Only in Scotland would the return of a player who was convicted of using a bigoted term be reported as a jovial event.
Only in Scotland is sectarianism deemed an acceptable form of racism and only in Scotland is such a hate crime not taken as seriously as it should be.
If Lafferty did what Andre Kudela did against Glen Kamara, there would be a furore in Scotland. Except that’s exactly what he did in that nightclub that night when he used the sectarian slur to describe Celtic fans.
But, as depressing as it is, star jumps and ‘helping Lafferty through it’ was all the talk in the lead-up to Saturday’s semi-final.
And a Celtic fan called Radio Clyde to convey his disgust at the matter.
The fan called the press coverage out of order and said to the panel that it was a racist slur and called out the press for making it look like Lafferty is the victim.
Speaking on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard, panellist Hugh Keevins replied, “It should be pointed out that Kilmarnock took action against Kyle Lafferty even before the SFA took action against Kyle Lafferty.
“And Derek McInnes will understand the severity of the offence.
“We’re not talking about a daft boy we’re talking about a 35-year-old man and the nature of the offence is just that. It is deeply offensive to people.
“So, it should not be forgotten what Kyle Lafferty did.
“But again, Derek McInnes was not trying to be disrespectful, I think he was just trying to explain how the player feels as he gets the first chance to play in a competitive match for 10 weeks.”
Then maybe it should have been addressed by the media at the time then? Ask if he is remorseful. Ask if he was actually sorry for what he had done rather than turn it into a circus where Lafferty was apparently desperate to face us.
Like I said at the time, the lip service paid to this issue has done nothing to convince me that the media in this country are serious about tackling it.
Which is why we will never eradicate sectarianism from our game.