It's never easy to let go.

[PowerGranger 1]

Since I can remember, I've always loved football. I was never much good at it - a fact that perhaps intensified my love of the game. Watching those with skills you could only dream of possessing - cunning, power, pace, craft, verve - cross a white line and, for ninety minutes, dedicate their life to beating those that stood opposite them was the greatest thrill I could remember. For ninety minutes there was no famine or war and more importantly to me as a five year old there was certainly no homework, either. Just twenty two players and a man in black dutifully taking the inevitable and regular volleys of foul-mouthed abuse that were thrown his way.

Never was this more clear to me that when I went to see my team. The mighty Rangers Football Club. To be a Ranger was to dare, and I was brought up in an era of McCoist and Hateley, Gascoigne and Laudrup, Kanchelskis and Van Bronckhorst.

I remember sitting in front of the television, mouth open in amazement, as my team went south to battle. It was The Battle of Britain, champions vs champions. I remember Mark Hateley letting rip with his left foot, a half volley that not only silenced Elland Road but silenced the smug predictions of a Leeds walkover. I remember my dad rising out of his chair, each consecutive "go on" getting louder and more animated as Rangers broke on the counter. From John Brown's tackle to McCoist's diving header it was poetry in motion - a beautiful nail in the coffin.

I was just a boy then, young and naive to the troubles in the west of Scotland. I had no idea what the beliefs of a Rangers fan were, all I knew was that I was one of the people.

19 years later and the man that plotted the humbling of Leeds is preparing for his last season in management. As a man in his twenties I have come to know about the beliefs that this colossus of football was built upon and, in my heart, I feel a sense of discomfort.

There is no better way to quiet the voices of doubt than to have a common enemy and, in the foul-tempered, blood-thirsty season of 2010-11, we had that more than ever in Neil Lennon's Celtic. I remember watching the television with my dad, now a little older and a lot greyer, as Celtic imploded on a gloriously sunny day in Inverness. My mouth was wide open again, and I cheered louder than I did as a five year old.

The night before the Kilmarnock game I couldn't sleep. I was haunted by the late season collapse of 2008 and the thought of the title eluding Walter Smith's grasp was enough to put me off my breakfast - a particularly difficult task.

Those first 7 minutes against Kilmarnock are the most bittersweet memories of my love affair with Rangers. Never have I felt so exhilarated but, looking back, I know now that it was the beginning of the end - an apex of emotion and joy that I will never again know within the sport I love.

During our annus horriblis that followed, I did what every fan did - I stood by my team in every way I could. I donated to the fighting fund, I continued to go to matches, I bought merchandise that I had no earthly requirement for and I still believed in Rangers. I remember having tears in my eyes during the AC Milan vs Rangers Legends match. Sitting with my dad near our old season ticket seats watching the players that had brought us even closer together. Seeing Ally McCoist, at the time as unifying as he is now divisive, come off the bench and lose his marker one last time was too much to bear. I wiped the tears from my eyes, thankful that my dad and I, against all odds, could see one more McCoist special.

It’s been over two and a half years since that night, though, and I'm now confronted with a truth that I can no longer deny: I am no longer a fan of Rangers Football Club.

As I've got older and more mature, the vitriol with which we hold our opponents has got too much for me. My best friend is Catholic, I've been to Catholic weddings and my grandmother was buried in a Catholic ceremony. To insult Catholics is to insult my family. To call someone a "bead-rattling bastard" because of the particular brand of Christianity they subscribe to is to say the very same thing to my grandmother.

Beyond that, there is the claustrophobic, paranoid need for all fans to conform to the same stereotype and agenda. You must love the army, you must love the monarchy, you must love the Union, you must hate Catholics or anyone with a hint of sympathy for the Irish nationalism movement. To feel any differently is to not be a true fan. You are impure and a pale imitation - you are the Diet Coke of supporters.

I don't love the army, I don't love the monarchy, I don't love the Union and I happen to broadly support the Irish nationalist movement. I do, however, love the club.

With the diehard fans - those who shout the longest and the loudest, there can only be one way, though. They have claimed the club for their own. "It's always been the club's traditions", they say, conveniently forgetting that it was previously the tradition of the club to not sign Catholics, let alone appoint them club captains.

Times change, and "tradition" is far too often a shield for intolerance, bullying and hatred to live behind. We live in a vibrant, mutli-religious country with a vast spectrum of political opinions. I wish our fans could be the same. I wish we could focus on the one thing we all love - the club.

