Dark Corners

Dark Corners

When I was a kid I used to watch my old man’s face light up when Muhammad Ali was on TV. Of course he enjoyed the boxing skills of Ali who was one of the greatest fighters of all time, but he also liked Ali’s self-confident pronouncements on everything from the Vietnam War and racism to his poetic predictions for his next fight. ‘Jumpin Jive, I’ll take him in five!’ the champ would say before despatching his opponent with his usual grace and power. It wasn’t just that Ali was a great fighter and a lippy character that made my old man warm to him. He also knew something of the racism and discrimination Ali and the African American community in general suffered and on that level empathised with him. Maybe it was the Irish in my old fella that made him side with the underdog but he would watch Ali on TV and nod, ‘Aye you fuckin’ tell them, Ali.’ Every fight Ali won stuck it to those who despised him for being what they hated most; a confident, outspoken and successful black man.

Race and the legacy of slavery have been in the news virtually every day since the death of George Floyd in the USA. Modern camera phones are recording with depressing regularity a minority of American law enforcement officers reacting with brutal and sometimes lethal force against African American men. This has led to prolonged and often violent protests in American cities and indeed around the world. Here in the UK we have seen statues attacked and defaced and in truth some of the actions seen at demonstrations seem counter-productive to the cause they seek to highlight.

Into this febrile atmosphere John Barnes, one time manager of Celtic, seemed to suggest that race played a part in his ill-fated 8 month stint as Celtic manager. Unusually for a high profile former footballer, he crossed swords with folk all day long on twitter in an often vain attempt to persuade them that unconscious bias played a part in his downfall at Celtic. Twitter is a notoriously difficult place to discuss such heavy matters and he had no shortage of voices willing to defend Celtic as they saw it from his apparent accusation.

Barnes is an intelligent and articulate man who undoubtedly speaks from the heart when discussing the cancer of racism. He gave a very interesting and frank interview to ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ and had 90 minutes to explain his thoughts on what went wrong at Celtic during his ill-fated time in charge. His theory; that black managers are given less time than white managers to get things right does seem to ring true especially if you look at the experience of some in England but was this really the case at Celtic?

He arrived in June 1999 and was welcomed with great excitement by the Celtic fans who cared not a jot for his ethnicity; here was a man who was a superb footballer in his day and fans hoped that magic would replicate itself in the dugout. He stated that certain players were awkward with him from the start and there were cliques and arguments about money. As usual the Scottish press didn’t help and it seemed certain players were happy to leak stories from inside Celtic Park. That was difficult enough for a rookie manager but it was compounded by injuries to key men, Larsson and Lambert coupled with Mark Viduka becoming unsettled and these factors saw the team’s early promise dissipate as winter arrived.

A wretched display during the cup exit to Inverness Caley Thistle at Celtic Park was to be the final act in the Barnes tenure in charge. Celtic, in their usual ham-fisted  way handled his dismissal poorly but did he deserve to go? Would he, as he suggested, have been given more time if he was white? Barnes admits that not having the dressing room nor indeed, the boardroom behind him, doomed his Celtic career from the outset. His central thesis that White Managers are given more time though is difficult to sustain. He was fired after 8 months in charge when a series of matches were lost. Three days before that ICT match, Hearts came from 0-2 down to win 3-2 at Celtic Park. All was clearly not well behind the scenes and these man management issues were perhaps more critical to his chances of remaining in post than the poor results. Either way the combination of both was fatal to his Celtic career.

When faced with a struggling team behind at half time against ICT, a manager and his coaching staff need to reorganise and motivate the team to turn it around. Mark Viduka’s response to Eric Black cajoling him to try harder was deeply unprofessional but perhaps not unexpected from this volatile player. They ended up coming to blows and Viduka refused to play in the second half. It contributed to that disastrous exit from the cup and Barnes’ downfall as head coach. That there were strong characters in the dressing room and cliques among some players is no excuse for a manager losing control in that manner but perhaps as a rookie coach he wasn’t given the support he needed. He said…

‘I never had the dressing room, when I got there on day one, I didn’t have the dressing room. The players didn’t like me. It had nothing to do with my race.’

