Sectarian Trash

 

My old man told me once that in his youth he attended a Celtic v Rangers game that was among the most subdued ever. It took place in 1952 and came on the same day as the Celtic side and a good few of the Rangers team, attended the funeral of John ‘Jackie’ Millsopp. The young Celt was just 22 and breaking into the side when a burst appendix took his life. He was, by all accounts, a lovely young man and his death hit his team mates hard. Sean Fallon said in his biography;

“I had got to know him well because we’d shared a cabin on the boat over to America the summer before, when the club took us over for a tour after we had won the Scottish Cup. We became good friends and Jackie was a lovely lad. Everyone at Celtic liked him, and it affected us all for a long, long time.”

Before that Celtic v Rangers match on the day of Jackie’s funeral, a minute’s silence was held and was impeccably observed before a voice cut through the silence shouting an obscenity about the Pope. My old man, brought up in the Calton area, informed me that this incident led to the culprit receiving some rough justice from fellow Rangers fans. Some things, even in the rough and multi-layered Celtic–Rangers’ rivalry, were considered going too far. Celtic won the match all those years ago but goalscorers, Walsh and Rollo, barely raised a smile given that they’d attended their team mate’s funeral just hours before the game.

That incident came to mind when I watched the Rangers v Celtic match on Sunday. All clubs, Celtic included, have their share of idiots in their fan base but Rangers have a fan base that seems totally lacking in self-awareness. The club has had fines and parts of the ground closed for racist/sectarian chanting and were warned by UEFA that they will close the Copland Road stand if there is one more act of racism. Yet on Sunday, the old poisonous bile was pouring from thousands of throats as the SPFL and SFA look on and do nothing. One English based newspaper had the cajónes to print what it saw after Rangers took the lead…

‘At this point, Ibrox was raucous. Far too much of that racket involved the kind of sectarian trash Scotland’s football authorities and Rangers themselves have allowed to return due to pitiful inaction. Rangers, now under American ownership should be working hard to remove this archaic stain on the club’s reputation.’

The Scottish editions ignored the songs of hate which echoed around the stadium and focussed instead on a couple of idiotic Celtic fans who seemed to be mocking the Ibrox disaster. As long as the football authorities, the police and the media keep ignoring the poison at Ibrox, the longer it will continue. As a society we need to look with fresh eyes at this and say to ourselves, this isn’t normal behaviour, nor should it be acceptable in 2026.

Another aspect of the home support’s behaviour that went unremarked in the media was the banner mocking Jock Stein, a man who literally helped with dead and dying Rangers fans on that awful day in January 1971. Jock is one of the towering figures of Scottish football; a man who put our game on the European map. The success he brought to Celtic stuck in the throats of many with no love of the club. He led Scotland to the World Cup and literally died guiding them to another. What are Rangers’ directors going to do about these shameful banners and chants? The answer appears to be nothing.

Any time I write about these matters, we are deluged by a tsunami of whataboutery, but this is not about putting the boot into Rangers, it’s about asking their more reasonable fans to speak up on forums and to the club about this barnacle of intolerance and bigotry which sticks to the club like superglue and drags it through the gutter. There seems to be no sewer the lumpen element at Ibrox is unwilling to trawl in their quest to try and offend the ‘tarriers.’ From banners about Jock Stein and ‘Popery’ to songs about child abuse and Fenian blood. More worryingly though, is the fact they do it with such impunity and such a blinkered view of the damage it does their own club.

So, what can be done about such a deeply ingrained culture? It isn’t the fault of players so deducting points for such behaviour isn’t a fair or viable option. Imagine that scenario when the league is as tight as it is this year? UEFA deal with it by closing stands or even having matches behind closed doors if racism or bigoted chanting continues to be heard, but we all know the SPFL and SFA are a pretty spineless bunch and lack the leadership skills and courage to drain this swamp.

A decade ago, Legia Warsaw played one of the biggest games in their history when they met Real Madrid in the Champions League. Due to the behaviour of some Legia fans in a previous match with Borussia Dortmund, the Polish club were ordered to play the Real game behind closed doors. It stung the decent majority of Legia fans and their anger wasn’t only directed at UEFA, but also at the unruly fans who caused the ban. It needs fans themselves to see the damage certain behaviours inflict on their club before change occurs. Just as you can’t pass laws to stop people hating or behaving badly, it needs education and cultural change too. It is now half a century since Willie Waddell, stood on the Ibrox pitch and said…

‘It is to these tikes, hooligans, louts and drunkards that I pinpoint my message. It is because of your gutter-rat behaviour that we are being publicly tarred and feathered.’

We have made great changes to the football experience since then. The stadiums are safer, the alcohol culture lessened and the game is more of a family experience. It can still be the visceral and tribal occasion it always was, but there are, there must be, limits. Some though, seem unable to control their base instincts and still wallow in old hatreds and behaviour patterns. If they refuse to join the 21^st century then the game would be better without them.