ANOTHER BEAR CAUGHT CHEATING

After all the furore about the Russian doping scandal, there are calls for Russia to be banned from the Rio Olympics. (Though some athletes might see that as a blessing, given the scare stories about the Zika virus.) Some folk are arguing that cheating goes on in all sports, and they’re perfectly correct. It wouldn’t be fair if all American cyclists were banned from competitions because of the actions of Lance Armstrong. What happened in Russia, however, is totally different; the nation’s sports authorities, and possibly the government, colluded with their athletes and helped cover up the cheating. In fact, it even looks as if the Russian sports authorities and the Russian government instigated the cheating in the first place.

Vladimir Putin claims that the calls for Russia to be banned are politically motivated, saying, ‘Yes, the form of interference has changed but the goal is the same: to make sport an instrument to apply geopolitical pressure.’ That sounds familiar; presumably the whole world is full of ‘Russia-Hayturz’.

Rather remarkably, given what a huge story it is, the Scottish media seem to be ignoring it. I wonder why…

Keith Jackson is already trying to stick the daggers into Brendan Rodgers. That one game in Gibraltar, in seems, is enough for him to see problems galore for Celtic in the coming season. Meanwhile, Neo-Gers, after one match against Motherwell, are world-beaters that are going to set the Premiership alight. No mention, of course, of the fact that it was only Motherwell’s poor finishing that allowed Warbs’s team to escape a drubbing. Yes, Rodgers is going to have to do a bit of pruning but it’s far too early to start making predictions. Jackson, though, has his Level 5 agenda to pursue and hopes to sow as much discontent as possible.

Apparently, according to Jackson and the rest of the Daily Levellers, the Premiership is going to be a straight fight between Celtic and Neo-Gers. Strangely, they were praising Aberdeen to the heavens last season and going on about what a wonderful job Derek McInnes was doing. So what’s changed? Oh…aye. Meanwhile, Hearts and every other team in the top tier are just going to stand aside and let the new team have free reign. Either that or the expectation is that Barton will put so many players in hospital that they’ll all find it hard to field their best team.

For some reason, and I can’t for the life of me remember what it was, I was looking up the term ipse dixit yesterday. The phrase literally means he himself said it and means, both in Philosophy and Law, accepting the word of an expert without any evidence to back it up. It seems in America that such ‘expert testimony’ is no longer considered enough and the Supreme Court has made a ruling that a judgment can’t be made merely on the ipse dixit of an expert. Perhaps the agnivores in the Scottish media should have a read at that Supreme Court decision. After all, no proof whatsoever has been provided to say that the team playing out of Ibrox is ‘stull Raynjurz’. All we have are the ipse dixits (or ipsi dixeunt) of men that you wouldn’t trust to run a bath, never mind a nation’s football.

I’m hearing that Warbs has decided to take a leaf out of Rangers’ book. Remember how, whenever a team beat Celtic in Europe you could practically guarantee that one member of that team would show up at Ibrox? Well, Warbs is doing the same with his new team, seeking a partner for Joey Barton in midfield. The problem is, though, that most of the Lincoln Red Imps lads have day jobs, so Warbs has had to widen his net to the rest of Gibraltar. A big fucker of a Barbary ape has already been crated up and is on its way to Govan. It’s hard to say which midfielder will be the more wild and vicious.

Finally, Harry Forrester is in the Daily Record, saying how all the new ‘stars’ won’t really know what the club’s all about until they walk out at Ibrox. He’s got that right. Ninety minutes of bigotry and racism while some wee men hold up the roofs with claes poles. Pretty much sums it up!

 

Warbs continues to look for free agents.