TRIBUTES to Alex Salmond flooded in from the great and the good of society on Saturday night after it was confirmed the former First Minister of Scotland had passed away suddenly from a suspected heart attack at the age of 69 after speaking at the diplomacy forum he was attending in North Macedonia.
Yet, it was an online comment from a Hearts supporter which perhaps summed up Salmond’s impact on politics in this country during the past 37 years more eloquently than any of the praise which was lavished on him by heads of state or reigning monarchs.
“He did for the SNP and independence what Lawrence Shankland did for us last season,” wrote the anonymous Jambo on a fan website.
“Big Eck” would have been chuffed to bits at being compared to the free-scoring striker who netted 31 goals in all competitions for his beloved Tynecastle club during the 2023/24 campaign.
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Salmond’s enthusiasm for the Sport of Kings, which he attributed to his uncle urging him to place a bet on the Irish horse Arkle as a boy, was renowned. He succeeded Robin Cook, the one-time Foreign Secretary, as a racing tipster with The Herald and appeared regularly on The Morning Line programme on Channel 4.
But the Linlithgow born and raised Alba party leader was also passionate about football. Not least Hearts. He revealed how his allegiance had come about before the Edinburgh outfit faced their city rivals Hibernian in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden back in 2012.
“My dad has been supporting Hearts actively since the mid-20s,” he said. “So it wasn’t a matter of choice for me, it was a matter of inheritance.”
He had seen the Gorgie side beat Kilmarnock in the League Cup final in 1962 and Rangers and Gretna in the Scottish Cup finals in 1998 and 2006. “That’s not a bad record,” he said.
He was, with his father Robert, who was 90 at the time, sitting a couple of rows in front of him, delighted to see Hearts record their famous 5-1 triumph over Hibs on that occasion and make it a grand slam of wins.
Salmond had no qualms about getting personally involved in the battle to save Hearts from the unthinkable prospect of liquidation two years later.
The then First Minister spoke, at the behest of administrator Bryan Jackson of accountancy firm BDO, to Lithuanian politicians during a frantic race against the clock to seal a rescue deal. With cash reserves running low, he talked to the ambassador to the United Kingdom in Vilnius in an attempt to speed up the process.
“They were helpful conversations,” he said. “The people behind the eight ball here are the administrators and like every other fan in the country I am hoping to see progress made. However, we know progress has been made and we’re hoping that things will reach a successful conclusion.”
The following month, Bidco 1874, the group fronted by businesswoman Ann Budge, took control of Heart of Midlothian Plc and the month after that they officially exited administration.
George Foulkes, the former Labour MP and MSP who briefly served as Hearts chairman, hailed his important contribution to that outcome on X, the social media outlet which was formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday night. “This is terrible news,” he wrote. “He was a great help to us during difficult times when the club twice faced administration.”
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Salmond was not so successful when he intervened in the Rangers financial crisis in 2012. However, he was quite prepared to put any personal ill-feeling which he may have harboured for the Ibrox club as a Hearts fan to one side in an attempt to help them secure a CVA and remain afloat.
He contacted HMRC and implored them to accept both a sum to be repaid and a timescale for it to be repaid which would allow the stricken Govan outfit, who were facing a tax bill of £49m because of their extensive use of Employee Benefit Trusts between 2001 and 2010, to remain in business.
“We want Rangers to survive,” he told BBC Scotland at the time. “That seems to me an entirely reasonable proposition. It would allow the Inland Revenue to get what they are due and allow Rangers to pay their obligations but continue as a vibrant part, not just of Scottish football, but of Scottish culture. I still think that is the best way forward.
“I want to see Rangers continue for the next century and more, contributing to the excitement and fun of Scottish football. Can’t we agree on a sum that’s due and a means of paying it that allows Rangers to continue as an effective functioning football club in Scotland? Because Scottish football, even Celtic, needs Rangers.”
When he informed veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost that “the most diehard Celtic supporter understands that Celtic can't prosper unless Rangers are there” in an interview on Al Jazeera television it went down like a lead balloon in the East End of Glasgow. He had to come out and explain his comment.
Salmond was also thwarted in his ambitious and admirable but ultimately ill-conceived attempt to rid Scottish football of the scourge of sectarianism following the Old Firm “shame game” between Celtic and Rangers at Parkhead in 2011.
The visitors had three players sent off during a match which the hosts won 1-0 and there were touchline confrontations and tunnel bust-ups as tempers flared. There were, too, 34 arrests inside the stadium.
Strathclyde Police had vowed to crack down on drink-fuelled violence linked to the world-famous fixture in the build-up after making no fewer than 229 arrests when the Glasgow rivals had played each other the previous month.
Their chief constable Stephen House called Salmond and wrote to the Scottish government urging them to convene a summit to address disorder issues surrounding the fixture.
The Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act came in to force the following year. But the controversial and unpopular legislation was beset by problems from the outset and it was repealed by MSPs during a vote at Holyrood in 2018.
Salmond, who had lost his seat in the House of Commons at the general election the years before, was far from impressed. “It is totally shameful,” he said. “It is perfectly legitimate to say such legislation could be improved, or changed in certain aspects. That is what happens as legislation beds down.”
Advocates of the act have since argued that its repeal has empowered certain sub-sections of football fan to behave in an anti-social manner at matches.
Salmond - whose reputation was, even though he was cleared of all charges against him in court in 2020, tarnished by accusations of sexual misconduct in recent years – became something of a divisive figure in his later life.
But his love of Scotland and of Scottish football could never be called into question. When the national team took to the field for the first time since their Euro 2024 exit in Germany this summer to play Poland in the Nations League at Hampden last month, he joined the Tartan Army in the stands with his dark blue scarf wrapped proudly around his neck.
