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Burns on bigotry: We are all fed up talking about it, fed up listening to it, fed up living in it

Former Celtic manager Tommy Burns reflects on Old Firm sectarianism on a day when the leader of Scotland's Roman Catholics, Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien, and the moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rt Rev Alan McDonald, were at the Celtic-Rangers game at Parkhead having been invited as a gesture of "inclusion" from Celtic.

Burns' deep personal religious belief did not prevent him longing for the day when such symbolic invitations would seem as odd and incongruous as the church leaders being asked to watch, say, Dunfermline against Dundee United.

Today's gesture is well-intentioned, but it gives substance to the impression that Celtic playing Rangers can be seen in a religious context.

"I think the saddest thing about the Old Firm rivalry is the people who have lost their lives after these games in the past, for such stupid reasons," said Burns, who managed Celtic against Walter Smith's Rangers 14 times between 1994 and 1997.

"This is football. I remember Jock Stein always said that: it's just a game. To think that people can go out with hatred in their heart and take away people's sons or brothers or fathers is just beyond belief. That's the way I think about it now: it's only a game."

He adds: "It's only the morons who keep the sectarian stuff going. As long as they are out there and influencing their own children to be that way we will always have a problem. But with new initiatives and things like the Old Firm Alliance, hopefully the children can grow up, think for themselves and get to the stage where they don't want to be tainted by bigotry or sectarianism. Please God that can be something that can come quickly, because we are all fed up talking about it, fed up listening to it, fed up living in it."

Full story at the Sunday Herald.