I was told by four Rangers fans the other day that I was a "fucking traitor" for daring to vote Yes in the upcoming independence referendum. I was told I was an embarrassment to the club and shouldn't consider myself a fan. Online, the abuse is even worse for those that dare to defy the status quo. On this forum, the very notion of being handed a flyer by a Yes campaigner at Ibrox (in response to the "NO" banner flown one week earlier) has been met with threats of physical violence.

I don't need a group of mindless louts telling me how to vote and I don't need them telling me how to think. I cannot reconcile my world view and my belief in tolerance and equality with those that populate the online message boards and those that populate Ibrox.

My father gave me the gift of my first Rangers jersey, and it was Walter Smith's team that made that jersey magical. Now, that has been taken away by a knuckle-dragging, lynch mob, ready to string a fellow fan up at a moment's notice.

You can keep your team, and I'll keep my memories.

It is difficult for me to imagine football without supporting a club. I will never be able to give myself to a team in the same way I did to Rangers, and I can only hope that the memories of the past 27 years are enough to sustain me. In time perhaps I'll look back with no bitterness and remember the good times without the taint of my current disillusionment.

For now though, I bid my team farewell. Long may the mob mentality rule.

[sandyinroyalblue 16,478]

In other words please ban me

[TheCutch 4,340]

Don't let the door hit your glory hunting arse on the way out.

You can deny this all you want, but if you can say "you no longer support or love Rangers" then you NEVER did. And that is 100% FACT!!!!

[TheCutch 4,340]

Where did my post go in reply to this?????

[bluepeter 5,627]

I am no longer a fan of Rangers Football Club.

[pcbear 10,924]

cradle to grave pal, what a pile of shit.

[ScottBF2 3,540]

Anti-catholic signing policy myth rears it's bogging bastard head again.

Was a good story until I realised you're a wanker and probably a lying one at that. If you abandon my club then you can fuck off and rot.

My girlfriend's catholic, I love her, but I detest that religion: I've made her aware of the fact. But, then again, I detest all religion, so it doesn't really make any real difference. You're a tit, pal, and I'll echo the sentiments of others: don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[No.12 508]

That's incredible.

[siddiqi_drinker 14,635]

Hope Gogzy and BluePeter have flagged that IP address -

Would the thread be better locked??

[pcbear 10,924]

Thats like a Speirs pile of.

[Bears r us 30,877]

[seaton_bear 4]

Can't believe I was getting into that as well,maybe happens at the other side but every bear knows,you don't choose Rangers, they choose you.

[theiconicman 2,996]

What a confused sad shite of a man.

[nachothelegend 1,932]

Good riddens please do not come back to my Team.

This is what we are up against.

Terrorist lover.

I knew what was coming by the second Paragraph.

[The Dude 20,026]

The fuck is this?

Poster I've never heard of supports Irish Nationalism, no fan of Rangers and broadly calling the support a knuckle dragging lynch mob.

I bet you can't wait to show your pals the screenshots.

[Colonel H VC 299]

Self indulgent tosh.

[Moody Blue Legend 61,764]

Dry yer fucking eyes. Shame on you.

[GOAT 30,449]

Sniff Sniff.

[DietofWorms 2,063]

[GOAT 30,449]

"This member is no longer active"

[govanblue 16,847]

Ironically, bp has clearly demonstrated how wrong the thread title was.

[linfield1690 4,249]

Set yourself on fire you bead rattling bastard

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

Ach what's wrong with being a Yes voting, Scotland Supporting, atheist Rangers supporter - nothing, I tell ye - nothing!

But dissing the Army - fucking boo!

[RFC Eagle 4,888]

So at 4am or thereabouts the OP wakes up next to his sister and his first thought is to go onto a Rangers website and in a drug induced haze give us an insight into the depths of his obsession with the worlds most successful club.

I guess he was still beeling after Pukkis indictment of the club he really follows and the dawning realisation that his life is pointless. That and the impending visit of the priest must have tipped him over the edge.

I think he has confused 'no longer' for 'have never been'. Always a pleasure to see the desperation of the green and grey hordes.

[RFC55 109,625]

He's as much a Rangers fan as George Galloway.

Imagine writing all that on a "deed" teams forum

Probably just finger banged a waen and was all chirpy