.

Dougie McDonald suffered before the game in February, which Rangers won, and what was anonymously leaked from what appeared to be a Celtic source was branded as "cowardly" by SFA president George Peat.

As I have already revealed, when the official Celtic website, questioned a  decision in that match by McDonald, saying no "fair minded man could agree it was right," the clear implication was that the referee was not fair. Not impartial. Not unbiased.

Therefore, he was, unfair, partial and biased.

Yet, when this was referred to Hibernian chairman Rod Petrie's General Purposes Committee, it decided a censure was appropriate, and under Petrie's orders, the decision was kept secret until I revealed it just prior to Sunday's match.

Scottish football supporters in general should be indebted to the Daily Record's Keith Jackson, whose fine reporting skills uncovered the death threats to 31-year-old family man Collum, and his kids.

And a debt from all fans is also owed to Mark Guidi who, first in the Record and then 24 hours later in the Sunday Mail, produced exclusives about the threats to Craven and his sons, and how he was poised to quit.

New SFA chief executive Stewart Regan has indeed walked into the eye of the storm at a crucial time for the future of football in Scotland.

If referees and their assistants are not allowed to go about their buisness of being without fear or favour during the match, because they are in terror for their own safetly and that of their children afterwards, then the jig is up

Indeed, not only is there  something rotten at the core of Scottish football, but Scottish society in general.

Perhaps it is not so much a a footballing mess for Regan to try and sort out, as a bigger one, relating to a broken society in Scotland which needs some sort of intervention from Alex Salmond.

Unless the first minister elects to sing dumb, for fear of losing votes in the Scottish election coming up in May.

COLLUM'S HOWLER

ROOKIE referee Willie Collum made a terrible mistake in the Old Firm game at Parkhead which Rangers, the better side, deserved to win.

Instead of merely booking Anthony Stokes for his disgraceful lunge which caught Sasa Papac, and led to the influential Rangers man having to be replaced, Collum should have reacted more strongly

The tackle, had it smashed into Papac later than 90 seconds from the start, would surely have resulted in Stokes being handed his marching orders.

Watch it. Watch it again, and again and again. Over and over and over again.

That is to say if you get the chance to do so on television. Do NOT expect BBC Television to give licence payers the chance to do so.

Certainly Aberdeen supporting Richard Gordon seemed to be concentrating on more pro-Celtic aspects on BBC Radio Scotland in the immediate aftermath.

According to the Rangers hating Beeb, the Rangers win was all down to an own goal, a bad kick from the Celtic goalie and a dodgy penalty.

Well, there is no doubt the penalty was dodgy. Anyone who has watched Sky's replays could see Kirk Broadfoot appearing to go down before the contact - of which there was plenty - from Daniel Majstorovic.

Collum, who had turned away as the ball came off him, also seemed to only turn back to where the action was, in time to see Broadfoot hit the deck.

Of course he could have consulted his assistant, but after the meal Celtic made out of it when Dougie McDonald did just that over a penalty award a week ago, who can blame the 31-year-old for sticking with his decision?

But had the referee sent off Stokes - as he should have - within 90 seconds of the kick off, Rangers may very well have been more than a goal ahead by that stage of the match.

It was telling that when interviewed on Sky Sports by a sympathetic Peter Martin Maguire , Neil Lennon,  rather that wanting to talk too much about the spot kick award, chose to reveal  he had told his Celtic players that on the day they were not good enough.

For me, that was an honest assessment, as Rangers started the better team before Celtic edged back into things and an even half hour was contested after the opening 15 minutes.

During that spell Rangers were restricted by the injury inflicted on Papac by Stokes, with the left back finally forced off.

If that Stokes over the top tackle and the contact he made was worth only a booking, then the one which led to a yellow card for Lee McCulloch, while a foul, was hardly in the same class. He got the ball and made no contact with  his opponent.

Another mistake by Collum.

The trouble in the Rangers six yard area prior to the Celtic corner which led to their goal, was another instance of the referee failing to do his duty.

Georgios Samaras actually put Allen McGregor on the deck and was spoken to by Collum. The decision should have been a booking for the Greek.

More about the referee later, but back to the actual game, and Samaras caused Rangers problems in the first half with his movement, but Walter Smith clearly dealt with that in his half time team talk.

Samaras in the first half apart, Celtic did not have any really eye catching performer, although scorer Gary Hooper showed he is a chance taker supreme.

Against that, Rangers had the best player on the park, Steven Naismith. He is the most fouled player in the Champions League, and was once again the player victimised.

The number of times he was fouled by a succession of Celtic players, must have been close to - or even into - double figures.

Failing to protect him was another dereliction of duty by the young referee who fell below the standards he showed in the recent Rangers victory at Aberdeen.

However, for a remarkable fifth time this season Rangers fell behind and then rallied and went on to win. Even given their recent track record, there are few who would have backed them to do that against Celtic. At Parkhead too.

It was only the second time in 67 Old Firm encounters that the team which lost the opening goal went on to triumph.

Kenny Miller's strike to put the champions in front, was superb and, after his two terrible misses against Valencia, showed the sort of character he has. To go back in time, he is someone of whom Jock Wallace would have approved.

Wallace would have also nodded in approval at Walter Smith's post match interview, when he made the point that, after their Champions League extertions against Valencia, Rangers were understandably not at their sharpest.

Of course there are those who harp on about Smith getting an easy ride in the press because he is, in the modern idiom "media friendly."

Therefore, those who think this is poppycock, should be indebted to Charlie Nicholas on Sky. He said what it is about, is that Rangers are playing well.

On a personal level I know Lennon too is media friendly and is easy for reporters to deal with.

Also, watching the action on Sky, I was struck by how David Tanner is growing into his role as an anchor, and with Nicholas added to the mix, Sky once again showed it is head and shoulders above any other broadcaster.

Davie Provan has a great store of knowledge and never pulls a punch, while Ian Crocker commentates with a sure authority and a host of facts. One of them was that Collum is a teacher of religious studies.

Just the sort if unusual for a referee job which I thought the newspapers may have highlighted in the build up to the game.

After all, the papers were always quick to mention that Mike McCurry was a Baptist minister. Over and over and over. Again, and again and again.

SFA TRY TO KEEP CELTIC VERDICT SECRET

IT is a measure of the way the Scottish Football Association operates, and the manner in which it is scrutinised by the nation's media, that the wider public is no longer made aware of decisions taken and verdicts reached by the game's governing body.

Take for instance the case of the last Old Firm game played at Ibrox, which took place as long ago as last February.

It was a turbo charged encounter with referee Dougie McDonald sending off Celtic captain Scott Brown and Maurice Edu bundling in a last minute winner for Rangers.

The fact that there were fireworks came as no surprise as, in the build up to the vital clash, Celtic, via their official website, appreared to seek to crank up the pressure on referee McDonald with an anonymous rant.

The press gave it massive coverage and SFA President George Peat was quick to respond by branding such an anonymous attack as "cowardly."

What followed in the game's aftermath led to then Celtic manager Tony Mowbray being referred to the SFA General Purposes Committee for remarks, critical of the referee.

Not long afterwards, while on international duty with the Republic of Ireland, Aiden McGeady was interviewed by a Scottish journalist and added his critical comments, and the General Purposes Committee was again called in.

However, the most widely publicised event came when the official Celtic website again leapt in, and just over an hour after the end of the match it launched a full blooded attack on Dougie McDonald's integrity.

The crux of this was that "no fair minded person" would agree with McDonald's decision to send off Brown, with the clear implication being that as McDonald had taken the red card decision, he was not fair minded.

Daily newspaper journalists working in the Ibrox media media room, filing match reports, plus stories with the views given to them by the managers and players in post match interviews, quickly became aware of the content on the official Celtic website.

