The Poison in our midst

 

The Poison in our midst

The decision by Rangers FC (2012) to withdraw the team from the Sydney Super Cup was hardly surprising given the level of antagonism coming from many of their supporters. Given that the four-club tournament was billed as ‘Ange’s Homecoming’ and Celtic were being given a higher profile and fee, some took umbrage and let their club know in various forums and actions that they were not in favour of the ‘friendly’ match with Celtic. The club itself released a terse, one paragraph statement on its website which left more unsaid. It stated…

‘After it became clear that the tournament organisers were unwilling to fulfil their commitments to Rangers, we have with immediate effect terminated the club’s agreement with the organisers.’ 

I’m sure the Sydney Cup organising committee will find a suitable club to replace Rangers in the tournament and perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise that the Ibrox club aren’t involved. One newspaper, The Greek City Times, was clear that Sydney had dodged a bullet when Rangers withdrew. It stated…

‘The Sydney Super Cup, or more commonly known in Australia as Ange Postecoglou’s Homecoming Tour, has been saved from having to deal with the consequences of dealing with Rangers fans. Rangers withdrew from the four-team tournament after supporters of the Ibrox side protested and expressed their unwillingness to participate in a friendly tournament as the support act for Ange’s Celtic FC – despite the generous monetary compensation. And for this, Rangers fans have inadvertently saved the harbour city and the Sydney Super Cup from themselves. One cannot read a Scottish football forum or social media without a plethora of Rangers fans disgustingly exploiting victims of child abuse to disparage their Glasgow rivals. In the same manner, the weaponisation of child abuse victims to disparage or “banter” should not be tolerated, yet as already said, one cannot browse any online medium relating to Scottish football without seeing Rangers fans exploiting child abuse victims.’

How sad that Scottish football is saddled with this poison and that people on the other side of the world are shaking their heads at this despicable weaponization of child abuse. The article not only pointed out the poison on social media, it also noted that…

‘An administrator of the Follow Follow website, which is an official media partner of Rangers FC, announced on their forum that the “Rolf Harris Cup organisers hit back”, clearly replacing “Sydney Super” with the name of the convicted Australian paedophile. If this is how the administrator of an official Rangers media partner behaves then Sydney can count itself lucky that such a vile supporter base has forced the club to not be a support act for Ange’s Homecoming Tour.’

Scottish reporter and childhood Rangers fan, Graham Spiers also commented on some of the ‘filth’ on the ‘Follow-Follow’ web forum. He commented on Social-media…

‘For years people have spoken about the sheer squalor, filth and bigotry found on Follow Follow. Just how Stewart Robertson and Rangers have contrived to make this cesspit “an official media partner” of the club is utterly depressing.’

 The reformation of Rangers FC (no pun intended) in 2012 was an opportunity to dispense with the tawdry and small-minded bigotry of the past at Ibrox.  Instead, the new club seems to tolerate the bigoted section of their support and has been accused of tacitly encouraging them, via things such as club adverts using the tune of the racist ‘Famine song.’ Rangers made a rod for their own backs a hundred years ago when it self-identified as the ‘Protestant and unionist club’ of Scottish football and began its contemptible apartheid against Roman Catholics. It says much about the Scotland of that era that the SFA and League did nothing to question this ‘unwritten policy.’ Rangers attracted the worst elements in society to their fanbase and now find those elements are stuck to them like barnacles on the bottom of a ship.

The Greek City Times was not only scathing of Rangers followers ‘weaponising’ child abuse, they also pointed out that this…

‘Does not even take into account the inevitable sectarian songs that would be heard ringing around Accor Stadium in western Sydney, or perhaps even targeted racist chants like Celtic star striker Kyogo Furuhashi has already experienced, and almost certainly violence. Either way, we thankfully will not find out after Rangers fans, outraged about being a supporting act, successfully convinced their club to pull out of Ange’s Homecoming Tour.’

We live in the information age where words and images can be flashed around the globe in the blink of an eye. Scotland is a great country and most Scots are tolerant, decent and hard-working people. It remains depressing that a socially illiterate minority, with attitudes which belong in another century, continues to be tolerated. Those who should know better don’t help by branding everyone who points out the poison in our midst as ‘anti-Rangers.’ Bigotry, racism and the scurrilous use of child abuse to score points, goes way beyond club rivalries. This is an issue where the decent people of all clubs and walks of life need to stand together and say -that’s enough!

We may never get through to the ignorant minority who seem to wallow in their petty hatreds but we owe it to the future and to the children growing up in our land to do better. The beautiful and progressive city of Sydney will be spared the ugliness we see so often on our streets here in Scotland. Perhaps one day we’ll be able to say our society has lanced this particular boil, but that day appears to be some way off.