Barnes’ theory that unconscious bias works against black coaches in football is an interesting and in the context of English football, a not unconvincing one. However it seems unlikely that the club who gave John Barnes the job just 8 months earlier would, even subconsciously, fire him with more haste than they would a failing white manager; Lou Macari was sacked after 8 months and Tony Mowbray after 9. Both of these managers would admit themselves that results were not good enough and that this cost them their jobs.

Barnes demonstrated a lack of understanding of the Celtic psyche when he suggested that had Jock Stein and Kenny Dalglish not been as successful as they were at Celtic then their Protestant upbringing would have seen them given less time than a Catholic to turn things around. This struck me as ludicrous; this is the club of John Thomson, Bertie Peacock, Bobby Evans, Tommy Gemmell and Henrik Larsson. We pride ourselves on being inclusive and indeed used it as a contrast to the tawdry and grubby policy pursued by our main rivals for over 70 years.   Kenny did endure barren spells at Celtic and the club wasn’t always successful during his playing career there but no one was demanding he went; on the contrary many where devastated when he did finally leave in 1977. Jock Stein had a nightmare final season as boss in 1977-78 but there was no clamouring for his head as fans recognised the contribution he had made to Celtic. Rather many supporters were disgusted at the way the board of the time handled his departure.

Barnes also stated that that ‘Celtic is no more racist, nor less racist, than any other club’ and when reminded that it was Celtic fans who renamed Glasgow Streets in honour of some of the victims of racism said; ’So because of George Floyd we are we outraged now?’ Implying that Celtic fans are jumping on the ‘Black lives matter’ bandwagon now is to deny long years of anti-racism activity from many supporters. We’ve all seen the banners condemning racism at Celtic games. We’ve seen the anti-discrimination football tournament the Green Brigade organise every year. We supported the ‘match the fine for Palestine’ campaign which raised over a quarter of a million pounds for Palestinian charities. 

Yes, there will be some racists among the Celtic support as we saw with the despicable behaviour of some towards Mark Walters 32 years ago but the furious reaction of the majority to that incident spoke volumes. It was wrong, it was wicked and it against everything Celtic stands for. To this day we have hypocritical Rangers fans reminding Celtic supporters about the Walters incident and conveniently forgetting it came at a time when they were only just contemplating playing Catholic players after a lifetime of footballing apartheid. Indeed at the game in which Walters was so despicably abused their supporters continued their ‘fuck the pope’ songs throughout.

To imply Celtic supporters are only interested in anti-racist activities since the tragic death of George Floyd is simply wrong. There are many articles on this various subject down the years written by Celtic supporters condemning racism. I have even written some myself. Barnes also made a statement when reminded of the prejudice Celtic and their community have faced in Scotland which struck me as odd. He said; ‘Anti-Irish racism in Scotland? The Irish aren’t a different race, that’s not racism.’ This is the old trope we have seen regularly in Scotland; reduce racism to sectarianism and then blame both sides as being equally culpable.

I like John Barnes as a man and as a footballer. He fights for what he believes in and speaks with inteligence about an issue that clearly impacted upon him during his footballing career and indeed in his life. I do believe though that the fact he had little control over his players at Celtic and the subsequent sequence of results cost him his job and that bias, unconscious or otherwise, played no part in it.

As a society and as individuals we must seek to eradicate prejudice of all sorts. That means challenging it when it rears its ugly head and not being afraid to shine a light into our own dark corners.

My old man’s favourite boxer said when he was drafted into the army at the time of the Vietnam war… 

'Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so called negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human right?' 

Ali called out the hypocrisy and racism he saw around him in 1960s America. I hope we all have the courage to do so in our own time.