Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell has today spoken out against the slur campaign started by Rangers fans against the late Jock Stein and pledged to take action if the "Big Jock Knew" campaign persists in grounds around the country.
Lawwell said "It is a poisonous, repugnant, despicable and even cowardly campaign,"
he said. "He is one of Celtic's greats, Scottish football's in fact, and this campaign is nothing short of disgraceful.
"In the context of this week in Scotland, when we came close to qualifying for the European Championships, it should be remembered that this man died managing Scotland, taking them to the World Cup finals.
"We haven't responded because we didn't want to dignify it with public statement, but we have been working behind the scenes and have spoken with the family, who are content with the way we are dealing with it.
"If the problem escalates, we will have no option but to do something else. It is totally disrespectful to one of Celtic's favourite sons and we are not taking it lightly."
It is widely believed that Rangers fans used the chant as a replacement for the sanctioned song "The Billy Boys" as their number one anthem and see themselves as some form of moral guardians in advertising the alledged cover up of a child abuse.
These bastions of truth and justice must feel mighty proud as they sit on their high horses in their ivory towers on top of the moral high ground. The fact that this campaign has filtered down to the lower leagues and has been commented on by Gordon Smith in a match between Newton Stewart and Linlithgow Rose is all the more sickening.
It highlights the fact that Celtic Football Club and the communities who follow it still have a long way to go to enjoy the kind of equality they should expect in the year 2007!
I have commented on this before on these pages, I even posted a picture of Stein helping Willie Waddell carry the injured onto stretchers after the Ibrox disaster. It had no effect on these sick oxygen thieves.
I can almost imagine the perpetrators of this campaign waiting patiently for years to unearth this campaign. It has been almost twenty years since the Jim Torbett affair was reported and they have had a hell of a wait to a time when they are so down on their luck that they have nothing left to display their jingoism and superiority. In these lean times for the Rangers fans they must do something to prove that they "are the people"
One waits with baited breath for the comments from Rangers Football Club and more importantly the Rangers Trust. One wonders what the opinions are of the fans group although I feel they will suddenly become very silent and self-effacing on this matter.
Yours in Celtic, and in Big Jock’s Memory
Clydebuilt