It’s now ten days or so since stories broke about the Scottish FA refusing to back embattled FIFA president Gianni Infantino when he stands for re-election in March.
There were no quotes. No names attached. No deep detail. It was made clear, though, that those inside Hampden were ready to join a host of other nations in turning their backs on Johnny Baby.
Since then, though, there’s been nothing. Not a dicky bird. The tumbleweed has rolled on down Aikenhead Road and people are, quite rightly, beginning to wonder why.
Wales had already gone public on the reasons why they would not be supporting Infantino for the 2027-2031 term following his scandalous and quickly quashed plan to sell off parts of the World Cup and other tournaments to private equity.
The English FA have since sent a formal letter withdrawing their support for the 56-year-old. Now, the Football Association of Ireland have gone public in confirming they’ve told FIFA that he won’t be getting their vote.
There are those who will put Scotland’s failure to go on-the-record down to SFA president Mike Mulraney being in a tricky position as a result of operating as chair of FIFA’s finance committee. That doesn’t really wash, though.
SFA president Mike Mulraney rubs shoulders with FIFA supremo Gianni Infantino at World Cup
The English FA’s independent non-executive chair Debbie Hewitt MBE is a FIFA vice-president. Andrew Massey of the FAI is chair of FIFA’s medical committee.
Mulraney talks freely about things when it suits him. He’s based his stint as president around improving facilities, which, of course, no one is massively interested in and no one is really going to hold him to account over.
However, he’s big on doing things that are for the good of the game. And what could be better for the game than ejecting Infantino from office tout-suite and letting the Scottish public know exactly where their national association stands on such a matter of global importance?
Come on, Mike. You know you want to.
Quality over quantity is the way Celtic should have gone in the market years ago
Like some kind of volcanic eruption years in the offing, it finally looks like the Celtic board are rumbling into life in the transfer market and doing the kind of deals that should have been commonplace a long time back.
Football’s a pretty pure market. You tend to get what you pay for. And signings that involve a little more investment and come at the right kind of age generally improve teams and then deliver a profit at the other end.
Look at Arne Engels. Hasn’t exactly been brilliant, but the £11million spent to bring him from FC Augsburg looks like being more than doubled by West Ham.
New arrivals Haissem Hassan, Mika Baur and Camilo Duran have bolstered Celtic’s ranks
Kasper Hogh, at £11m from Bodo Glimt and aged 25, is already looking a safe bet, a proven scorer at a high level and the kind of personality player so rare in the Scottish game these days.
Camilo Duran at £6m, Mika Baur at £7m and Haissem Hassan at £9m look likely to bring positive returns as well with Celtic putting quality above quantity. What’s more, shock of all shocks, they’re in the door before the Champions League qualifiers.
It was the failure to do this stuff from a position of strength in the past that led to the situation last season, where Celtic were lucky to get over the line. Hearts would almost certainly have won the title were it not for referee Steven McLean’s failure to award a stonewall penalty at Fir Park.
It’s hardly rocket science. It’s the main reason CEO Michael Nicholson and the board have been slaughtered in recent years. If it had been actioned years back, who knows where Celtic might be?
Failures at Rangers have largely let them away with it, but that doesn’t mean Celtic fans should rest on their laurels. The club remain a bad joke outwith Scotland and this should only be the start of tooling up for a go at Europe within a properly joined-up structure.
It’s a promising start, of course, but there’s a heck of a lot more to do.
