They fought the law and the law won
Published Date:
14 October 2007
SOMETIMES, punishments don't seem to fit crimes. But, when the Old Firm met 20 years ago this week, the absence of a real crime failed to prevent punishment of an unprecedented nature. And the winding, wilfully obtuse and downright whacky route from football clash to courtroom stramash guarantees the 2-2 draw between the ancient Glasgow rivals at Ibrox on Saturday, October 17, 1987 will forever retain a unique infamy.
Neither before nor since has the derby led to breach of the peace charges against any players. Argy-bargy between Celtic's Frank McAvennie and Rangers English trio Chris Woods, Terry Butcher and Graham Roberts that fraught, fearsomely fiery afternoon, however, was all the authorities required to make an example of miscreant footballers.
They attempted to throw the book at Goldilocks and the Three Bears, as the quartet became known, and ended up creating a warped fairytale - with only a partial happy ending. At a hearing the following April, McAvennie was found not guilty and Roberts not proven. Woods was found guilty and fined £500 and Butcher found guilty and fined £250.
All because, in the 17th minute of that fateful encounter, McAvennie clipped Woods round the lug, only for the keeper to respond by thumping him on the face with his forearm. Butcher then joined the fray and pushed the Celtic striker away before Roberts steamed in and grabbed his opponent by the throat and knocked him to the ground.
"It is so crazy, so far-fetched what followed that day. And it is bloody Sod's Law that the first time the police got involved in a football game, I just had to be in the middle of it," says McAvennie. "The scrap between us is the sort of thing that happens in football games up and down the country every week. There was a lot of tension and we were all maybe a bit hyped up. But, really, I only raised my hand to stop me falling over. Three bigger boys did the naughty stuff, honest."
The altercation was certainly unedifying, as so much of the sectarian-scarred contest was back then. But it made for a football spectacle of the most compelling, car-wreck-entertaining, kind. As did a scattering of moments during a confrontation later described as "the best Old Firm game I ever played in" by Andy Walker, who opened the scoring for Celtic in the 33rd minute. From the early exchanges - when McAvennie bundled Woods into the net because he liked "hitting keepers" - till the 92nd minute - when emergency goalkeeper Roberts conducted a rendition of The Sash by Rangers fans once Richard Gough had netted a last-gasp equaliser for a home side who had been 2-0 down - it was gladiatorial combat at its rawest.
And Butcher seemed constantly in the thick of it. Booked for his part in the defining melee, he deflected the ball into his own net for the 35th minute counter that led Peter Grant to celebrate by blessing himself in the front of the Celtic support. Finally, Butcher was sent-off, shortly after Ally McCoist had pulled a goal back in the 65th minute.
"Everything happened to me in four-and-a-half years at Rangers and quite a few things were sparked by those two hours," he says. "But kids not born then will see the incident we ended up in court for and be left asking: what the hell was that all about?"
For Butcher, it was all about a sinister desire of the British government to put football and footballers in their place. Hooliganism that blighted the 1980s, most shamefully at Heysel in 1985, had caused the sport to be viewed in political circles as a stain on society. "I have no doubt that there was government interference and pressure applied from the highest level to bring convictions against us. We were convenient scapegoats, we were the role models who had to be slapped down and told how to behave so that the supporters would get the message. It was pathetic, but made for a nightmare time as the legal wheels turned," he says.
McAvennie shares Butcher's belief that unseen forces were driving a case that rapidly began to appear comical. Not that he is willing to absolve the game's officialdom. "The referee, Jake Duncan, panicked," he says. "I don't think he ever took charge of another high profile game and I don't have an ounce of sympathy. I remember when he showed Chris the red, I thought 'God, that's harsh' as I waited for a yellow. When he then sent me off as well, I just could not believe it."
In the immediate aftermath, the two club chairman, David Holmes of Rangers and Jack McGinn of Celtic, held a three-hour meeting at which they discussed possible implications. Glasgow's Procurator Fiscal, Sandy Jessop, swung into action and, on November 1, the quartet were summoned to Govan police station to face the charge of "conduct likely to provoke a breach of the peace among spectators".
