There may be good reasons why Graeme Souness should not become the next manager of the Ireland soccer team -- the fact that he managed and played for (Glasgow) Rangers is not one of them.

And under no circumstances should the Irish bigots in the Celtic FC fan club be allowed to set the agenda on this issue. Which is why it was a bit presumptuous, at best, for RTE's Darragh Maloney to question him on it during their Premiership highlights programme last Saturday night.

In fairness to Maloney the Celtic/Rangers rivalry is an ingrained part of this country's sporting culture and he may have just assumed that it was therefore reasonable to address the matter with Souness.

But the Liverpool/Manchester United rivalry is also part -- and a much bigger part -- of the culture here too and we doubt if Maloney or any other pundit would question the appointment of, say, a former Liverpool player or manager on the basis that it might antagonise Ireland's legion of Man U fans. The question wouldn't have to be asked because it wouldn't be an issue.

Why therefore should an exception be made for Celtic fans? There is a history of Celtic supporters at international games barracking visiting players who happen to play their club football for Rangers. The very fact that Maloney even asked Souness about this issue could be seen as legitimising their prejudices.

Earlier on Saturday evening a Celtic supporter contacted Today FM's Premier League phone-in show to vent his hostility towards the Souness candidacy. Celtic fans around the country would not be one bit happy if Souness got the job, he said. The show's host, Michael McMullan, could barely conceal his bewilderment with such a backward mentality. But the caller, inevitably, was immune to rational arguments, not the least of which was that Souness had left Rangers some 15 years ago (he was player-manager between 1986 and '91).

Nevertheless Souness was still obliged to account on RTE for that unfortunate period in his life when he happened to win three league titles in his first management job. And when, in passing, he also happened to sign the first black player to actually line out for Rangers (Mark Walters), and the first Catholic player -- albeit that it was the former Celtic forward Maurice Johnston. And when he broke the club's bigoted heritage by making it clear that colour or denomination would no longer be an issue in the signing of a player.

In those years he was still togging out and if anything the tribal nature of Scottish football seemed to bring the worst out of his famously volatile temperament, putting his boot through televisions when he wasn't putting his boot through some unfortunate opponent on the field. Sometimes it was comical, more often it was shocking. It wouldn't be overstating it to say that he was hated on the Celtic side of the Glasgow ghetto.

So, he conceded to Maloney, "I'm aware that I'm a bit of an outsider, not Irish, and one or two things I've done in the past might not go down so well with certain people . . . It's certainly not a stumbling block for me (but) if it was an issue for too many people then it wouldn't be a job I'd want. I've only been interested in what people can do on a football pitch, not in what religion they were, or colour they were . . . Football is what you should be judged on and nothing else."

By "certain people" he meant, of course, Celtic supporters. But just because he got up their noses, in a previous life, doesn't mean he should assume that every Irish fan would have a problem with his appointment -- at least not a problem with the fact that he was once of Rangers.

But in fairness to football bigots of all persuasions, perhaps Souness should also be asked to account for his combustible season at Galatasaray -- on behalf of all Irish citizens of Turkish origin who may support Galatasaray's bitter rivals Fenerbahce. In one of his nuttier moments Souness nearly sparked a riot in 1996 when he planted the Galatasaray flag in the middle of the Fenerbahce pitch having just beaten them in the Turkish cup final. This iconic act earned him the nickname 'Ulabatli' Souness, after the Turkish martyr Ulabatli Hasan who was killed planting the Ottoman flag at the battle of Constantinople in 1453. (And they say the Irish have long memories.)

The next time therefore that Souness is quizzed about his past allegiances he should be asked, in the interests of parity of prejudice, not to mention our old friend multiculturalism, if his putative appointment to the Ireland job would not give offence to all local Fenerbahce fans too.

Souness's old mucker at Liverpool, Ronnie Whelan, was in the Today FM studio last Saturday evening. "Souey," he said, was the best footballer he'd ever played alongside. But Whelan didn't see him as the right man for Ireland on the basis of lack of managerial experience. Given that Souness has also managed four clubs in England and another in Portugal we feel that Ronnie had other reasons, which he wasn't sharing, as to why his mate shouldn't get the job.

The main one being perhaps that he hasn't been very successful. But there are no guarantees with any candidate anyway. Souness would at least be interesting. And if it were to upset some of the Celtic idiots who have disfigured the atmosphere at previous internationals, it shouldn't perturb the FAI too badly either.

the.couch@hotmail.com

- Tommy Conlon