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'There is an agenda against Rangers over sectarianism', says SFA chief

Gordon Smith, the chief executive of the SFA, has entered the debate about sectarianism in Scottish football and claimed that there is “an agenda against Rangers” in a widespread interview which is shortly to be published.

Smith, who has made a number of controversial statements since taking over the reins at the SFA in June, has also claimed that, in terms of Old Firm supporters’ chanting, Rangers are given a harder time than Celtic in the current debate about sectarianism in the game.

The SFA chief, who played for Rangers for three season in the late 1970s, makes his comments in a chapter he has contributed to a new book about Rangers, entitled It’s Rangers For Me?, which is shortly to go on sale.

“Celtic make a point of extolling their background and tradition,” Smith says. “They are quite happy to say that they have a tradition of Irish Catholicism, and that they are a club founded by Brother Walfrid and immigrants to this country. And I am very comfortable with that.

“But why is there a problem when Rangers come out and say similar things? Why is it a problem when Rangers come out and say they were set up by people from a Church of Scotland upbringing and that they have a Unionist background?”

Full story at The Times.