Having picked up on it they then incorporated it into those reaction reports and the "no fair minded person" allegation formed the main thrust of the stories which led the back pages, from the red tops, through the middle market papers, to the broadsheets.

The general line taken by the media was that Celtic could find themselves in deep trouble with the SFA over the website attack, an  natural assumption to make, especiall given president Peat's obvious disgust and anger at what had appeared there prior to the game.

But afterwards? How did the media follow up on things? Well, it would seem they all just forgot about it.

Something which had been splashed all over the back pages for a couple of days and which jammed the lines to the radio phone in programmes, just slipped off the media's radar.

Of course the increasingly secret service which is the SFA hardly helped.

In the past any decisions by the General Purposes Committee - which deals with offences such as what managers and players say in media interviews - were made public.

Now, according to my information that has changed. No news of decisions taken by the General Purposes Committee are made public.

News however, has a way of leaking out, and I can now bring you the decisions taken by the Committtee regarding what appeared on the official Celtic website, and what was said by Mowbray and McGeady.

McGeady, said the committee, had no case to answer. As far as Mowbray was concerned, by the time the committee sat in judgement, he had left Celtic and was no longer within the SFA's jurisdiction.

And, in the case of the much more serious matter of the statement published on the official Celtic website the committee decided the appropriate punishment was a censure.

Many may think this is a poor way for the Scottish Football Association to defend and protect the integrity of  Scotland's officials.

A set of circumstances has come to light again this weekend via a splendid exclusive by Mark Guidi in the Daily Record which reveals that Steven Craven, the linesman at the centre of the rumpus over last Sunday's penalty decision u-turn, has been threatenen, while his two teenage sons have been subjected to verbal abuse.

Guidi's superb story also lifted the lid on just what happened between McDonald and Craven during that Dundee United-Celtic flashpoint.

According to what he wrote, it was McDonald who, on second thoughts, overturned his own decision without any input from Craven, something which now explains the mystery of why Craven moved to take up the position of a linesman at a spot kick - behind the goal line.

The Daily Record story also goes on to say that Craven feels he has been hung out to dry and used as a scapegoat by the SFA, and that he is ready to quit.

How much of his decision to stand down relates to the latest occasion in which the SFA seems to have failed to protect and official, and how much to being the latest official who - along with his family - has suffered threats and abuse after being involved in a decision which went against Celtic, is unclear.

Craven is probably weighing them both equally.

Willie Collum, his two linesmen and the fourth official, therefore know what awaits them should they be involved in any controversial decisions while taking charge of the first Old Firm game of the season.

On a wider perspective though, it will be interesting to wait and watch what the outcome is of the SFA's General Purposes Committtee's judgement on Dundee United manager Peter Houston's rant at Dougie McDonald .

And whether the committee make public any of the decisions they may take regarding the fall out from events at Tannadice.

Or indeed, whether the nation's media  suffer another bout of collective amnesia.

RANGERS MISSION MAYBE NOT IMPOSSIBLE

THERE must have been long queues outside dentists after so many who are loathe to acknowledge anything good about Rangers were forced to pen their praise through clenched teeth.

There must also have been a few laptops taking a fair old battering from those scribes who were forced to finally admit that this Rangers side can compete with the best.

In doing so, Rangers  restored some of Scotland's tattered pride in the wake of the way the Scotland manager has gone about things with the national team...something which does not suit the agenda of some in the press pack.

But Rangers have shown Scottish football is not as bad as some doomsayers would have us all believe. And I must admit that at club level, I have come close to believing in the myth of everyone being better than poor wee Scottish sides.

It was a statistic from Tuesday nights Champions League matches which gave me pause for thought. The result was, Ajax 2, Auxerre 1, and it was the first time a Dutch side had won a Champions League match for over two years.

That's not some wee country from Eastern Europe which only joined UEFA after the Iron Curtain was breached and the Berlin Wall tumbled.

That is Holland, whose national team were the World Cup runners up in the summer. The Champions League is indeed a demanding arena.

Maybe that put into some sort of context the statistics relating to Rangers which were dug up, and emptied like manure over their head in the build up to Bursaspor's visit to Glasgow three weeks ago.

But it is ever thus with Rangers. Praise is always grudging. Also qualifued and hedged. And if there is a statistic which can be manipulated to demean the Ibrox club then it is odds on to be published somewhere.

When Walter Smith conjured an tactic which wrong footed that most street savvy of gaffers, Sir Alex Ferguson, at Old Trafford, and Rangers held to a goalless draw a Manchester United team which contained England's captain, the Scottish skipper, English Player of the Year Wayne Rooney, the man who had held that title the previous season, Welsh wizard Ryan Giggs, plus countless other internationals from around the globe, the anti Ibrox mob chose to highlight those who were not playing rather than those who were.

Next came Busaspor, and the Guardian's Glendenning saying the 3-1 offered for the Turks to win was the best bet of the night.

There were many in the press pack who agreed and piled in. And lost their dough. Rangers employed the same formation as at Old Trafford, but in a different way, and won.

Afterwards we were told that Busaspor actually were not in fact very good after all. Mmmm

And so to Matchday Three and Valencia. Spain has the only league which is a serious rival to the Premiership, and Valencia led it for two months.

On Saturday they went to the Nou Camp and were ahead for a long time before finally being edged out 2-1 by Barcelona. There can be no debate about their pedigree.

And no debate either about the merit of the way Rangers performed ,and the claim that on another night at least one of the two chances missed by Kenny Miller, the brace squandered by Stevie Naismith and the one ballooned over by Ricky Foster, would have gone in.

On the other hand, Valencia, as anyone would expect of such a terrific team, had their moments, notably near the end when Allan McGregor saved magnificently after Maurice Edu's lapse of concentration.

The game was an epic. One of the best I have seen at Ibrox in half a century of watching European action there.

The previous night I was enthralled and engrossed as Real Madrid saw off AC Milan. It was a smashing match. Real were impressive, and as they get more used to that master tactician, Joe Mourinho, will get even better. What a joy it would be to see Walter Smith pit his wits against wee Jose.

Wednesday's encounter was even more entertaining, more absorbing and was played at a pace more like an old fashioned English cup tie than the cat and mouse stuff of the European stage.

Valencia, in the Spanish style, played many more passes and had a higher success rate with them than Rangers.

Rangers completed 269 passes, with a success rate of 67per cent against Valencia's success rate of 82per cent and 589 completed passes.

Many of Valencia's completed passes were made square in defence and in midfield were short, while Rangers, though never just hoofing it, employed the more direct approach, which remains a potent weapon for British teams when employed with the sort of intelligence Rangers showed.

Of course Rangers have been here before at the halfway stage of a Champions League group, with qualification a possibility, only for the backside to fall out of the Ibrox world. Three years ago is the most recent example.

Third spot and a place in the Europe League is surely a more realistic target, though what was once Mission Impossible is now within the realms of the possible - if still not probable.

At the outset of their campaign, I thought Rangers might be lucky to improve on the two points they managed last year, and even after a victory over Bursaspor added three to the one smuggled out of Old Trafford, my belief was that they may not pick up another.

Now, after three matches, the Scottish Champions have five points, and have proved Scottish football is not as bad as some would have us believe.

In the process, Rangers have also provided plenty of work for dentists, after so many of those who were forced to praise them did so through gritted teeth.    

SCOTLAND OR EUROPE

THE dilemma facing Rangers this season is one both they and Celtic have faced before. It is whether to concentrate resources on making an impression on Europe, or husband them for the home front.

This time last year what had turned into a disastrous Champions League campaign for the Scottish title holders, allowed them to push on when it came to retaining their crown, something which was of course helped by the way Tony Mowbray's reign imploded at Parkhead.

There is no doubt - nor has there ever been - in my mind, that a similar Celtic collapse this time out will not happen as there is a great deal more resolution and determination in the camp now.

