Lord Foulkes’ FIFA Farce: A Bitter Hearts Fan’s Political & Sectarian Vendetta Against Celtic

Foulkes’ FIFA escalation is not about justice - it’s about a bitter Hearts fan rattled by another title loss, lecturing Celtic fans on conduct, with the game becoming the victim of his hypocrisy.

The latest controversy to hit Scottish football – centred on the pitch invasion by Celtic fans after their team snatched the title from Hearts’ grasp – has become less a sporting issue than a piece of political theatre.

Almost immediately after the title was decided on the final day of the season, several Labour politicians descended with complaints and calls for inquiries, turning a sporting collapse into a political spectacle. None more so than Lord George Foulkes – the former Hearts chairman and Labour peer – and Ian Murray MP, also a Hearts supporter.

Foulkes has now escalated his grievance to FIFA and demanded an official inquiry after failing to get the answers he wanted from the SPFL. He projects all the air of a politician who’s smelled blood in the water, hopping on the latest bandwagon in a bid to reignite a career that, by any honest measure, has long since run its course. At this stage, they are little more than political lame ducks, sponging off the taxpayers while pretending to care about the state of the country and sporting integrity.

What we’re witnessing is the sour taste of political opportunism mixed with football allegiances. Two Labour politicians, both Hearts supporters, are using whatever power and influence they have left in their dwindling careers to push a false narrative into the glare of public scrutiny – an attempt to steal back a league title their club blew on the final day at Celtic Park. This is not about justice or sporting integrity. It is about two political losers rattled that their team lost.

Celebrations spill onto the pitch at Celtic Park

Despite Hearts taking the lead through Lawrence Shankland in the first half, Arne Engels levelled the match from the penalty spot just before the interval. Celtic then took control after the break, with goals from Daizen Maeda and Callum Osmand sealing a 3–1 victory and confirming a fifth consecutive Scottish Premiership title.

The third goal was followed by jubilant scenes at Celtic Park as home supporters spilled onto the pitch to celebrate the title win. With the celebrations unfolding after Osmand’s injury-time goal, the match was brought to a halt. The SPFL later confirmed that referee Don Robertson had already blown for full-time.

He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone – not you, George; sit down!

Yet Foulkes was having none of it. After receiving short shrift when he sent a formal complaint to the SPFL, he escalated the matter to a contact he has at FIFA.

Foulkes, a lifelong Hearts fan, took to Twitter to highlight that the result left a bad taste in the mouth – perhaps the complimentary wine in hospitality was corked, George? – and implied that the result had appeared to be predetermined. This is a Labour peer who has jumped on the bandwagon of conspiracy theorists, Hearts & Rangers fans, clueless English football pundits, and clickbait merchants masquerading as journalists, all claiming that Scottish football is corrupt and that referees are cheating in favour of Celtic.

This rhetoric came mere days after referee John Beaton required police protection outside his home and when he went to the shops, after a disgruntled 19-year-old Rangers fan posted his address online. Beaton had awarded a late penalty to Celtic to beat Motherwell 3–2 at Fir Park, setting up the enthralling end to the season we saw on Saturday afternoon.

Foulkes’s rhetoric is dangerous – whether fueled by complimentary alcohol or not – and clearly he is hurting after watching his side blow another title to Celtic, just as they did 40 years ago. But is this purely down to football, or is there something darker within Foulkes?

You would think that a Lord sitting in the House of Lords would have a spotless record, rewarded for years of service with a peerage, and that when such a peer goes public on matters, it should be from a moral position Unfortunately, for Lord George Foulkes, he is less than squeaky clean – in fact, he is a convicted criminal and sectarian bigot who fathered a convicted hooligan and sectarian bigot.

A troubled past

Foulkes, who posted his disgust at Celtic fans invading the pitch on Saturday and peddled the unproven narrative that Hearts players were assaulted, was in July 1993 himself convicted of assaulting a police officer and of being drunk and disorderly outside the Houses of Parliament. He was returning to his place of work from a Scotch Whisky Association reception nearby. He pleaded guilty to both charges at Bow Street Magistrates Court, was ordered to pay a fine of £1,050 and a further £500 in costs and compensation, and got off very lightly – an ordinary member of the public would almost certainly have been jailed for assaulting the officer alone.

He did step down from his position on the opposition front benches, but returned to government several years later under Tony Blair, who made him an unelected life peer in 2005, a month after he stepped down from the House of Commons.

The Labour Friends of Israel member was also caught up in the 2008 expenses scandal when he claimed around £55,000 on expenses as a member of the House of Lords. He labelled those participating in the Iraq War enquiry in 2008 as “a procession of primadonas and the usual suspects grandstanding for the TV” – a bit rich, saying that now, eh George?

The darker side of Foulkes - sectarianism and hypocrisy

But here is the something darker with Foulkes that I alluded to earlier.

Foulkes was one of 50 signatories to a letter published in The Guardian in 2010 calling for Pope Benedict XVI not to be given a state visit. They rejected the “masquerading of the Holy See as a state, and the Pope as a head of state”, seeing it as a “convenient fiction to amplify the international influence of the Vatican”.

He also accused the Catholic Church of increasing the spread of AIDS and promoting segregated education – an education system that exists worldwide, yet the only two countries that have issues with Catholic schools are Scotland and Northern Ireland. We all know why that is, don’t we, George? And it has nothing to do with Catholics.

We can also look back to the day when Celtic manager Neil Lennon was attacked by a Hearts fan at Tynecastle in May 2011. Foulkes joked that if Celtic moved to the Irish League, that would solve the problem.

It is clear to me that this self-confessed Humanist is nothing more than a sectarian bigot in sheep’s clothing, with a hatred of Catholics, the religion itself, and Celtic Football Club. And as they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Like father, like son

People generally say that sons mirror their fathers, unconsciously learning and modelling their mannerisms, work ethics, and social attitudes after them by observing them from a young age. The “like father, like son” proverb dates back centuries and implies that sons will follow in their fathers’ footsteps, sometimes inheriting their flaws as well as their strengths.

This is where Alex Foulkes comes into the picture. George’s son was convicted of being a football hooligan and sectarian bigot in 2000 . The then-25-year-old Hearts supporter was arrested and charged for hurling sectarian abuse at Celtic fans during a game at Parkhead, subsequently pleading guilty and being fined £450 after he changed his plea from not guilty when his younger brother admitted that he had hurled abuse at the Celtic support.

Alex Foulkes had ignored repeated warnings from officers and was eventually arrested after sustained and vile sectarian abuse. When taken to the detention area at Parkhead, he threatened officers that they’d be in trouble because his mother was on the Police Board and that his dad was an MP. Sadly, the threats of influential parents didn’t help the nepo baby on this occasion.

So who did Nepo Baby Foulkes learn his sectarian beliefs from George?

Get your own house in order, George

So while Foulkes waddles to his FIFA contact, he needs to remember to get his own house in order before lecturing others – at a time when a game of football rattled him during another one of his drunken stupors.