gazza27

how can you get sent to the stand after the game?

yeah a had a laugh at that myself

when we win the league this year it'll be the best ever,even better than getting 9 in a row simply because of the fact he's their manager now

pick on diouf and you're onto a winner,simple

looks like it to me

might have been posted,sorry if it has Opinion: the writer speaking out about Rangers fans March 3, 2011 by Guest Writer · 0 Comments 140 Share By Phil - The Failed Journalist A journalist writing about another journalist writing about what other journalists aren’t doing wouldn’t normally interest this journalist… However Roy Greenslade’s blog in the Guardian about Graham Spiers piece in the Times does merit some attention. I don’t think it is a coincidence that Roy’s piece is online and you are reading this via the same medium. Spiers’ piece is, in part, about the extent to which the print sector in Scotland are silent about a serious social issue (the sectarianism and racism of Rangers fans) because they fear that it will adversely impact upon sales. The mainstream media in Scotland, when it comes to keeping their head above water, dare not offend a large market. That means that any criticism of Rangers fans must be toned down if any criticism is published at all. The behaviour of major Scottish print titles in “reporting” on the rioting by Rangers fans in Manchester in 2008 is a case in point. In one incident, copy filed from a reporter on his mobile phone in the midst of the riot was spiked. Only when Sky news accessed the CCTV footage (see end of piece) did the good folk of Scotland see what the people of England had been reading about that morning: Rangers fans on the rampage in Manchester, smashing the city and attacking stricken policemen. Since Rangers were last censured by UEFA for discriminatory chanting in 2006, the song involved – The Billy Boys – has made its way back on to the Rangers songsheet. I had discussed the entire issue with Spiers when we met in Dublin recently at the AVIVA stadium for an international football tournament. He told me, as he related later in the piece, that he was weary of the entire subject of the racism and sectarianism of Rangers fans. Spiers deserves credit and praise. He is unique among Scottish sports journalists in consistently tackling the issue of the racism and sectarianism among a section of Rangers fans. Although he has also been quick to call out the IRA fan club that follows Celtic, he has been brave in avoiding the “one side is as bad as the other” mantra of other Scottish sports writers. Anyone writing in Scottish football will privately acknowledge one side is actually worse than the other. This is reflected in football banning orders and the simple evidence of your ears any time one cares to listen to the competing choirs when they are on their travels to other SPL clubs. One senior football administrator in a position to know told me that the problem of sectarian singing among Celtic’s travelling support was between 400–700. (It is no secret that the denizens of the Celtic boardroom would love to see the back of these “Republicans”.) He also claimed that in Rangers’ case, the numbers were a significant proportion of their season-ticket holders. “So the club can’t really act against that number.” Rangers have only been censured by UEFA for “discriminatory chanting”, and that was because it followed on from crowd trouble. The Rangers fans have worked out that they can chant with impunity in Scotland and in Europe. But the sober men in Nyon who run European soccer barely understand why fans of a Glasgow football club chant anti-Catholic anti-Irish abuse when they are playing a team from Turkey. This week I interviewed Piara Powar. He is the head of Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) and is close to the thinking of the top guys in UEFA on these matters. Powar told me that most teams in Europe with problematic fans had to be warned at the start of every tournament, but with Rangers they have to be warned at the start of every round of a competition. However, he stated that the lack of action by UEFA must be seen in the context of the apparent impunity which Rangers fans can wade up to their knees in Fenian blood and inform Glasgow’s Irish community that the Famine is over. Ultimately, Powar believes, the domestic association must take a stand. A central part of Spiers’ thesis is that the SPL are much less likely to take such action because of the benign environment within which the malevolent voice choir at Ibrox operates. This leniency of Rangers has a knock-on effect. Should, at some distant date, the SPL decide to sanction another club for the discriminatory chanting of their fans, then that club could quite rightly point to the fact that the main offender goes unpunished despite being named in scores of SPL match-delegates’ reports over the years. This current state of affairs results, in part, from the failure of journalists in Scotland to uphold what is decent and legal. Speirs stands apart in that he has consistently called out the supporters of the club that he supported as a boy to behave in a civilised and law-abiding manner. As I write this, a stormy cup-tie has just been played out at Celtic Park between the two Glasgow clubs. Rangers had three players sent off. It was many things, but dull wasn’t one of them. This is what the TV companies love. They could sell this every week to their pay-per-view punters. One colleague sent me a message just as the game finished. He told me that the visiting tranche of Rangers supporters had indulged in The Billy Boys and The Famine Song (both illegal in Scots law) at several junctures during the match. Once more they will do so with impunity. This was Scottish Cup tie and, therefore, the SFA is the governing body here, unlike a league match. Will the SFA take action at this mass law-breaking? Will they censure the “Establishment club”? I’m sure Graham Speirs would scoff at the notion of the Scottish soccer authorities finally taking on Rangers. Yet there is a serious side to this breaching of the peace by thousands of Rangers fans. How often is this malevolent voice-choir the warm-up act to serious violence after the match? This week, as a panellist on Clyde 1 Super scoreboard, Speirs related a conversation he had recently with a senior Strathclyde police officer. The copper told Speirs that over the last 20 years there had been “15 to 20 Old Firm-related murders in Glasgow”. Spiers then mentioned young Mark Scott, a Celtic Supporter whose murder by Rangers fan Jason Campbell led to the setting up to the charity “Nil By Mouth”, and said that the memory of Mark spurred him on as a journalist. So far he has largely undertaken this thankless but vitally necessary journalistic task alone. Time for others in Scottish sports journalism to step up to the plate. - Phil - The Failed Journalist is an author,blogger and journalist based in the West of Ireland. A Glaswegian and an Irish citizen, he is a regular contributor to the Irish Post, the paper of the Irish Community in Britain. His new book, A Rebel Journalist: From the Famine song to Dallasgate, can be purchased from his site at:

a know it must be hard for him with the abuse he gets but it really is time for him to stop moaning and shrugging his arms and get on with the football,doesnt help with the shite he's playing with right enough

clearly missing mcculloch and to think i got laughed at by numerous people on this forum when i said that a few weeks ago.he may not be the best player but he gets stuck in and shuts attacking midfielders down well,most of the time

cant play trialists in cup games i think

agreed

their best striker

good luck to them

rip

wheres his best position?

there was a thread on him and cuellar and i chose bougherra but really starting to think that cuellar is infact a better centre half

he was not ffs,should have cleared his lines as i've said in another thread,his fault for the 2nd goal

no way,terrible defending from papac for their 2nd goal imo.should have cleared his lines

hopefully a boost for the rest of the season

good chance for bartley.played well on sunday despite a booking so early on,will be good to see him at centre half assuming weir doesnt play

how about the players focus on winning the game

still got it

hope not like but just have one of those feelings!

this they score early and i fear a 4-0 5-0 scoreline am afraid even if we score first you know the routine,sit back and invite pressure which will lead to those cunts scoring

best player i've seen in a rangers top,legend