Plus of course the fact that Celtic's failure to qualify for any sort of European football this term has left Neil Lennon with a single focus...the Scottish Premier League Championship.

Whatever he says about missing those Euro nights - and he will be missing them - in his first season as manager it is actually a bonus for him that he does not have to fight on two fronts.

Smith's great experience enables him to see the wider picture, but he must be aware of what happened just over two years ago when Rangers fell between the two stools of the UEFA Cup and the title.

It was something which happened to Celtic seven years ago, and they finished with nothing, as opposed to the two domestic cups which made 2008 more successful for Smith and Rangers than 2003 was for Martin O'Neill's side.

This season though the outcome of the title race may have even deeper and longer lasting consequences for the winner and loser.

For, with Smith confirming his retirement in May, and with Ally McCoist the favourite to succeed him, the balance of managerial experience will switch in the summer.

And if Lennon, in his first full season in charge, can take the title and stop the Ibrox bid for three-in-a-row, the extra confidence he will gain from that could be a vital factor in his contest with McCoist.

However, should Smith present Rangers and McCoist with the crown, then his legacy would be to hand McCoist a huge boost.

Of course all of this constitutes many an if, quite a few buts and a sprinkling of maybes.

This though, in my view, could prove to be a decisive season for what happens to both halves of the Old Firm in the immediate future.

For Celtic, it is a case of win the title and halt Rangers, at the same time giving Lennon the upper hand against an Ibrox manager who, for all the experience he has gained working with Smith, will be learning to be a boss for the first time.

Against that, should the crown stay at Ibrox, the seed of doubt about Lennon's ability to finally wrest the initiative from Rangers will be planted.

Which is why any dilemma those at Rangers may feel about progressing in Europe, against concentrating on domestic success, should surely be resolved, with the home front being given the same priority Celtic, through their different circumstances, are able to.

Which means Sunday's first Old Firm encounter of the season is even more fascinating than these initial matches usually are.

In recent years possibly only in 2000, O'Neill's first meeting with Rangers, and then 2006 when Paul Le Guen encountered Celtic for the first time, were as telling for the future.

Celtic won both. And everyone knows what O'Neill went on to achieve on the back of that. And also what happened to Le Guen.

AN HONEST MAN

AN honest man , as Rabbie wrote, is the noblest work of God. So referee Dougie McDonald should step forward to be acknowledged as such.

McDonald, for instance, could have taken the easy way out at Tannadice by sticking to his original decision to award Celtic a penalty kick, despite the intervention of linesman Steven Craven.

Just think, regardless of what Craven told him, McDonald could have confirmed the award, and all would have continued happily, with the spotlight on the players and not him.

That though would not only have been the coward's way out, it would also have been extremely dishonest of McDonald.  For by his reversal he clearly did believe the linesman was better positioned to see what happened, and that Craven was therefore able to give him information not previously  in his possession.

It was a brave bit of refereeing, and also proved McDonald  to be an extremely fair minded man.

If there was an error in the incident it happened when Craven, on seeing McDonald point to the spot, made his way to the position behind the goal, taken up by assistants at a spot kick, before attracting the referee's attention.

What Craven should have done is stand his ground, raise his flag, and let the ref know in his earpiece just what his view was.

Television pictures clearly showed that Gary Hooper was fouled by Kenneth before he got in on keeper Dusan Pernis, but retained his balance and possession of the ball, leading to McDonald making the snap judgement of applying the advantage, as refs are told to.

Equally television also clearly showed that when the keeper went down at the Celtic man's feet he made contact with the ball first and his momentum meant contact with the player followed.

For where McDonald was, although closer to the action than the linesman, he nevertheless did not have as clear a view as Craven, whose angle was better, despite the difference in distance.

For all of that, it is understandable that the Celtic bench were in such a state of high emotion. It is not very often a referee points to the spot, only to change his mind.

That this was Dougie McDonald, and that this was Celtic, it is invetiable that the conspiracy theorists would draw their own conclusions. And just as inevitable they would be the wrong ones.

The fall out from the flashpoint has already been considerable, though goodness knows just how much more it would have been had Dundee United held on for a draw, to put the first blemish on Celtic's SPL record.

And, while staying on the fair minded theme, that would not have been a just reflection of the way the game was played, as Celtic did the bulk of the attacking and looked slick, swift and exciting, if less than  the lethal finishers Neil Lennon would wish them to be.

Twenty four hours earlier Lennon had  been at Ibrox to see Rangers beat Motherwell 4-1, and show dead-eyed finishing with three goals in a four minute second half spell.

He will be warning his team this week of the movement up front of Kenny Miller and Kyle Lafferty, plus the sparkling form of Steven Naismith, not to mention the range of danger carried by Steven Davis.

And when Walter Smith begins his look at Celtic, after the Champions League encounter with Valencia, there are plenty of new things about Lennon's team to give him food for thought, notably the fine form of Hooper, who has that instinctive nose for goal which is such a vital part of any striker's armoury.

That, plus the swift switching of positions which makes Georgios Samaras so hard to pin down, and the shrewd passing from midfielder Cha Du-Ri, make Lennon's team a far more formidable force than the Tony Mowbray outfit of last term.

Sunday's first Old Firm set-to of the season , with both teams entering it in proud possession if a 100per cent SPL record, is indeed shaping up to be a fascinating affair.

Let us all therefore hope that the talking points next Monday morning concern the relative merits of both teams and have nothing to do with the referee.

Willie Collum will take charge, and after the way he handled the explosive nature of the recent Aberdeen-Rangers fixture, getting this even more powderkeg one could be seen as a reward.

All that anyone can ask of any referee is that he calls it as he sees it gets most of the big decisions right, and that if either of his assistants, who he believes have a better view, draw his attention to a contrary view, the man in charge is brave enough to change his decision.

Nothing could be more courageous or fair minded than that.

LENNON AND SMITH AGREE

NEIL LENNON needed no urging to join the debate over the secret way the Scottish Football Association go about dispensing what they call justice.

The Celtic manager was expressing his disgust at the lack of open honesty about the way the SFA go about things at more or less the same time as Walter Smith was explaining to me just how in the dark Rangers have been kept over the Allan McGregor affair.

GREEGSGATE!

Smith told me that neither he not anyone at Rangers had been told just who it was at the SFA who decided the incident involving the goalkeeper in the match with Aberdeen should be referred to the the SFA's clandestine Video Review Panel.

The conversation took place at Murray Park at the same time as Lennon was holding court at Lennoxtown and asserting to reporters that if anybody makes a complain against any one of his players he would want to know who it was.

By the time what Smith said appeared on radio and televsion the new SFA chief executive Stewart Regan blundered in, in a manner which suggested he was unsure about what was going on.

For instance, according to the man in the Hampden hot seat, the identity of the ex- player, former manager and retired referee who sit on the panel has to be kept secret in order that their decision is seen to be impartial.

Jeez, that's a good 'un!

Surely the exact opposite is the case, and if Regan is so keen on the whole thing being seen to be impartial then the best way is to come out from behind the SFA's very own version of the Iron Curtain and let everyone know just who is involved.

If there is nothing to hide, then why hide it?

Regan also went on to disclose that any incident referred to the Video Review Panel is the job of someone in the SFA Referees' Department of the Disciplinary Department.

But who? A penpusher? A computer whizzkid? A wee lassie? Surely any such decision should be taken by someone who is fully qualified in the game's laws. Now, who falls into that category? Mmmmmm? Yes, got it!

A REFEREE!

Lennon and Smith both agree with the basic wrongness of the current system, with Lennon chosing to highlight the point  I made last week about justice being seen to be done.

Maybe the Celtic manager is one of my growing army of regular readers. Which would not in the least surprise me.

