I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a court case going on involving a certain sporting institution. If you’re a lobotomised supporter of this cult it’s time once more to lament the strange quest for justice you can’t quite get your head around - “why are these people doing this to my club” they ask themselves. If you’re anywhere else in the world then you are hoping justice is served and that the victims get their much delayed (by decades) day in court and the spotlight shines long and bright on the institution that tried (and failed) to avoid dealing with the most disgusting of crimes for nearly half a century.
A crime such as this has a way of grabbing the cultural narrative like little else. There’s only really one other sporting institution to rival it in terms of global reach and outrage - Penn State.
Due to the misplaced perception of overall power of a certain sporting establishment, advertisers and politicians were long ago warned but avoided the opportunities to evacuate or heed the warnings presented. Global brands get in quick when it suits them and pay no attention whatsoever when criminality, illegality and systemic abuse is evident - just look at the number of slaves (not immigrants) killed during the building of stadiums in Qatar. The big sponsors are still there. The big sponsors are still onboard at Bheast FC. Senior politicians of a certain bent clamour to be pictured watching their favourite football team, predictably modelling scarves and having a drink in the slop houses that have avoided morals in any capacity, be it supporting terrorism or foreign nationalism at its most egregious. Football is sexy. Politics isn’t. To hell with the victims. Politicians leach the fresh indulgence by being associated with a certain football club. They are no better than Bheast FC in wanting their commercial and political aspirations to eclipse the deviancy meted out to victims.
Which leads us neatly to the issue at hand. For all the warmth and altruism shown and the support of plain human decency expressed and afforded to the large group of sufferers we’ve been presented with a process that has been delayed, obfuscated, elongated as to relegate justice to something that shouldn’t really be taking place. Victims deserve the law to run its course. For that to be rendered futile, as was the tactic of Bheast FC, is utterly unconscionable.
It reflects a bigger concern, that the few remaining people who have abused (physically, facilitated or covered up) their way through the decades leaving dozens of victims in their wake, are only as strong as the bank accounts, influence and political bias of those who guard them. When football should take a back seat in the pursuit of justice the opposite seems to be the strategy of the individuals, institutions and political party that finds itself in the dock. The agenda of the victims that should be in the foreground has been forced into the shadows repeatedly.
The club that has shaped and melded its entire recent history through the prism of victimhood has had the tables turned. The self proclaimed guardians of morality are in agony at being unable to dictate the narrative and wear the badge of the downtrodden, to show how much they care.
Simply put, Bheast FC knew what they were getting into when they embarked on this strategy of mocking victims by adopting tactics like ‘separate entity’ and changing the name of Celtic Boys Club, being 2 of the most disgusting forms of manipulation and denial. Any feigned acts of remorse or concern are wept through the mesh of an emerald green handkerchief. It’s quite staggering how Bheast FC have taken legal and moral responsibility to a previously never seen nadir. It almost defies remark.
The omnipotent SNP nuclear ‘independence’ warhead hangs menacingly over all aspects of cultural life in Scotland and little escapes its parochial scorn or bigotry. The (transgressive) progressive politics streams through every day life. These are the pious gatekeepers that avoided their duty by avoiding a formal inquiry into this systemic abuse. The very opposite is the reality for victims, these are the zealots who heckle, verbally bully and shout down any dissent in the name of “joyous, civic, nationalism”. I mention this because alongside the very poor record of the SNP in terms of the NHS, education, ferry contracts, drug deaths and so on, the victims of Bheast FC are yet another example of SNP gross mismanagement of Scotland in order to keep a core group of supporters happy at the expense of others in society. They only govern for the few in Scotland. In the name of independence and independence only, they continue to oversee the long-term decay.
Sportswashing is a relatively new term and it’s used to describe dubious behaviour in order to project an alternative perception of the institution buying influence or political expediency. Bheast FC have excelled at this suspect tactic for decades. In fact, they have carried out this tactic with consummate diligence.
Bheast FC and the SNP are now in the glare of a process they arrogantly assumed wouldn’t get this far. In these contemporary times of sport and in this case, football specifically; Bheast FC and their supporters thought that the Latest Thing would be something they could use to their advantage. Examples being, a mythical tour of Japan, goading for a referee strike and as disgusting as it sounds, using the death of a young man to manipulate a fixture schedule. Nothing is beyond the realms of decency when it comes to manipulating an opportunity to promote the Latest Thing to the advantage of Bheast FC. As with previous projects they were keen to spin and extrapolate in the pursuit of sportswashing, they are about to experience a completely new version of Scottish football’s Latest Thing and perspective on the concept of sportswashing.
I wish the victims strength and success.