The future of the Scotland football manager, Craig Brown, was under serious threat yesterday after a newspaper accused him of singing sectarian and anti-Catholic songs.
The News of the World claims it has taped evidence of the national team coach chanting the sectarian anthem "Hello, Hello, we are the Billy Boys" - which contains the line "We're up to our knees in Fenian blood, surrender or you'll die." Brown strenuously denies the career-threatening accusations of bigotry.
The accusations against Brown come six weeks after the Rangers vice-chairman, Donald Findlay, was forced to resign from his club after being videotaped singing similar anti-Catholic songs.
Sectarianism has blighted Scottish soccer for generations and the sport's governing body, the Scottish Football Association, has been working with clubs to stamp out bigotry from the game. The accusations against Brown come just as the latest round of this campaign gets under way.
Brown yesterday said in a statement he would be looking to begin legal proceedings against the News of the World this week.
"The main thrust of litigation is in respect of the allegations of bigotry, which I completely deny. I am not and never have been a bigot, as friends and colleagues of all persuasions will be able to confirm." If the News of the World's accusations prove to be correct, the SFA is certain to come under heavy pressure to sack Brown from his £200,000-a-year post.
Jack McGinn, the SFA president and a former chairman of Celtic football club, is in Los Angeles for a congress of FIFA, and was unavailable for comment.
The vice-president, John McBeth, said he was shocked by the reports, but it was too early to say whether an inquiry would be launched.
He said he did not believe that there was any substance to the allegations. "As far as I am concerned this is a piece of nonsense, describing Craig as a bigot.
"I have known the man a long time and he hasn't a bigoted bone in his body." Brown began his footballing career with Rangers and one of the songs the News of the World claims he sang was the club's unpleasant terrace anthem "Follow, Follow" - which the newspaper claims he personalised with references to "fucking Celtic".
The claims against Brown were made by a former girlfriend, Lynda Slaven. She says she has kept tapes of the Scottish coach singing sectarian songs into her answering machine - songs, she says, that he would routinely sing in her presence.
