FAN FARE

There is a terrible feeling of despondency this week among supporters of the Scotland football team. This is only partly due to that dire performance against the Republic of Ireland.

The Tartan Army, members of the Scotland Travel Club in particular, are down-hearted because Marjory Nimmo has left the Scottish Football Association. In the natural order of football some elements are more important than others. The players are, or should be, paramount. A good manager can make a difference.

Administrative staff usually do not feature high on the list. But Marjory did. She was the lady with the tickets. Marjory ran the Scotland Travel Club. She was the human face of a vast SFA bureaucracy, but most importantly she did her work with great efficiency and a dedication well beyond and above the call of duty.

Scotland fans have a great capacity for messing up the business of applying for match tickets and an even greater ability to lose the valuable briefs issued to them. This is where the ever-patient Marjory came in.

One of the most sought-after tickets of recent years was that for the Scotland-Brazil opening match of the World Cup in France 1998. So, there is this Scotland fan who leaves his ticket on the kitchen table. His wife puts her baking tray on the table. The ticket sticks to the bottom of the tray. She puts said tray into oven at gas mark six and the ticket is reduced to cinders. One anguished phone call to Marjory and a replacement was organised.

Marjory was a familiar sight at football stadiums all over the world, dealing with crises minor and major, dispensing tickets and advice to Scotland fans, many dazed and confused.

But it was in her influence on how Scotland fans comported themselves that Marjory made a great contribution to the reputation of the Tartan Army. Many a supporter pulled back from the brink of ill-considered behaviour not because of the prospect of a night in a foreign jail but because of the thought of having to face Marjory to explain the misdemeanour.

I recall one supporter in Prague whose high jinks up a scaffold in the old town square had led to his rescue by firemen, arrest by the police and a night in the drunk tank. He was subsequently summoned to SFA Towers for a dressing down by Willie McDougall, the former policeman who is head of security. "Willie can be quite strict and a bit fierce in these circumstances," the fan told me, "but I was more concerned by the fact that I had let Marjory down."

Mr McDougall says: "The Marjory Nimmo factor has certainly helped me in my job. She is such a good influence on the Tartan Army."

When the Scotland fans won an award from the International Association for Non Violence in Sport for good behaviour at the 1998 World Cup, Marjory was despatched to Monte Carlo to collect the gong.

Hamish Husband, who is spokesman for the Association of Tartan Army Clubs, was once asked by an English newspaper why England fans weren't as well-behaved as the Scots. He replied: "For a start, you don't have a Marjory Nimmo."

The fact that Marjory is elegant and fragrant, and a bit of a looker, tends to make her conspicuous in a crowd of badger-arse rough Scotland supporters. Most of the Tartan Army are a bit in love with Marjory and some of them quite a lot. Many of the travelling support will not go into the stadium abroad until they have had a wee chat first outside with her.

There is quite a lot of adoration of Marjory and some strategic manoeuvring by fans to be adjacent to the lady if there is any excuse for a celebratory hug. One fan was the envy of his comrades as Marjory was seen to put a consoling arm round his shoulders. He had told her his father had died. He forgot to mention the death had occurred four years previously.

When Marjory did her last shift at the SFA on Friday it was St Valentine's Day and her postbag from grateful supporters was substantial. She would often be given small gifts, flowers or some trinket purchased in a foreign market. In Lithuania, I saw a supporter lovingly hand Marjory a fish. Mind you, he was from Stonehaven.

Tam Coyle, who presented Marjory with a (pounds) 1000 travel voucher on behalf of the Tartan Army before the Ireland game, said: "It was the least we could do for a lady who looked after us so well when we were on holiday with Scotland." The foot soldiers have come up with various suggestions to honour Marjory's contribution. An MBE, Marj replacing Her Maj as patron of the SFA, a job swap with Vogts, and sainthood are just some of the ideas put up so far on the Tartan Army message board.

The fans describe Marjory's role in various ways. She is their auntie, their second mum, big sister, wee sister, a Miss Jean Brodie figure, even, as Husband says, the Tartan Army's Lady Di. Coyle suggests a name which reflects Marjory's most important role as provider of the vital match tickets. "She was the Lady of the Blessed Envelope," he says.

Copyright 2003 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
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