He likes to keep himself up to date with all aspects of his job, and by visiting Ibrox to watch Rangers against Motherwell ahead of the Old Firm match, Lennon showed how thorough he is as a manager.

However, to return to the Scottish Football Association and it's declared love of secrecy. This is a body which is willing to take money from the taxpayer, and indeed wants Alex Salmond to give them more.

Therefore, there may be a case for trying to discover what it is that goes on behind the closed, locked a bolted doors of the SFA's sixth floor headquarters at Hampden by way of a request through the Freedom of Information Act.

For the culture of secrecy is growing within the SFA, with the Rod Petrie chaired General Purposes Committee no longer releasing what its punishments are regarding managers, players, or indeed any official club source, including websites, when  offensive language is used.

Maybe Petrie thinks the SFA should be run the way he runs Hibernian. If he does, he is wrong. At Easter Road he has an owner, Tom Farmer, to whom he is accountable, and nobody else.

The SFA is the national body made up of all the clubs, and all the associations right down to grassroots level, as well as it's responsility of running the national team. Does the word national not give Petrie a wee clue as to who the SFA is responsible to? If not, let me tell him. And tell the new boy Regan too.

IT'S THE NATION!

Neil Lennon and Walter Smith appear to be at one with me on that.

GUARDIAN'S ANONYMOUS ATTACK ON RANGERS

ANONYMOUS is here there and everywhere. And now it would appear He She or It, has joined that old red rag, the Guardian.

It isn't long since I highlighted some chancer on the paper by the name of Glendenning, who had branded Rangers - the club that is, not the supporters - as Huns.

Now the latest attack has by the paper, which the great Richard Littlejohn so accurately branded, one of the "unpopulars," has been directed at the Ibrox club's fans, and features the biggest managerial failure in Rangers long history, Paul Le Guen.

Now - to quote Private Eye - as any fule know, Rangers got rid of the French flop almost four years ago after a short period because he showed, beyond debate, that he was ill equipped to handle the task handed to him by Sir David Murray.

It was something I had predicted four years past in February when it was first announced Le Guen was to succeed the successful Alex McLeish.

My view was based on research of his record, the resources he had needed for his undoubted success in France, and the circumstances in which he had managed.

My conclusion was that he would not have similar resources at Ibrox nor would the circumstances there be anything like what he had experienced in France, and that he was, therefore, the wrong man for the job.

It was a view which flew in the face of popular opinion and united most Rangers supporters against me when I expressed it at the time when LeggoLand was published in the old fashioned print form.

Press pack pals thought I had gone bonkers, despite me explaining my reasoning, while Ibrox season ticket holders among my Partick pals just did not want to listen.

In common with Rangers supporters everywhere, they bought into Murray's poetic prediction of riding a Le Guen moonbeam to glory.

Their almost fanatical belief in him was there for all to see when Le Guen took a bow in front of the Ibrox crowd for the first time.

The splendid  red, white and blue Tricolour of France  flew in all corners of Ibrox and the crowd loudly and lustily belted out the tune of that most magnificent of anthems, La Marseillaise. Stirring stuff!

I do not think I can recall a new Rangers manager getting a more vigorous reception. Not Jock Wallace when he returned, or the legend that is John Greig when he stepped up from the captaincy, not  Graeme Souness, or even the second coming of Walter Smith, when he replaced Le Guen.

Rangers supporters believed Le Guen was the man to make them a force and any thought of the Frenchman not being what the Guardian's Mister or Ms Anonymous called, "Rangers-minded" never entered the head of anyone I met.

It did not seem to be present among the crowd whose welcome for Le Guen was loud, long and genuine.

Yet, with a fine and blatant disregard for these facts, the Guardian has chosen to use a fairytale in the London Times, linking Le Guen with the vacant manager's job at Hibernian, as a sorry and sordid excuse to try and blacken the name of Rangers again.

What appeared in an Anonymous article in a Guardian supplement gave a perfect example of why so many folk do  not trust this ailing and failing newspaper  to tell the truth.

This is the libel - for that is what it is - which appeared in the Guardian supplement....

 "Paul le Guen, formerly of Rangers, but not considered 'Rangers-minded' by the more confused denizens of Ibrox, could take over at the significantly greener, Hibernian."

Just pause for a moment, go back and read that again. Rangers supporters reading this may care to take a deep breath, pause for another  moment and then go back and read that outrageous lie again.

They may then feel like going to Google and researching the Press Complaints' Commission.

Perhaps the Guardian's Anonymous is getting confused with his clubs. Perhaps he is thinking of the view expressed by the veteran journalist and long time acute Parkhead watcher, Hugh Keevins - who makes a welcome return to Sunday column duty with the Sunday Mail this weekend - and his view that there may have been many Parkhead fans who did not take to Gordon Strachan due to a lack of what was described as his Celtic DNA.

This opinion was given at a time when, under Strachan, Celtic had won one title, were on their way to a second successive championship, and before he managed them to a third, the first man to do so since Jock Stein.

Or - and maybe you believe this is the more likely scenario - Mister or Ms Anonymous in the Guardian, was just venting their spleen against Rangers and their supporters, because that is the sort of stance which is expected of such a newspaper.

It has certainly never been kind to the Ibrox club, dating back to the time when current Celtic director, Brian Wilson, was its Scottish football correspondent  for a decade from the mid 1970s to the 80s.

But - and this includes Glendenning's Huns slur - this latest ,absolutely without any basis of foundation libel, should be the last straw.

The very least that should happen is that the Guardian should be put under pressure to unmask the He, She or It who is to good reporting what Subo is to singing.

And the first step in that direction is reporting the Guardian to the Press Complains Commission.

THE RANGERS IMAGE PROBLEM

LIVERPOOL supporters must be looking on in horror at the court room battles and legal wrangles surrounding the ownership of the club they support.

However, in contrast to what Rangers fans have suffered, and continue to suffer regarding the sale of their club, the Scousers are getting an easy ride, with the Royal Bank of Scotland appearing to give the club greater support and understanding than seems to have been forthcoming for Rangers from Lloyds

Maybe that has got something to do with the fact there are plenty of folk out there who are lining up to try to buy the Anfield outfit. Just as there was no shortage of interested parties when Manchester City went on the market.

But, despite some big talking by some, which proved to be all hat and no cattle, and other shadowy and equally lacking in substance parties, nobody with the cash needed wants to buy Rangers.

Which begs the question...

WHY?

For at the moment, with debts of around £25M and falling, and with the way the market stands, Rangers could be bought for a knockdown price.

Of course the revenue stream available to such as Liverpool, City, Aston Villa and the others in England, from massive Sky pay outs, plus megabucks via the Champions League, is not available to Rangers.

Though, and even given the fact they suffer the problem of being a big club in a small country, Rangers remain a club with a massive tradition and they could provide a terrific platform for anyone who wished to own a big football club.

Someone whose resources cannot compete with the Americans who are flooding into the market south of the border, or the others from various countries, but who, nevertheless, has substantial means. Indeed, right now Rangers represent a massive bargain. Almost a steal.

So again the question must be posed. Two years after Sir David Murray first made it known Rangers were up for grabs, still no serious and acceptable bid has been made....

WHY?

And the answer.......

Well, Rangers, whether they like it or not, have an image problem. A difficulty brought on by Murray's refusal to take on those whose actions suggest they have nothing else on their journalistic agenda than wishing to damage Rangers.

Nobody needs names spelled out here. Everybody knows who the leading light is... and who his wee handmaidens are.

Would that this campaigner against Rangers was so dilligent in his day-today duties for his ailing paper - at least it is in Scotland - once known as the Thunderer, and once upon a time highly regarded as a paper of record.

