Outgoing leader of the Scottish Conservatives and a part-time linesman Douglas Ross shared his reaction to a banner displayed at a Celtic vs. St Mirren Scottish Cup match last year.
The banner, which featured a colourful message about Ross, emerged during a game where Ross was serving as a linesman. He had the perfect view of the North Curve as he ran the line.
Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe, Ross recounted his initial hope that the media would not report on the banner due to the explicit language used, a hope that was quickly dashed.
“My immediate reaction was because of that word that rhymes with hunt, it wouldn’t really get reported,” he said, as quoted by The National.
“I was hopeful because they’d used that swear-word, no one would be able to report it.
“It turns out they could, but just put in the asterisks.”
The incident occurred after a goal decision that Ross was involved in was confirmed by VAR, benefiting Celtic. Ross expressed confusion over the timing of the banner, noting that his decision had actually favoured Celtic. Someone should tell the politician that it’s not his decisions that don’t make him popular.
“It was Celtic, St Mirren. It was in a Scottish Cup game. It was a late kickoff, and I remember I just awarded a goal to Celtic. It was the first goal of the match.
“It was a tight onside/offside decision. I kept my flag down. VAR confirmed straight away, goal’s good.
“So my first point was: ‘why are they putting that up when I’ve made a decision correct in favour of Celtic?’ If I got it wrong, I could understand that.
“And then I thought, secondly, I don’t want to look at it too much because I don’t want a picture taken of me staring at this.
“But still, they managed to do it. Then I just thought, ‘well, it’s done now’.
“I thought that looks pretty big, but maybe I’ve just got such great eyesight as a linesman that that it’s bigger than it actually is. But it turned out, no, it was pretty big.”
Since then, Ross has not officiated at Celtic Park and has announced his step back from political leadership after failing to secure an MP seat, but will continue to serve in the Scottish Parliament as an MSP.
