Football.co.uk's Dan Brett reflects on Wednesday night's fiery Old Firm derby.
In the same fortnight that saw Wayne Rooney elbow an opponent in the face, and Ashley Cole shoot a work-experience boy with an air rifle, football once again plunged itself into controversy on Wednesday night.
Celtic and Rangers took to the field in a fiery Scottish Cup clash, resulting in three red cards and a touch-line scrap between Neil Lennon and Ally McCoist. With these games notoriously aggravated affairs by nature anyway, little was needed to stoke the fire - enter, El-Hadji Diouf.
With two players already sent off, Diouf received his marching orders after the full time whistle had blown, earning a second yellow card for dissent towards the referee. He then walked towards the Rangers fans' segregation and threw his top into the crowd in a further act of rebellion against officials and Bhoys fans.
The winger joined Rangers in January on loan from Blackburn Rovers, and has already had his fair share of trouble with Celtic. He was subject to abuse from Scott Brown, who aimed a two-handed fist pump celebration towards Diouf, further highlighting that frustrations towards Diouf still haven't gone away.
Diouf is no stranger to altercations as far as Celtic fans' are concerned, with the Senegalese international caught by TV cameras spitting at fans during a UEFA Cup Quarter-Final back in his Liverpool days.
Wednesday night's match gave me an decreased feeling of pride for the sport I've grown up with and known to love, especially considering some of the headlines made in recent weeks by supposed 'top athletes of their time'.
These people are role models, and supposed to be setting a good example to not just the next generations of athletes, but to children everywhere - something that seemingly has skipped their minds of late.
That, and especially the Ashley Cole affair (and how many times have we heard those three words recently?). Taking an air rifle to a training complex is silly enough, firing it without checking if it was loaded is beyond crazy - but for no action to be taken because it's based on private property further highlights the class divide between footballers and the rest of the country.
If you or I were to shoot someone with an air rifle, we'd have charges slapped on us left, right and centre with little we could do about it - but as soon as you sign for a Premier League club, apparently you're above and beyond the law and can even go and deliberately elbow a fellow professional in the jaw if you feel like it.
Assault in any case is a serious crime, so to have three separate acts of violence and aggravation televised in such short proximity can do no good for Britain's footballing reputation, and these events just highlight to me just how right FIFA were to not award us the World Cup.
Of course, this is just my opinion, but to host such a major tournament in a place where even the players can't behave themselves could further make a mockery of our country, adding to an already-established history of football hooliganism and thug culture.
Source: DSG
