Sometimes you don’t believe what you are reading with it being revealed through published cabinet papers that former Number 10 adviser Alistair Campbell proposed that Celtic took on Rangers to publicise the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement [Glasgow Times]. 

The story gets better as one of the central ideas to the game was that both sides swapped each other’s jerseys in a show of support.

Within the report Campbell stated, “both in terms of raising publicity for the campaign and in sending out a message, it would be very powerful.”

For context it is vitally important to to understand the backdrop to this idea.

The letter which was sent to the Prime Minister was dated as 12 April 1998 which was the same day Wim Jansen’s side were defeated 2-0 at Ibrox in what had already been a tense season.

Thankfully Celtic would go on to win the league that season and stop ten in a row less than a month later.

To imagine both sides playing each other in a friendly any season is out the question which could be seen with the reaction to the game in Australia which was set to take place during Ange’s homecoming.

Particularly in 1998 it would have been crazy to have played the game in Belfast after the tense season it had been.