The Czech ambassador wants Rangers and SFA to apologise over Glen Kamara incident? How about a few home truths instead?

If the subject wasn’t so serious, the demands of the Czech ambassador to the UK demanding an apology from the SFA this week would have provoked howls of derision, rather than gasps of incredulity.

The reason that Jakub Kulhanek has his nose bent out of shape is that the 10,000 children allowed into the stadium during last week’s supposedly ‘closed doors’ encounter against Rangers in the Czech capital were called out for booing the black players in blue, particularly Kamara, whenever he was in possession. One kid was pictured with a sign that read ‘Team Kudela’.

Rather than be shamed that innocent children’s minds had been shaped and indeed warped in such a way to spontaneously produce such behaviour, the response from the Czech authorities has been to double down on their gaslighting nonsense that somehow it is Rangers and Scottish football who are unfairly painting them as defending and fostering racist attitudes.

I wonder if these same tactics were employed against the French people when the charges were handed down by UEFA that resulted in the stadium closure in the first place. Monaco midfielder Aurélien Tchouameni was found to have been subjected to racist chanting in their Champions League qualifier in August, but one can only presume that must have been a big misunderstanding as well.

Oh, and by the way, Monaco also won the tie comfortably, blowing a pretty big hole in the theory that Kamara had concocted a story to deflect from Rangers being defeated.

I wouldn’t dream of tarring all of the Czech people with the same brush, but how exactly does a child reach the point where this happens? “Here’s your hat and scarf son, and some money for a hot dog. Enjoy the game, and don’t forget to boo that black guy.”

It is either that, or the false narrative that Kamara lied about being the subject of racist abuse is one that has taken such a hold in the Czech Republic that Kudela is seen as the wronged party here. That somehow being found guilty of calling Kamara a ‘f*****g monkey’ by UEFA and subsequently missing the European Championships was an appalling miscarriage of justice, and that his explanation that he instead called him a ‘f*****g guy’ was absolutely credible. Excuse my own language here, but give me a f*****g break.

So, instead of apologising for the torrents of racist abuse the likes of Marvin Bartley – a towering figure in calling out all forms of discrimination – received on social media after he weighed in on last week’s incident, the Czech ambassador wants the SFA to apologise to them? For what?

Mr Kulhanek took umbrage with a tweet from Bartley that stated: “In no way is this the fault of the CHILDREN because they’re behaving in a way they see adults do/encourage.

“What chance do they have when placed in a bowl with rotten fruit.”

Predictably, Kulhanek misrepresented the tweet as Bartley calling the children rotten fruit, obfuscating the clear meaning of the message which was to highlight the insidious influence of their elders upon them. The only thing rotten here Mr Kulhanek is the fetid stench of your weasel words as you attempt to spin incidents that should bring you nothing but shame into an attack on the victims.

Listen, we have our own problems with racism here in Scotland. The story relayed by former Hibernian winger Kevin Harper on BBC Radio Scotland this week, that he felt guilty about bringing his black sons into this world as he knows the prejudice they will have to face throughout their lives, was perhaps the saddest indictment on our own society I have ever heard.

It was heart-wrenching stuff, and showed just how far we still have to go in combatting racist language and discrimination of all kinds on our own patch. But I’d like to think that a large proportion of supporters, the clubs and the associations are really trying.

The only way to eradicate racism is to call it out, and to punish it severely. I applaud the courage of Kamara and any other victims for doing so, and I implore UEFA to support them by implementing heftier punishments, not allowing offending clubs to worm their way through loopholes.

And in lieu of an apology Mr Ambassador, let me say this. We see you. We know your game. We will continue to call out racism, and its deplorable apologists. We stand with Glen Kamara.

We are in no way sorry if that offends you.