For instance, the day before Rangers played Manchester United, he was nowhere to be seen in the splendid Old Trafford, Europa Suite as the reporters from every other daily newspaper who had travelled south, sat down in what was a pre official UEFA press conference briefing to them from Walter Smith.

Is there nobody among the ranks of his superiors in London - where the Scottish sports operation is run from - who know what a mug he is making of them?

Or does the Scottish editor either not know, or not care? Or is he too busy lunching with Richard Holloway, a friend of both the editor and the anti Rangers sports writer?

This man has consistently attacked Rangers supporters for some of the songs he says he hears them singing, while he has with equal consistency, failed to hear any of the offensive songs belted out by the followers of any other club.

Now, not for a moment do I think all Rangers supporters are blameless for the plight their club is in, and I have the record of a column I wrote four years ago attacking them for getting the club into trouble over their singing of the "Billy Boys."

In it, I told them to stop it and coined the slogan - FTP-RIP. It appeared in the newspaper I worked for at the time.

Maybe that was because it fell in with the ethos of that paper's owners, Trinity Mirror, whose flagship paper, the Daily Mirrior, once splashed with a TROOPS OUT! demand at the height of he IRA bombing campaign on the British mainland and in Northern Ireland.

Therefore, my credentials of being balanced and objective are clearly established. Not so the man from the Times.

Fortunately his influence wanes with every plunge in that paper's circulation in Scotland since he joined, just as the Herald's sales figures hit the skids when he was there.

However, the damage he has done to Rangers remains, and that is part of the problem - though not, as I have said, all of it - Murray is encountering as he tries to find a credible buyer.

Murray indeed  is also part of the problem. During his period as chairman - and through the spell when he vacated the chair but remained the most influential figure in the boardroom - there were many inside Ibrox who wanted to pick a fight with those they saw as being fervently anti Rangers.

My information is  Murray often sat in his Charlotte Square office and listened to their plans,  gave them the go-ahead, only to  call to cancel that green light before whoever it was he had spoken to,  had reached the Maybury Roundabout.

You reap what you sow, the Bible tells us, and Murray, by failing to stop what appears as a systematic campaign aimed at the club he owns, now finds it hard to find the buyer he so wants to unearth.

Eventually though someone will come forward. Someone with shrewd enough business acumen to spot the nature of the bargain which is Rangers.

When that happens there are plenty of people within Ibrox who will be only too happy to point the new owner in the right direction when it comes to those who seem to harbour hatred for Rangers.

The Bible will be proved right in then end. It always is.

SCOTLAND - THE REALITY

ONCE upon a time Scotland came unstuck against smaller nations because we underestimated them. Now we have come full circle and, under Craig Levein, do badly against them because he overestimates them.

When it comes to the glittering stars of the world game, Scottish teams have always been able to, at the very least, hold their own, and on many a memorable occasion actually put one over on them. Think England, Spain, France, and Holland, for example.

Holding their own and giving them a game of it was what this Scottish side managed, before going down to European and World champions, Spain.

The players should be given credit for the way they regrouped themselves, took responsibility for themselves, and showed us what many have always believed - they are better than Levein seems to think they are.

Therefore the managers's post match rant that he was there to correct anyone who said the effort the players put in during the pathetic 1-0 defeat by the Czech Republic was anything less than exceptional.

Such a comment was an attempt to rewrite history and claim what was written and said  of a critical nature, about  what happened in Prague, had been aimed at the players.

It was not. It had been directed at the proper target - the manager!

Levein may  also have appeared to television viewers to be not merely lacking in good grace, but actually boorish,  when he stormed out for an interview with Sky's David Tanner because he didn't like one of the perfectly polite and proper questions the highly experienced, polished and professional Tanner asked.

Do I possibly detect that the question regarding his highly questionable 4-6-0 formation in Prague has him quite so prickly because, deep down, he knows he blundered.

Just as he did in Lithuania when he overestimated a pretty mundane team, was too cautious and left with a single point when all three were there for the taking.

Here is something to ponder. The team which started in Prague contained six of the outfield players who did so well against Holland at Hampden a mere 13 months ago. They were Alan Hutton, Steven Whittaker, Stephen McManus, Davie Weir, Darren Fletcher and Stevie Naismith.

Two others, Shaun Maloney ,and more controversially, Kenny Miller, were available, but benched while the only two injured were Scott Brown and Paul Hartley. Allan McGregor instead of David Marshall in goal, strengthened the side.

As I said, it was not the players who were at fault. It was Levein. His tactics were not just wrong. They were wrong headed.

The same was the case in Kaunus where he did not trust six of the outfield players who started in that never-to-be-forgotten win over France in Paris, to beat Lithuania.

Hutton, McManus, Weir, Fletcher, Brown and Lee McCulloch were the six, while the goalscoring hero who shot down the French, James McFadden was benched.

These are players who under Alex McLeish, Walter Smith before him, and even when George Burley was in charge against Holland, showed they can be up to the task.

They showed it again against Spain. They can  be trusted to defend carefully, to  contest the midfield, even against those Spanish pass masters, and more importantly, to attack with intelligence, with pace, and when the time is right.

For me, the way those players expressed their own ability against Spain, may have had something to do with their response to what many may have seen as an insult to their ability by Levein.

He did not seem to think they were good enough, and could be trusted enough, to beat Lithuania and the Czech Republic. Games many thought the Scots should have been trying to win.

When the section was drawn nobody ever believed Scotland would beat Spain, even at Hampden, though I always harboured the thought we could give them a game of it, a run for their money, and then, who knows, maybe point.

It was in the matches away to Lithuanian and the Czech Republic, and when Liechtenstein visited Glasgow, that I expected a rich harvest of points. As it is, Levein has managed a meagre 4 points out of 12 to lie in third place. And it is his tactics - not the players - to blame.

Let's be generous and gloss over the performance against Liechtenstein as just one of those things Scotland managers down through the years have had to contend with. The Scots won.

But no similar genorisity should be allowed regarding the 5 points given away in Lithuania and the Czech Republic. Those are games which, with the right approach from Levein, the players at his disposal could have won.

That would have given Scotland 9 points out of 12 and put them at least in second position, and maybe even ahead of Spain, whose 9 points come from only 3 games.

It is, though, the second placed nations in all the groups we should be looking at . And remembering the chance which has been blown to avoid the difficulty of qualifying through a play off.

For the best runners up from the nine groups will earn an automatic place in the finals of the Euro '12 in Poland and the Ukraine. That seems to have been forgotten by many. Just as it is being ignored that one of the only two realistic chances of qualifying, has now been blown.

At the moment, Hungary, with 9 points from four outings, lead the way. Scotland could - indeed should - have been up their alongside them.

That is what should be being examined by the critics nationwide. That is what should be being put under the miscroscope. That is the area in which Levein has let the Scots down, the area in which his judgement should be scrutinised.

Anything else, by anyone - especially Levein's wee Silly Billy lackey - would be a betrayal of the nation.

Just don't hold your breath for it though.

REMEMBRANCE AND FOOTBALL

WHEREVER you are, whatever you are doing, and whatever opinion you are free to express, we are once again approaching the time of year when we remember those whose sacrifice grants us the freedom to do all of those things.

Of course chosing what football team to support and going to watch them and encourage them in their efforts is just one of the many freedoms - however trivial - we and the people of so many other countries enjoy. And take for granted.

Which is why it is correct that as a week of Remembrance approaches and we prepare to wear our poppies, not only with pride, but also with humble gratitude, football should play its part in giving thanks.

In the past though, any request for a simply act of Remembrance and homage to the fallen, has somehow sparked off controversial debate and protest in Scotland.

No wonder, as some of my buddies will testify, I often refer to my homeland as a dark wee country.

South of the border they do things differently, and in England football joins the rest of this nation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in remembering the fallen.

Television pictures from all the matches in the Premiership show crowds of up to 75,000 falling silent for a minute.

