So, Murdo MacLeod doesn’t think there’s a case for stripping the EE of any silverware and bunting that may have been acquired “illicitly”, eh?  Wonder what he’d be saying if it had tainted the era he played in!  Well,  surely it can’t go that far back.

All I can say is, “Try telling that to Neil Lennon, Murdo!”

No.  In the event that the current “financial doping” allegations prove true; and if he’s brutally honest with himself, I think Murdo would feel a whole lot different if he’d undergone the kind of gut-wrenching disappointments the likes of Lenny and his team-mates, or Tommy Burns before them, had to endure, only to discover down the line that their tormentors had been CHEATING … season after season and ALL SEASON LONG, not just in specific games, however high-profile.  If his own professional record had been undermined by such sustained CHEATING, would he not take a different view?

Whatever the sport, where blatant CHEATING is exposed, be it abuse of substances, rule-breaking or bending, financial impropriety, or whatever, the perpetrators should be and often are held to account, sometimes even retrospectively and punished accordingly – up to and including forfeiture of any demonstrably ill-gotten gains.  Cases such as Alberto Contador, Ben Johnson, Melbourne Storm, Juventus (et al) and FC Sion (remember them?) come readily to mind. There are many more.

Scottish football and its clubs, be it Rangers, Hearts, Dundee, Gretna, Celtic, or anybody else, are no different. Rules are rules – break them at your peril.  Sporting and competitive integrity depend on their observance.

I have nothing but admiration for Murdo MacLeod and his prominent place in Celtic history.  Who will ever forget his last-minute pile-driver of a clinching goal on the day “Ten Men Won The League”?  I am sure he treasures his record and would deplore anything that might have diminished or besmirched it.

Which is why, on this issue, I believe he is fundamentally wrong.

Sorry, Murdo!

Johnbhoy