Out, damned SFA head … the John McBeth story

By: Ian Rose | May 29th, 2007

Yeah, when I saw this story, being both the Scotland beat blogger and a Shakespeare nerd, I got a little overwhelmed. I thought about adding in comments about daggers in mens’ smiles and Scotland standing where it did … but I got over it.

For those of you not keeping up with the news in Scotland, Scottish FA president John McBeth, who was about to take over as FIFA British Vice-President, is being accused of racism by several CONCACAF members after making comments about African and Caribbean football leagues.

One of the comments that started it all:

“By and large, the four British countries know what fair play is and when we’re stepping out of line. But, as soon as you hit Africa, it’s a slightly different kettle of fish. They’re poor nations and want to grab what they can. I presume that the Caribbean is much the same - they just come at it in a different way.”

McBeth’s case will be the first to be seen by FIFA’s new ethics committee, but I can’t imagine he’ll be taking the position at FIFA regardless of the outcome. It’s impossible for me to say whether his comments really were racially motivated (the mention of only African and Caribbean football doesn’t help), but regardless, it was a stupid thing to say. McBeth represents not only Scottish football, but Scotland itself, and has done a very poor job at both. I’d like to personally apologize for his comments on behalf of Scotland fans - he does not represent our views, and those of us that take issues of racism in football seriously, as many Scotland fans do, will push for McBeth to be removed not only from his FIFA position, but from any leadership position in Scottish football as well.