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The following article appeared in December 1974 in an edition of 'Foul – The Alternative Football Paper'.
Preceding the fanzine boom of the mid-1980s by more than a decade, 'Foul' was published by a group of Cambridge University students disillusioned by the sterile mainstream coverage of football. Launched in 1972 the satirical publication ran until 1976 when the team of writers ran out of money to fund the project. Needless to say, the article below is of the type unlikely to ever appear in the established Scottish press.
About the author: Alan Stewart was one of a group of Cambridge University undergraduates who set up “Foul*1 – Football’s alternative newspaper”. Alan was a great fan of Scottish football and when FOUL ran a feature on two football teams to take to a desert island he chose Scotland and Spurs, his favourite English club.
In a short life Alan had a very successful journalistic career, which was sadly cut short in 1985 when he was killed after the car in which his Thames television team was travelling hit a landmine as they returned from an interview with rebels in southern Sudan. (See reports below).
It is apparent from the Falling Masonry article and other articles from Foul that Alan was a good investigative journalist and his report in this instance is 100% accurate and can be verified by reference to the Sheriff’s damages judgement*2 and the appeal judgement of the Sheriff Principal *2.
Alan’s prediction that Ranger’s would appeal Sheriff Smith’s findings of fact however was not accurate as they accepted the Sheriff’s decision in relation to fact and only contested the calculation of the damages awarded against them.
The quotes in the above article from FOUL are taken from the detailed reasoning accompanying the Sheriff’s decision in the damages case against Rangers and can also be found in the autobiography of Sheriff Irvine Smith*3 . Interestingly in his book Irvine Smith states that thirty, and nearly forty years after his decision, he is viewed with disapproval from some Rangers’ supporting friends, who accuse him of “disloyalty”.
*1 Source: National Library of Scotland, Ref: Shelfmark: HP1.77.3658 PER
*2 Source: National Records of Scotland, Ref: SC36/1972/1/3 Interlocutors (viewing by appointment only).
*3 Law, Life and Laughter; A personal verdict. Black & White publishers. ISBN: 978 1 84502 356 0
