Fierce Genius by Andy Bollen

Author:Andy Bollen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2021-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Season: 1983/84

UEFA Cup, St Mirren, Spurs, Hoddle and Hooliganism

LEADING INTO the first De Klassieker of the season, Feyenoord had travelled to Scotland to face St Mirren in the UEFA Cup. Cruyff would later grow to love Scotland because of the golf courses, particularly the Old Course at St Andrews which was, conveniently enough, a regular place Barcelona would use for their pre-season preparations. Dundee United happened to train at St Andrews University. While Barca trained at St Andrews and played friendlies against east coast sides like Dundee United and Hibernian, Cruyff would be out on the golf course.

There was no time to play a round on this occasion as they flew over on 14 September 1983 to play a fine St Mirren side at their old ground, Love Street. A crowd of 10,211 packed in to see the hosts valiantly take on the Dutch giants. The Scots were unlucky. They had been moulded into an effective and powerful team, coached by Ricky McFarlane, and should’ve got more from the match. John ‘Cowboy’ McCormack valiantly man-marked Cruyff but the star of the show was Ruud Gullit, the man of the match, who scored the only goal of the night after 29 minutes.

Sadly, this game would be marred by the racist abuse aimed at Gullit. If those shouting at the player want to understand the long-term effect of racial abuse and spitting on people because of their colour, listen to Gullit. You can hear the deep emotional scarring it has left. Gullit was a few years into his stellar career in 1983, one which would see him play for Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven, AC Milan, Sampdoria and Chelsea and appear in some of central Europe’s more right-wing nations for club and country. Many of those were hardly places renowned for their tolerance and open-mindedness yet it’s a game against St Mirren, in Paisley, Scotland, which still troubles him to this day. Gullit, decades later, said, ‘The Scots booed me because of my colour. It started at the warm-up and went on when I scored. I was even spat on. It was the saddest night of my life in football.’

Not everyone in Paisley or Scotland is the same. We apologise for that, we’d like to think we have learned from this time and as always, some idiots ruin it for everyone. Though in 2014, after signing for £2.4m from Groningen, Celtic’s Virgil van Dijk was subjected to ‘monkey chants and ape-like gestures’ from a St Mirren fan. It’s about actions, and how we are perceived. It’s not only St Mirren and Scottish football, indeed Scottish society has a problem. Scotland loves to imagine itself as a warm, welcoming, open-minded and tolerant country, but we are not. It is delusional to assume we are. Things are improving but racism and homophobia still exist, not only in the working-class backwaters but across many facets of society.

Cruyff would play in Scotland four times in competitive games across his career. In 1970/71, he played for Ajax against Celtic in the European Cup.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.