There is very little the Scottish FA or SPFL can do to stop Celtic fans from protesting the minute's silence on Remembrance Sunday, and Jim White insists the actions of those involved were far from 'peaceful'.
That's the conclusion drawn from White, Simon Jordan and Martin Keown's conversation on talkSPORT this morning.
The trio discussed a large portion of the travelling Celtic support jeering prior to and singing during the minute's silence at Rugby Park before the team's 2-0 victory over Kilmarnock yesterday.
On the airwaves this morning, White played audio from both Derek McInnes and Brendan Rodgers as they delivered their respective takes on what happened pre-match.
The Killie boss slammed the actions are 'awful', while Rodgers was more coy and cautious as he touched upon the issue but very quickly moved on.
Former Crystal Palace owner Jordan doesn't believe there is an appropriate solution to combating the issue, as ex-Arsenal invincible Keown pointed out it's a generational feeling.
Jim White opened: “Are the Scottish football authorities damned if they do and damned if they don’t?”
Simon Jordan: “I’m not entirely sure where the Scottish football authorities can go with it.
“There is a school of thought where there’s these people, however you may not like their view, have a right to express their opinions.
“If they don’t particularly appreciate the remembrance of the circumstances in which we’re all well rehearsed with the 1914 and 1945 and all that goes with it, then you can’t make them. You can’t make them.
“The fact that they get coverage is the difficult thing. If you weren’t covering it and focussing on it, and you’re expecting people to behave in a certain way then they probably would be less inclined to be as vociferous as they are.
“There is a part of me that feels ‘No I don’t like it’. I think it’s unacceptable and I think that a minute’s silence should be observed.
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“But people don’t want to and I don’t think there’s a lot that the Scottish authorities can do.
“What can they do? Reach into the minds of people and understand what they’re going to do?
“What can they can in a situation like this? Ban Celtic fans from a game if Remembrance Sunday falls on a home game because several hundreds or thousands of them might do something.
“Or, Kilmarnock could say ‘We’re not going to take any Celtic fans this weekend because we know what they’re doing to do?’”
Martin Keown: “Simon is right on this because it’s very deep-rooted.
“You’ve got a lot of Irish Catholic fans that go to those games, and there is a resistance to the British flag and the history that exists over the years with those fans and where they come from.
“I don’t think it’s an issue that is going to go away, I think it’s generational. Maybe along the line it disappears but to some people, it’s still fresh, so there’s an issue.”
White: “When it comes to Remembrance Sunday silence at all Simon, is it not a better idea to exclude Celtic from it?”
Jordan: “There is a part of me that thinks that is in part, a solution.
“What are you going to do when Celtic are playing at home on Remembrance Sunday? Are you going to say to them that they can’t have 50,000 Celtic fans inside the stadium?”
White: “I’m saying to maybe not have the silence at all.”
Jordan: “That’s the argument Derek McInnes is in part making.
“Which is that the football in Scotland and every aspect of it from how the construct of Scottish football and how it’s put together values only Rangers and Celtic.
“In that instance, what we’d be saying is that because Celtic’s fanbase, whoever big it may be, are not prepared to turn their back on that and not prepared to keep their powder dry for one minute, that the opposition have to accept that.
“So, whoever is playing in that situation, Celtic are excluded from the minute’s silence in the same way that the dreadful and revolting chants that they thought were funny to chant when Queen Elizabeth passed away and all that went with that, that they should be accepted.
“They can be tolerated, but they don’t have to be accepted, in terms of that they have these views.
“James McClean has a view. I don’t agree with his view – he takes everything back to 1972 and Bloody Sunday – and he himself talks about the poppy and standing aside.
“James McClean is entitled to an opinion. He doesn’t agree with the value of the poppy. He quite believes in the value of the wars and celebrates that.”
White: “I saw James McClean standing to one aside away from the rest of the Wrexham boys.
“I know James McClean, I want people to know out there, that I speak to him on a semi-regular basis.
“And he’s a good guy, and he’s very cooperative when it comes to doing things for this show.
“I would argue that it was almost a bit of respect from James by standing to one side. It was his own peaceful protest and that was the way he wanted to go about it.
“This was anything but peaceful at Rugby Park from the Celtic support.
“There’s Jill ‘One word, respect. There was none’. Jill’s right. Many messages coming in this morning on this.”
