Hugh Keevins: Old Firm; new ways

Part of me really wants to hear world darts champion Gary Anderson and former Ibrox icon Brian Laudrup pull the names of Celtic and Rangers out together for a Scottish Cup round of 16 meeting when the draw is made live on Superscoreboard tonight.

That's the part of me which thinks it might be better to get the whole thing over and done with before there's an even greater risk that the pair of them will actually contest the final of the competition at Hampden on the final day of the season.

There is no question that a renewal of the old, historic hostilities between the two clubs is necessary to resuscitate a Scottish game that is experiencing a severe downturn in quality.

John Collins, Celtic's assistant manager, acknowledged as much at the weekend when he said, "Anyone who thinks otherwise, I don't think is in the real world."

More spice and more interest was the Collins take on what the pair of them being re-united in the top flight would mean for the game in general.

Any sane, rational human being who inhabits the real world would also understand that we would need to accept the malodorous baggage that comes with the return of the pair of them to the part of the SPFL where the glare pf the spotlight is at its most intense.

Rangers have already been forced to release a club statement condemning sectarian singing during their otherwise outstanding league match against Hibs last month. But on Sunday against tiny, mis-matched Cowdenbeath in the cup, the same old songbook was dusted off for fresh use during a game shown live on television.

Meanwhile, in a tiny League One ground within a public park ninety miles away to the South of the country the Celtic supporters were endangering public safety and blackening their club's name by throwing flares on to the pitch and delaying the start to their side's tie against Stranraer, once again for the dubious benefit of a nationwide television audience.

Celtic, of course, being the club who have already been fined seven times by UEFA over the last five seasons for similar offences, and who are awaiting the outcome of disciplinary hearing number eight after flares were produced in the Europa League tie against Fenerbahce in Istanbul earlier in the season.

I have sympathy with both clubs when it comes to the matter of education.

How do you explain the seriousness of smoke inhalation to someone who would carry a flare to a sleepy little football ground in Stranraer and breach the peace of quiet Sunday afternoon?

How would you ask that person to understand what recidivism meant at the same time?

There are no intellectual giants among the flare throwers and the sectarian singers who would look at you as if you were daft if you tried to lecture them on the need to uphold the good name of their club, the country or their fellow supporters. They would simply have no comprehension of what you were talking about.

But the SFA administer the Scottish Cup and the weekend nonsense went on under their watch.

The media have used up every outlet available to them to berate and bemoan those who indulge in these questionable practices, yet still get blamed by one lot of fans for not coming down hard enough on the other lot whenever there's a fit of moral outrage.

There is no moral high ground. One lot is as bad as the other. It's time the game's rulers attended to their responsibilities.

The coming together of Celtic and Rangers, whether in the Scottish Cup or the Premiership next season, sees the return of the real world, warts and all.

We are living in a fantasy world at the moment if anyone believes there is a genuine sense of competition without the Old Firm. I know the term is outlawed by some on social media but the game can no longer be hijacked by the would be opinion formers on that particular forum.

There is an Old Firm and their rivalry being revived becomes even more necessary when you look at the weekend cup results.

Once again Aberdeen took a look at a high risk match and suffered from vertigo. Their defeat at Tynecastle meant the Pittodrie club have now gone twenty-seven years without a Scottish Cup win.

It's thirty years since they last won the league title into the bargain, and we think of them as Scotland's Third Force.

No wonder we need the Big Two to be restored to their former, combative arrangement.

Aberdeen have this season become synonomous with excuses to explain away their failure to win matches and maintain focus on recording a major achievement for the first time in a long time.

And yet, remarkably, they still have a chance, in theory, of winning the league title.

Being three points behind Celtic, albeit having played a game more into the bargain, with just short of half a season to play represents a glimmer of hope. But do you know of anyone who really and truly believes Saturday night's under-achievers have it in them to come good in the long run?

Aberdeen's name will not be there for Laudrup or Anderson to pull from the metaphorical hat tonight, and deservedly so.

But those who are there on merit, or by administrative necessity while we await ties to be played that were postponed by the ravages of the weather at the weekend, will revel in the momentary thrill that comes with a high sense of anticipation.

If you know who are drawn together it will detonate the biggest explosion of whataboutery and my dad-ism for a long time, and you couldn't be so duplicitous as to deny that Superscoreboard will happily reflect all shades of deeply biased opinion on a daily basis until the pair are brought together in all of their unhinged glory at one stadium or another.

It's what we do. It's what we know best. It's what makes our world go round.

If only the social misfits on both sides of the Old Firm could appreciate that the rivalry between them would still be an all consuming, energy sapping, mind blowing explosion of sporting delight without the pyrotechnics, the para-militaries and the other parphernalia of a time gone by for the rest of us.

They don't know what they're missing.