When Graeme Souness was appointed Rangers manager in 1986, he was asked if the club's
long-standing, unwritten policy of not signing openly Catholic players would be broken under his leadership.
He promised that it would, that he would select players based on their ability, and nothing else.
Three years later, he signed Mo Johnston from under the noses of
Celtic, achieving the feat of upsetting both sides of a divided football city.
In the early years of Rangers, plenty of Catholics represented the club, but in the 1920s it
was quietly and unofficially acknolwedged that no openly Catholic player would be signed:
even then, some did represent Rangers, but their Christian preferences were kept quiet.
Souness backed up his pledge that taboos would be broken by signing Rangers' first black
player, Mark Walters, and their first Jewish player, Avi Cohen.
Under his management, Rangers won the Scottish title in his season,
having failed to win it in the previous nine.
But he felt they were still missing a forward to help them in Europe.
In 1987 Johnston left Celtic for Nantes, but after two years in France, he was ready to
come home, and let Celtic manager Billy McNeil know he was “desperate” to return.
In May 1989Johnston signed a “letter of intent” promising he would join Celtic, but didn't actually sign a
contract: however, keen for some PR at the end of a season in which they finished third,
ten points behind Rangers, Celtic announced the signing of Johnston for a Scottish record fee of £1.2million.
"I didn't want to leave two years ago and I don't intend to now," said Johnston
after posing in a Celtic shirt.
"There is no other British club I could play for apart from Celtic."
However, a couple of weeks later rumours began flying that Johnston had second thoughts,
and that Rangers had tried to muscle in on the deal.
Celtic manager Billy McNeill told his board to prevent any further hitches by paying
the £800,000 remaining on the transfer fee, having to that point only paid a £400,000 deposit.
One Sepp Blatter, at that point Fifa's general secretary, assured Celtic that the
letter of intent was enough to make Johnston their
player, but the club's board refused on a point of principle to pay the rest of the
fee, for a player who was having second thoughts about joining them.
The move collapsed, and Rangers swooped, but still few believed the rumours.
Rangers called a press conference, but even after the Scottish Sun broke the story, most
still expected they would be announcing the recruitment of English midfielder John Sheridan.
When Johnston walked in, there were gasps from the assembled media.
“Obviously it's going to be difficult,” said Johnston, with considerable understatement.
A group of Rangers fans congregated outside Ibrox, with a few insisting they would stop supporting the club.
“Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and it won't be true,” said one.
"It is a sad day for Rangers” said David Miller, from the club's supporters association.
“I don't want to see a Roman Catholic at Ibrox. It really sticks in my throat."
In the end though, the scale of the protest wasn't as large as you might expect.
Some demanded a refund on their season tickets;
the Rangers kitman refused to lay out Johnston's jersey before games; it was said that a Glasgow
pub kept a league table that didn't include Johnston's goals.
But attendances didn't fall, the threatened boycott was minimal, and ​
Johnston's religion was largely forgotten when he scored a last-minute winner against
Celtic at Ibrox a few months later.
For Johnston, the consequences were a little more long-lasting.
He left for Everton after two seasons, but avoided Glasgow for some years
afterwards, and has only recently spoken about the move.
“If I had signed a contract I would have been with Celtic,” he said.
“Money came into it, I’m not going to hide from any of the facts.
I did it almost 30 years ago and I won two championships.”
Several Catholic players followed Johnston but even now, 28 years on, you will still
find those on both sides of the city who will not remember him fondly...