Up here though, that is not always the case. Four years ago, when Celtic played St Mirren at the old Love Street on Remembrance Sunday, there was no silence. The St Mirren chairman, Stewart Gilmour later said it was an oversight.

Let us just think about that crass admission for just a moment or two. A quiet moment or two. In the midst of all those poppies, the night after the Festival of Remembrance from the Royal Albert Hall had been shown live on television, and following the Queen leading the nation in an act of Remembrance at the Cenotaph - also live on television - Stewart Gilmour forgot it was Remembrance Sunday.

Clearly, by his actions, we will FORGET them is Gilmour's mantra.

Celtic are due to visit St Mirren's new ground on November 14this this year, Remembrance Sunday, in a match which will be broadcast live by ESPN. Gilmour remains the St Mirren chairman. Perhaps this year someone will remind him of the day's significance.

There have been other occasions too when things have not been right. Such as two years ago when Celtic played at home and, according to the club tannoy announcer, the crowd were asked to show their appreciation in what he described as the "Celtic Way" by joining in a minute's applause.

Let me state right here, that I was not the only journalist in the press box who chose not to applaud, but to stand in bare-headed silence.

And let me also make it clear also that there were plenty of Celtic supporters in the areas around the press box, season ticket holders and corporate backers, who did likewise.

Maybe their personal memories were off a dad or grandad, an uncle or brother who, had first taken them to watch Celtic when they were small, and who had fought in either of the 20th century's two world wars.

Or perhaps they were thinking of a son or a daughter, a nephew or niece, a brother or sister, a friend, or the son or daughter of a friend, Celtic fans all, who have fallen more recently, or who are still serving on the front line.

Or maybe they were just giving their own quiet thanks for their freedom to be at Parkhead and support Celtic. A freedom won by the fallen they were honouring.

Whatever their personal thoughts, they vastly outnumbered the small group of protestors, away to the right of the main stand ,who had objected to Celtic, in common with all other SPL clubs, wearing a poppy on their shirts.

Both sections though were even more vastly outnumbered by the 50,000 or so who followed Celtic's official instruction and applauded.

Last year, on Remembrance Sunday, Celtic travelled to Falkirk, and according to one highly informed source, who is close to the Falkirk boardroom, chairman Martin Ritchie understood Celtic would have liked Falkirk to ditch their preferred minute's silence in favour of a round of applause.

It is to his, and his club's eternal credit that Falkirk chose to attempt to honour the fallen in a quiet and dignified way.

That they could not, and that the silence was broken by booing and singing from travelling supporters, was Scotland's Shame, and one of the reasons why I often despair of the land of my birth as a dark wee country.

It was also Sky Sports' shame that they masked the sound of this shameful episde by muting the it, though the booing could be clearly heard on foreign channels and on BBC Radio Scotland.

Sky then tried to explain this piece of blatant censorship by claiming they did not want to offend anyone. Sky Sports and Sky News are both in the business of journalism. Censorship is what all news organisations and all journalists should fight against, not collude in applying.

Remember the horrific picture from the Vietnam war of the little girl running naked and in pain and terror from wounds from the napalm bombing?  

I DO!

It was offensive, but it did much to heighten people's understanding of what was going on, giving power to the aruguments of those who wanted it stopped.

Therefore, should the silence be broken at any ground this year, we, the nation, have a right to hear it, and all media organisations, be they television, radio or newspapers, have a duty to report it.

However, let us hope that on Saturday November 13 and Sunday 14th, when at Ibrox, where Rangers meet Aberdeen, at Tannadice, where Dundee United face Kilmarnock, at Hamilton, where Inverness are the visitors, at Easter Rd, where Motherwell visit, at McDiarmid Park, where St Johnstone face Hearts, and in Paisley, where Celtic travel to play against St Mirren, in a match beamed live on ESPN throughout Britain, silence falls for a minute for an act of Remembrance.

It would be Scotland's Shame - yet again, - if anything other were to happen.

ALLAN McGREGOR AND THE SFA

WINSTON CHURCHILL once turned his magnificent oratory on Russia, describing it as an enigma, wrapped in a riddle and shrouded in a mystery.

If the Greatest Ever Briton was alive today, and if he turned his attention to more mundane matters, then he may well have used the same words to decribe the Scottish Football Association.

Now, not for a moment do I believe George Peat and Stewart Regan favour the the killing grounds of Stalin's Gulags, but they do seem to have a similar liking for secrecy.

WHY?

For surely if you have nothing to hide, why hide it?

It would appear though, within the sixth floor at Hampden there exists an increasingly small cabal of men who hold power, and who do not favour justice being seen to be done.

Many may believe that Hibernian 's Rod Petrie, who is chairman of the General Purposes Committee, is seeking to run it behind the same Iron Curtain of secrecy with which he runs Hibs.

Why this should be so is indeed an enigma. And a riddle. A mystery too.

Take the case of the  one match ban given to Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor. What he did in the match against Aberdeen when he aimed a kick - which missed - at Chris Maguire, was not merely stupid. And not only unnecessary.

IT WAS AN ACT OF LUNACY!

McGregor deserved to be punished, if only for being so stupid, especially after his disgraceful antics in the match against Hibs a few weeks ago.

If his action had been spotted at the time he would surely have been sent off, and Rangers chances of staging their remarkable fightback to win would have followed him down the tunnel.

There should be no blame attached to Willie Collum, who refereed a difficult encounter better than I've seen any other official perform this season. Nor should either linesman or the fourth official carry the can. They can't have eyes in the back of their heads.

Nor should there be any sidetracking by referring to the incident involving Derek Young's stamp on Lee McCulloch.

In effect, and despite what many Rangers supporters may think, McGregor got what he deserved. You have to feel sorry for Walter Smith, who once remarked that one Andy Goram in any manager's career is more than enough.

Goram though, for all his off the field high jinks, did not behave on it as McGregor has on too many occasions.

In my view, and I say it again to underline the opinion, McGregor got exactly what he deserved. It may help him to learn his lesson. But don't bet on it.

So there it is, my view, clearly stated and with not only my name, but my picture too, at the top to make it clear who I am. There's nothing anonymous or anything secret about it.

Unlike the SFA's Video Review Panel which acts in the shadows like some sort of furtive spy operating behind enemy lines.

Let's start at the beginning. The McGregor incident occurs, the match officials all miss it, but it is highlighted on Sky by Andy Walker and forms a great deal of the Monday morning newspaper coverage of the match.

What follows is a prolonged period of silence, with the news that McGregor had been reported to the SFA not emerging until Thursday of last week.

We are not told who made the report. The SFA referees' supervisor? The SPL delegate? A paperclip counter at the SFA? Wee Shuggie frae Shettleston?

And so the enigma becomes a riddle, which is a mystery to all but that small cabal.

Then there is the ten day delay. One report claimed  the reason was George Peat was on holiday and that Stewart Regan had not taken up his post as chief executive, therefore there was  no executive present within the SFA to instigate proceedings.

Although that report carried no direct quote from anyone at the SFA. Secrecy again!

What we were told is that a three man Video Review Panel,  of an ex referee, an ex player and an ex manager , and chaired by Sandy Stables of the Aberdeenshire and District FA, would sit in judgement.

We were not told who the former player, referee and manager were. Why? It is inconcievable that any of the three had a Rangers connection. Or a Motherwell connection, as that is the team McGregor will be absent against.

Or, despite the fact the chairman was Sandy Stables from the Aberdeenshire and District FA, any of the three would have an Aberdeen connection, given the fact the incident happened against the Dons.

Surely too, the SFA would know the problems they would be piling up for themselves if either an ex Celtic player or manager judged a Rangers player.

So that's Rangers, Motherwell, Aberdeen and Celtic removed from the equation. So just who did sit on the Video Review Panel?

