There's Grace Kelly...

Well I have to say that there’s a small part of me wanting Celtic to win the Scottish Cup.

Why do we have to call it Scottish by the way – why don’t they call theirs “The English Cup”? But I digress and I told myself I wouldn’t write about politics for a change!

I’m not half Irish or anything like that, though I am in fact half-Welsh and half-Austrian should you be interested in my unusual ancestry.

One of my best friends is a Celtic season-ticket holder. But it’s nothing to do with him having a good day though I hope he does.

I don’t have anything (much) against Motherwell, though the fact that they turned into a bit of a bogey team for Dundee United this season is a unfortunate side-issue. Like most Arabs my memories of the “Family Final” are all of a fantastic day out.

I have every sympathy for Neil Lennon and cannot begin to comprehend how it must feel to be the target of such a campaign of hatred and tribal venom. But no it’s not that either.

It’s just quite simply pure unadulterated self-interest of the Tannadice type! Celtic win the cup….and we’re in Europe next season.

Now it may not last long – our last 2 expeditions have seen us fall at the first hurdle, but to an Arab of my age it rekindles memories of Barcelona, Monaco and Borussia Monchengladbach and the like. So I digress to have a quick listen to Michael Marra’s classic  Hamish the Goalie with its immortal line: “There's Grace Kelly by Taylor Brothers' Coal” and wallow in the nostalgia of times gone by never to return.

Now that I’ve listened to that, six times so far, perhaps I should move on to something of more substance, but to be honest my heart’s not in it today, and I’m quite content to dwell on the past for a while.

And what better to round off this story than a blast from the past which reminds me what my football is all about.  No sectarianism, no religion, no hatred. Just sheer unadulterated joy on this particular day!

Proud to be an Arab!