"I remember getting a call from my manager, big Billy McNeill, on a Sunday morning telling me I had to go along that day," McAvennie says. "I had been out the night before for a good few drinks, surprisingly, and my head wasn't exactly right, so I couldn't really take it in. As I headed into the station, there were so many photographers' flashbulbs going off I felt as if I was walking down a catwalk."
Over the next couple of weeks, suspicions firmed up that worldwide publicity the case was attracting merely strengthened the prosecutor's determination to press for convictions. The two clubs agreed a joint defence and appointed one of Scotland's best-known solicitors, Len Murray, to represent the players. Initially, Murray sought to coax Jessop to drop the matter. Instead, the Procurator Fiscal intimated in the pair's early discussions that he could have gone further and obtained convictions against Grant and Roberts for "provocative" gestures.
Jessop insisted to Murray that the final decision on any court appearance for the four accused rested entirely with him. Yet, this seemed to run contrary to his admission that he had sought advice from the Crown Office and watched a videotape of the incident in the company of the Solicitor-General for Scotland, the Lord Advocate and two Advocates-Depute. It also emerged Jessop felt pricked to pursue the case following Butcher's downplaying of Roberts' conducting act in the Rangers News that he perceived as failing to appreciate the seriousness of the matter.
On November 20, the charge against the players was refined to "while participating in a football match, you did conduct yourself in a disorderly manner and commit a breach of the peace". For Butcher, then confined to his bed having suffered a leg break the previous week, this necessitated a visit from the other boys in blue.
"It was ridiculous," he says. "This big constable had to come into my room and he was mortified. 'I know this is daft and I hate to do this Terry as a big Rangers supporter, but I have to charge you,' he said. It would have been laughable were it not so serious."
The trial began on April 12, 1988. The assistant chief constable of Strathclyde, John Dickson, spent a day in the witness stand giving the impression that the actions of McAvennie, Woods, Butcher and Roberts had come dangerously close to provoking public disorder on a grand scale. "There was unbridled hatred on the faces of some of the fans when they were shouting obscenities and insults at each other." Without enlisting reinforcements in response to the incident, Dickson insisted a pitch invasion would have ensued.
Passing sentence, Sheriff Archibald McKay said Woods' involvement had been much more serious than the others stating that video "clearly established that you jabbed McAvennie on the chin with your left forearm. It was an assault which constituted breach of the peace." The sheriff also deemed Butcher guilty of a "violent push...which might reasonably have been expected to upset other Celtic players and their support". In summing up, he damned all the codefendants, who sat in the dock together. "A large percentage of supporters are readily converted by breaches of the peace into two rival mobs. That they were not so transformed is no credit to you. You must have been aware of your wider responsibilities and you failed to discharge them."
McAvennie still sees the case differently. "Chris and Terry were given criminal records because we four players were exploited to further the ambitions of others in legal circles. We were a test case. No actions have been brought against players in similar fashion since 1987 because the test failed."
The jailing of Duncan Ferguson over his headbutt on Jock McStay in 1995 doesn't stand comparison. Ferguson then was on probation for an earlier offence. Butcher believes the authorities never again will wade in to the football domain with tackety boots because they now respect the game's disciplinary procedures. Doing so in 1987, however, almost brought about drastic consequences. "Because Rangers felt we had been victimised, they said they wouldn't stand in our way if we wanted to go back down south," Butcher reveals. "But I told [Graeme] Souness I wanted to stay."
The defender admits he and his countrymen allowed themselves to be "sucked in" to the unseemly side of the Old Firm. And for Murray, the case was best summed up by the supposed quirks of some south of the Border. "There is an old Turkish saying which goes 'An Englishman will burn his bed to catch a flea'," the solicitor said. "The Crown burned its bed."
The full article contains 1625 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
-
Last Updated:
13 October 2007 9:48 PM
-
Source:
Scotland On Sunday
-
Location:
Scotland
-
Related Topics:
The Old Firm