Justice, should not merely be done....it should be SEEN to be done.

Anything else merely opens the door for all the crackpots and conspiracy theorists out there who think everyone is against their club.

When Churchill was talking about Russia, he was using the contemporary term for the Soviet Union, where the dictators used secrecy to stay in power. The SFA would do well to remember what happened to it in the end.

GOEBBELS OR ANONYMOUS

JOSEF GOEBBELS was the evil genius who was Adolf Hitler's Propaganda Minister during Nazi Germany's tyrannical genocide .

He was a thoroughly disgusting, odious  and evil man. But he was, in the dark arts of spin doctoring, most certainly a genius.

The Goebbels technique was simple. He believed that if you told the biggest lie possible, and told it often enough, people would believe it.

It is a technique of spin doctoring which is still alive and well to this day, and many believe it was one of the reasons the now totally discredited New Labour government held on to power for so long.

But Goebbels, and the less evil, but nevertheless still odious pratctioners of the dark art - Damian McBride, Jo Moore, Charlie Wheelan and Alistair Campbell among them - have a new recruit to their ranks.

He is called Anonymous.

Now, regular readers will know I always refrain from repsonding to comments, as many of them, which appear to come from a small but dedicated group of folk with little regard to the truth or facts, are not worth bothering about.

So too are the many equally inaccurate jibes about me on a personal level. Even those who approve of my writing style will never sing, there's only one David Leggat, for there are quite obviously a lot more folk  named David Leggat.

There also appears, to my trained eye, to be some sort of concerted campaign by the enemies of truth and reasonable free speech, to try and goad me into making some sort of outrageous statement.

It's almost as though there is one "mind" behind it, orchestrating and directing. Maybe even script writing too. But sorry, whoever you are, your attempts will win no Oscar. Not even a Tony.

However, I do wish to turn to the comments posted at the end of my blog JELAVIC'S INJURY, which went up on the LeggoLand site on Wednesday, 6th October.

In it, I mentioned the removal of a film clip of Ian Black's tackle on Jelavic from YouTube by the SPL, and added that this is the same SPL which has ordered Rangers to play five away matches following the six of their Champions League ties. I  asked if a pattern could be detected?

Enter Anonymous, posting a comment on October 6 at 16.48, which followed the Goebbells technique and attempted to tell the big lie, while at the same time seeking to justify the lie by trying to smear my journalistic integrity and ability.

According to this particular Anonymous: "The SPL fixture list is computer generated at random, and is drawn up months before the Champions League draw is made. A little thought about facts may have made you come across as a slightly credible journalist instead of being small minded and lacking in journalistic training."

OUCH!

Well, no, actually. This big lie is easily shot down by showing both my credibility as a journalist of 44 years experience, plus my journalistic training.

You see, the official UEFA webite first revealed the schedule of dates on which Champions League matches would be played during season 2010-11, on Monday, APRIL, 19, 2010.

 The schedule of Scottish Premier League fixtures for season 2010-11 was published on JUNE, 17th, 2010.

Good! I'm glad we've cleared that up and shown the big lie to be just what it is.

A WHOPPER!

And as for the claim  the SPL fixtures are completely computer generated at random.... That is so very stupid that anyone who makes such a claim needs the truth explained to him very slowly indeed.

Computers do nothing by themselves. They have to be programmed and given human direction. There is nothing random about a computer. It takes human instruction.

How, for instance, when the SPL decided to have the Old Firm match played over the New Year period, did the computer generate that?  All by itself, and at random?

PRECISELY!

I refer all of the above to another, who I suspect may belong to the same circus as Anonymous and the man who will never win an Oscar. Or a Tony!

This guy - or is it a gal? - calls themselves Daytripper. Daytripper's comment was that I seemed to struggle with the facts.

No, just in explaining them in such a way that even the lowest common denominator will be able to understand. A thankless task, and one I freely admit is often beyond me.

But then again, just what is it  Daytripper is tripping on?

And so let us return to the original point made in JELAVIC'S INJURY,  the one I made about BBC seeming reluctant to show it over, and over, and over, again, and again and again, and that the SPL had had it removed from YouTube.

Another Anonymous - they're a big clan - commented on 6th October, at 14.08, that anyone with a computer could find a clip of it.

I am indeed indebted to him, for it led to me sound the bugle call for reinforcements, in the shape of a young and much more computer literate pal. He found it on the link k21swj.gif

I watched it over and over and over, and again, and again and again. You should too. See what you think.

Just don't tell Anonymous. Or he'll reach for his Goebbels manual and try to make you believe another big lie.

Anyway, we all know what happened to the evil and odious Nazi Minister for Propoganda. Don't we?

MORE TARTAN ARMY SHAME

IMAGINE, if you would for a moment, that a plane load of Rangers fans were said to be so drunk by an airline that they were refused permission to board their flight.

Think of the headlines in the tabloids -  RANGERS BOOZED BIGOTS BANNED - is one headline which springs to mind as a possible if such a scenario ever unfolded.

However, in the real world no such treatment is meted out by the nation's media when such an incident actually did take place.

WHY?

Well that's easy. For goodness sake,these poor chaps and chapesses are part of the so called cuddly loveable Tartan Army, so it couldn't have been them who were in the wrong. Could it?

It wisnae me mister. A big boy did it  and ran away. The mantra of the guilty in Scotland since I was a wean.

Except the facts, as reported in the two top selling tabloids,seem  suggest the opposite as far as the plane-load of the Tartan Army, en route to Prague from Liverpool, via Amsterdam are concerned.

And the pictures of them seem to suggest they are a similar motley looking crew to the many Scotland supporters I have been forced to share an airport and a flight with over the years.

It seems that easyjet - my second favourite airline - refused to allow them to board their flight from Amsterdam to Prague because they were adjudged to be too drunk to fly.

Some of the dregs I've  seen on  KLM flights - my all time favourite airline -  were often too blootered to walk.

Therefore ,when I read the story of the Tartan Army ban on flying by easyjet I was hardly surprised. The only surprise is it has taken so long for an airline to take a tough stand.

Of course the denials of any wrong doing spewed from this ragtag bunch of warbling Jacobite wannabees.

Take the quote from 26-year-old Adam Armstrong, a retail manager from Dumfries, who denied anyone was worse of the wear from too much bevvy.

This guy said: "We've all had a beer, but no one is drunk. It's ridiculous. We've been turfed out onto the streets of Amsterdam."

I do hope  if they took the train from Schipol into Amsterdam they found some entertainments adjacent to the station. I believe there are a variety only a lurch away. Whether the males among the bedraggled group were in any condition to avail themselves of any of the pleasures, is another matter.

But let's return to Adam Armstrong's claim that all the travellers had had was "a beer."

This is a group of the Tartan Army which had assembled at the John Lennon Airport in Liverpool in good time to check in for the flight to Amsterdam, which takes around an hour a half on a flight where alcohol is available.

A group of the Tartan Army which had around two hours between flights in Amsterdam, but who then found they were there even longer as the   easyjet   flight to Prague had been delayed for two and a half hours.

And during all that time - in and around the bars of the John Lennon airport, on the flight over to Amsterdam, and in the four hours or more they were hanging around Schipol, which is overflowing with bars - all they had was, to quote Adam Armstrong, "a beer."

AYE, RIGHT!

Now, as I have stated, I've been in many airports and on many flights to all corners of Europe with the Tartan Army. It is not a pleasant experience .

I've also shared many a KLM flight from Glasgow to Amsterdam and then onbound to every corner of Europe with Rangers supporters and Celtic fans.

Give me the Bigot Brothers anytime. And that ain't   just my view. Take a secret canvas of the press pack and they will tell you the same. They would rather share a city with Old Firm fans than with the Tartan Army.

