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On 21 May UEFA will decide whether or not to impose sanctions on Georgia as a consequence of crowd disturbances during their March qualifier at home to Germany – which could result in their match against Scotland in September being given the Charlie Rich treatment and end up being played Behind Closed Doors.

That possible sanction could prove beneficial to Scotland but I would hope that some compensation would then be paid to our supporters who have already forked out on travel and accommodation to the former Soviet Republic.From an anorak’s angle however, the big question is -Would the Georgian F.A. still produce a match programme?

I don’t know what the current practice is at international level but I do recall that in 1985 when Celtic were forced to play a closed doors European Cup Winners Cup game against Atletico Madrid, the Parkhead club went ahead and produced a sixteen page programme priced fifty pence.When Scotland [cunningly disguised as Hearts in our one-off maroon jerseys] played Georgia in Tbilisi in a Euro qualifier in 2007 the programme was a quirky mix of two English language articles [on Alex McLeish and Barry Ferguson] surrounded by Georgian. Apparently Georgian is a Kartvelian language which is written in a unique script comprising a thirty-three letter alphabet. But hey, I’m no cunning linguist!

Robert Marshall

First posted on Facebook on April 5th, 2015