Football: Farry deal a `disgrace' say Celtic supporters

CELTIC FANS have branded the reported pounds 200,000 pay-out to the sacked Scottish Football Association chief executive, Jim Farry, "a disgrace". Farry is believed to be close to agreeing a settlement with his former employers, who sacked him on Monday after he was found guilty of gross misconduct in his handling of Jorge Cadete's transfer to the Premier club.

News that Farry is to gain financially from his dismissal has been greeted with derision by the secretary of the Affiliation of Registered Celtic Supporters' Clubs, Mick Dinning, who cannot understand why Farry was not removed from Park Gardens without a penny for a "crime" he believes was born more out of incompetence than vindictiveness.

"It is an absolute disgrace if the guy is going to walk away with some cash in his hand, and most of the Celtic fans will think the same," Dinning said. "If I behaved like he has done in my job I would be sacked and that is it. I don't think he had anything particular against Celtic, but he made a mistake, then made it worse by trying to cover it up. Now it seems as though he will profit because the SFA want to keep him quiet."

Dinning praised the efforts of the Celtic chairman, Fergus McCann, whose unwillingness to let the matter drop finally resulted in Farry being shown the door. McCann claimed that Cadete's absence from vital games towards the end of the 1995-96 season cost the Parkhead club a chance of landing the Scottish League and Cup double. Instead, Celtic lost out to Rangers in both competitions.

"At the time, some fans were annoyed with Fergus because of the length of time it took to sign Cadete, but it now appears that it wasn't his fault," Dinning said. "If he hadn't carried on the fight all this would have been swept under the carpet and the whole thing would have just disappeared. You can't say it cost us anything specific because we lost other games apart from the ones Jorge was missing, but obviously it didn't help."

An SFA spokesman said yesterday: "Despite reports, a settlement has not yet been concluded."