The write stuff

We interrupt the doolally events from Doolallyville, the home of Scottish football, for a European match.

This means there will be no chief executives from any club roaming the press room inside their ground while making a plea for justice via a laptop presentation on the rights and wrongs of penalty awards.

No chief executive from another club being dispatched to the stand from the dug-out for conduct unbecoming a man in his position.

No coach sent off after scrapping with an opposition player in the technical area amid comedic circumstances.

No manager refusing to speak to the media after a game because four of his players missed the match due to them being caught up in the aftermath of a road traffic accident.

This, incidentally, is the first recorded case of the dreaded media being held responsible for a traffic jam thirty miles from the ground where they had arrived on time to do their work.

But I digress.

Tomorrow night Celtic Park will house a Champions League group stage tie. It'll be all that boring stuff, football, tactics. That kind of thing.

Then we can get back to the acceptable face of doolallyism after that when the league season resumes.

We're in a world of our own here.

Motherwell write to the SFA asking for "clarification" over two penalty kicks awarded against them.

Hearts formally complain to the national broadcaster because of their hired hands, who happens to be a former Hearts player, allegedly has an agenda against the club based on the fact that they can't win football matches.

And now Brendan Rodgers has been sucked into the vortex while feeling compelled to denounce the "nonsense" that has gone on following Celtic's late equaliser to get a draw at Motherwell last Wednesday night.

But the man has a point.

Allan Burrows is a lovely lad; honest as the day is long and helpful to a fault in every role he has held at Motherwell.

He was truthful enough, during a recent appearance on Superscoreboard, to admit he was delighted to see Celtic qualify for the group stages of the Champions League.

Not because he's a Celtic supporter, but because he knew the money his club and the rest in the Premiership would receive from UEFA on the back of Celtic's accomplishment, £350,000 per team, would be the equivalent of putting food on the table at Fir Park.

But what is a man in a position of senior authority, as Rodgers described him, doing in the media room with a laptop recording of Celtic's belated penalty at Fir Park if not to try and sway opinion?

If any journalist believed it was an unjustified decision to award that penalty he would be duty bound to give that personal opinion in his match report and wouldn't need any additionaly information.

If another journalist believed it was a legitimate award then it would be un-professional to have a club official in the media room seeking to plant a seed of doubt in his mind.

The award was given. The penalty kick was converted. The game ended in a draw. The intrusion was un-warranted.

If Motherwell were called to Hampden to discuss an important SPFL matter their chief executive would go there as the equal of Peter Lawwell, his counterpart at Celtic Park.

Annual budgets, wage bills and whatever else would be of no consequence in the democratic field of one man, one vote.

Does this mean that Peter should consider making the occasional appearance in the Celtic Park press room to instruct, or inform, the members of the media concerning on-field matters?

Of course not.

The press corps are big enough, and ugly enough, to make their own mistakes without any help from outside agencies.

And, of course, I speak from personal experience on this particular subject.

If you're wrong then you have to be wrong on your own terms and not be aided and abetted by anybody else.

The sporting press are much maligned, despised and detested even, but the truth is a subjective business where football fans are concerned.

The truth, as fans arrive at it, is a colour coded matter of personal preference under contentious circumstances. In other words, supporters will believe what they like.

The media then get slaughtered based on whether they subscribe to the fans point of view on any controversial incident or have the temerity to think for themselves. It's that simple.

So, in my opinion, Celtic will be inspired when they hear the Champions League music blare out for the last time this season prior to the game with Anderlecht.

So inspired they will be good enough to beat the Belgians for a second time in the group and not have to worry about avoiding a 3-0 defeat in order to make the knock-out stages of the Europa League next February.

If I'm wrong and Celtic have to exit Europe under ignominious circumstances then I suggest you address your complaints to Brendan Rodgers and his players on the grounds that they made a mess of things.

If Peter Lawwell suddenly decided to make a lunge for his laptop under those circumstances and head for the press room it wouldn't make a bit of difference.

Not that he would even consider the idea. Others should take note and take heed.

Keep calm and carry on.

As if

• Hugh Keevins