Wee Silly Billy no doubt disagrees as, as I have already mentioned, he likes what passes for him as a good night out in a foreign port, with them, joining in with their anti-English choruses.

Let me give you an example of the way travelling to, for instance, Milan or Oslo, for a Scotland game on KLM works.

You turn up at Glasgow airport at 4.30am, bleary eyed ,   and   check in for the 5.55 to Amsterdam and are joined by half a dozen or so kilties. And do these guys never learn of the problems getting through security when they are dressed like that?

The flight is quiet - it's early and the many businessmen on it just want to do some work - apart from the loud, and often lewd comments from the Tartan Army.

Fortunately - thanks to my KLM Gold Card  as a frequent flier - I was always able to escape them as I waited in the KLM lounge at Schipol.

On emerging and making my way to the gate I would always find the half dozen or so who had been on the Glasgow flight were joined by three or four dozen who came off flights from Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Liverpool, Manchester and London.

They were all done up in the usual Tartan Army uniform of a kilt at the wrong length, boots or trainers, and they were all cluttered around a bar giving it laldy. In short, they were a drunken rabble.

On the plane there were many occasions when I was ashamed to be Scottish as they made more than merely suggestive comments to the cabin crew. Thank goodness that these Dutch lasses, even though they all speak impeccable English, could not understand the gutteral slang of the Kens.

I had to strain myself to understand what some of these boozed up halfwits were saying. And I never, never, never ever spoke, lest any of them should recognise me as a Scot.

Let me tell you a story of a flight back from Oslo one morning.

I had managed to buy a copy of that morning's English edition of the Daily Mail and was sitting on a aisle seat, as is my custom . At the window was a guy who had that hard to put your finger on look of a Scot. He was smartly dressed in a polo shirt and chinos.

In the middle was typical Ken. Kilt, boots, rolled down socks and a Scotland top which smelled as though he had been wearing it night and day since he left Her Majesty's Realm.

He tried to strike up a conversation with me in what was nearer to being a foreign tongue than English. I shrugged and continued reading  the   Daily Mail. The Ken then turned to the window seat passanger and said:"Ken, he disnae speak English."

Now this twenty something Tartan Army Ken was not drunk. Stupid, but not drunk.

With all of that experience - up close and personal - travelling on flights and through airports with the Tartan Army, I have no doubt those who refused them permission to board the easyjet flight from Amsterdam to Prague, were quite correct.

So far, although the top two tabloids carried  the story,there is a hint in the style of their reports that this was just a jolly jape.

The High Jinks, as Para Handy says.

My bet though is that if other football supporters from Scotland had behaved in a similar way and been dealt with in such a manner, the style of the tabloid coverage would have been much harsher.

Imagine!

LEVEIN'S CONFUSION

CRAIG LEVEIN gives the distinct impression he has never heard the old saying about sauce for the goose being sauce for the gander.

Certainly ,what holds good for one newspaper when it comes to getting an  exclusive via a leak from the Scotland dressing room, does not appear to hold good for another, when it produces its own scoop via a leak.

Regular readers will recall my praise for the Daily Record's, Keith Jackson when he broke the story of Levein's outburst and verbal assualt on  James McFadden at half time in last month's game against Liechtenstein.

Jacko's story also included the claim that Levein's rant was not only directed at the Birmingham City man, but also at Middlesbrough's Kris Boyd. It was a cracking tale, as I said at the time.

My observations about the wider reaching implications were directed at what I thought may be Levein's reaction to what had gone on within the sanctity of the dressing room being made public on the back page of the Record.

Surely, the question I posed, McFadden's own manager, former Scotland boss, AleX McLeish, and Boyd's boss at Boro, Gordon Strachan, would be less than impressed? They would have expected anything Levein may have had to say to their players behind closed doors, to remain there.

Of course, that's nothing to do with Jacko. His job is to get stories for the Record, regardless of whether they make Levein's job harder.

I did though expect to see the Scotland manager appearing in public print either issuing a denial, which would would have been difficult as everyone in the inky trade knew Jacko's exclusive was spot on, or at least issuing some sort of of statement.

From Levein though, words were there none. His silence on the subject was, and has remained, deafening.

Something else which I expected, was to hear through the grapvine which extends from the West Midlands and the north east, all the way back to Scotland, that Levein had been in touch privately with either big Eck or wee Gordy to explain himself.

Either that grapevine is clogged or there is nothing to report. And I know which of those alternatives I chose to believe is the case.

Sauce for the goose then. And for the gander?

Well, on Wednesday morning another press pack pal, the always meticulous and  ever affable Roger Hannah, produced a stunning Scotland exclusive, via another leak.

It was, that Levein was planning to drop Rangers striker Kenny Millar, 49 caps, and the in form Scot in the top flight scoring stakes, from the team to face the Czech Republic in Prague ,and replace him with the uncapped Jamie Mackie from Queens Park Rangers in the Championship.

This led to a furious outburst from Levein when the squad and the press met up at Glasgow airport later on Wednesday, ready to depart for Prague.

According to Levein, Hannah and the Sun were traitors. The Scotland manager then ranted that he believed there were some members of the media who did not want Scotland to qualify for the European Championship Finals in Poland and the Ukraine in the summer of 2012.

Now please take a moment here. Think about that allegation.

What Levein was actually charging the Sun man with was not wanting to spend three weeks all on  expenses jaunting around Poland and the Ukraine, staying in top hotels and watching football at the highest level.

And the charge he levelled against the Sun was that the newspaper did not wish the potential boost to its circulation for around a month which would  be a product of Scotland's participation in the Euro 12 Finals.

Nurse! The screens please.

My view is that Roger Hannah and his sports editor, the highly experienced and extremely well connected Ian King, would never have run the story unless they were sure of their information.

Which is not to say that Miller won't start the game. Levein will have the final say on who does and does not play, and he can decide to change his mind should he wish to.

But as for the sauce for the gander? Not from Levein.

By the eve of the match he was cutting short the time he gave the travelling press pack in Prague as they sought to preview Friday night's match, and my information is that he felt unwilling to be a part of  a circulation war between the Daily Record and the Sun.

Well here's a wee bit of historical newspaper information for Levein. Every Scotland team manager, every Old Firm manager, and indeed every manager in Scotland and all the clubs in Scotland are part of that war. Just as they have been, back to when it first started when Jock Stein was the national team boss.

And there were many before him who were part of a  previous cut throat circulation war between the Scottish Daily Express and the Daily Record in the 1960s and 70s.

So here is another saying Levein gives little indication of knowing - one man's meat is another man's poison.

I certainly hope, whoever Levein picks, that Scotland win in Prague. And win they must, after blowing the chance of three points in Lithuania in a dreadful goalless draw.

There is every indication the Czechs are there for the taking, despite some of Levein's tame press pals talking them up.

It's a long time - ten years in fact - since the Czechs were rated number two in the world, boasting a golden generation of stars who played for some of Europe's top teams. Now they have slumped to 37th in the FIFA rankings, with only Tomas Rosicky of Arsenal and Chelsea keeper Petr Cech remaining.

They lost 1-0 at home to a Lithuanian side we could all see was no more than slightly below average, and in Michal Bilek have a coach who is the fourth to hold the position in just over the two years since the legendary Karel Buckner quit in the wake of a 2-0 lead over Turkey in the last Euro Finals being squandered in the closing 15 minutes, and a 3-2 defeat heralding their exit.

The Czechs have defensive worries and Bilek, like Levein a rookie at international level ,tried without any success to tempt Atletico Madrid's Tomas Ujfalus and Marek Jankuovski  of AC Milan back to their country's colours.

On the face of it, therefore, the Czech Republic are a national team in turmoil. Which is a wee bit how the Scots have continued to look as the George Burley years have given way to the Levein era.