Celtic have done the right thing over Boys Club scandal but they should have done it far sooner – Keith Jackson

The final details remain vague. But the principle and the overarching message it sends out could not be any more clear.

When it was confirmed this morning that the first raft of victims of the Celtic Boys Club sexual abuse scandal have finally settled on financial compensation, the Scottish game in general ought to have heaved a sigh of relief.

This abomination of a saga has filled Scottish football’s nostrils with a toxic stench for more than 50 years.

And, at a variety of moments over these five decades, Celtic’s reluctance to confront the awful truth and, furthermore, their attempts to deny responsibility for the monsters who once roamed freely through Parkhead’s corridors has been a dreadful, horribly thought out mistake.

And one which was made for all the wrong reasons.

Yes, of course, it will be argued that the club, in its present form, had a responsibility to listen to legal instruction and to act in the best interests of their overall business and its shareholders.

The people in charge today most certainly cannot be blamed for the behaviours of those vile beasts who prayed on the very teenagers they were supposed to be protecting and nurturing into well adjusted young men and potential first team players.

However, rather than having the moral fortitude to take ownership of those despicable deeds, Celtic argued that the Boys Club was an ‘entirely separate entity’ to the club itself, thereby cynically attempting to distance itself from potential litigation somewhere down the line.

And, to compound matters, this position was adopted at a time when the likes of Jim Torbett and Frank Cairney were finally being convicted in court for their heinous crimes, many years after their reign of evil and rampant