Neil Cameron: Rangers' Alfredo Morelos statement left me baffled

I don’t do anti-social media anymore. However, I’m kept up to date, to an extent, about what is trending by friends who send links and screenshots. This happened on Monday and I swear I thought what arrived was a joke.

That bonkers Rangers statement had to have been made up by (probably) a Celtic fan with way too much time on their hands. I had to triple-check that it was in fact ‘official’ and had appeared on the club website. Struthian, it was not.

And the thing is it started to so well.

“Now that the Police have charged an individual with racially abusing Alfredo Morelos at the Old Firm game on 29 December, it is necessary to state yet again that racist abuse, indeed abuse of any form, must never be condoned or dismissed.”

Quite right. Although I am struggling to recall anyone condoning racist abuse. Sure, people attempt to point-score and too often pretend their support is, cough, whiter than white, but backing a player being abused for the colour of their skin doesn’t have any public support.

The statement goes on to say that “Rangers had a duty of care not to say anything that might compromise a live Police Scotland investigation.” I agree, but then the author goes on to comment on a live case which I won’t repeat here.

A 12-year-old has been charged (not found innocent or guilty) for racially abusing Morelos at the Old Firm game.

“What none of us should ever do, however, is dismiss, or trivialise abusive behaviour as too many media outlets, journalists, and pundits have done in this instance.”

Now, I may have missed the trivialising of racism. Please send me a link to any comment piece which has done so. The outcry was all about THAT Morelos interview which was wrongly translated.

Anyway.

“If enough of our media had been of a mind to treat the issue with the gravity required from the outset, as normally happens with these issues, there would have been none of the dismissive comments which have helped pollute social media, newspapers and broadcast platforms. Social media is, of course, largely lawless but some of the pieces written and broadcast around Alfredo Morelos in mainstream media were and remain disgraceful.”

Hmm. We can debate until the cows come back from holiday about whether Scotland’s media does enough to tackle the issue of racism, and indeed sectarianism. This is an attempt, and not a very good one, to detract from Sky misquoting Morelos, the fall-out to that and how such an error could happen.

Also, my irony meter just blew up.

“He has been described as a waster, a cheat, an angry brat and one columnist/pundit actually wrote that if you can’t take the vitriol you are in the wrong city. The implication seems to be that the fault lies not with those who choose racism and abuse, but with a young immigrant who chose to come to our country.”

Again, most criticism has been aimed at his temper, especially last season, but not where he comes from. I can recall one ill-judged piece about the Colombian but that’s one article among perhaps a million words.

Morelos has been treated like any other footballer who plays for one of the big two. The ‘young immigrant’ mention is unnecessary. This isn’t a lad fleeing away. He’s a millionaire playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world.

“When a player is at the centre of an abuse claim he is treated with respect and sensitivity and given support. That is certainly the case in England, but not here and most certainly not with Alfredo Morelos, who is actually being demonised in many quarters of the media.”

This is nonsense. Morelos has never been demonised and even those who don’t like him as a player – and for the record I’m a big fan – would never say he deserves racist abuse. Oh, and England has a far greater problem with this issue than we have.

“A river of negative and hurtful attention has been flowing towards the Morelos family without thought or concern for the individuals involved and the way they have been treated is shameful. Especially vulgar is the manner in which claims of abuse, racist and sectarian, have been dismissed in some quarters – BBC Scotland in particular – where the overall situation has been mocked amid outrageous claims that Rangers were behind the leaking of certain stories. None of this shows our media and country in a good light.”

Where to begin. Nothing has been mocked. It was legitimate to question whether Morelos was racially abused at Celtic Park given he made no mention of it in the Sky interview – albeit the translation claimed that he did.

To ask that question is not the same as saying ‘abusing a player because of his race is really fine’ and only a moron would think so.

Dismissing racism would be a dreadful thing to do but, again, I see no evidence of it.

The only story is what abuse Morelos endured, which we will leave the courts to decide on Planet Adult, and how on earth did that translation get out and be so wrong. Nothing else matters.

I wonder what Steven Gerrard thinks of all this. He is a clever and decent man, someone who just being him has given Scottish football a greater profile. My guess is he would rather not have to deal with such nonsense given what else he has to be getting on with.

I’m sure the statement went down well with some. However, this is Rangers Football Club. They must be better than this. Who really is running that place?

AND ANOTHER THING. . .

CAN I, for the 700th time, play tribute to the great Dick Campbell.

His Arbroath side sit just outside the Premiership play-off places, which is utterly ridiculous. What right do a small part-time club from Angus, whose home games are played two inches from the North Sea, have in being in such a lofty position.

Dick, twin brother Ian, John Young and big Rab Douglas have done a remarkable job at Gayfield.

We go way back do the bold Dick and me. I’d phone up for a chat and he’d say: “Neil, son, just make it up and make me f****** intelligent.” The man is a legend.