Lets All Laugh At Rangers Thread

[RuMoore]

40 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

I think simply put, you would consider both aspects of, is it a minority, and are the club involved doing as much as can be expected to stamp it out. 

Il give you an example. At Falkirk, there's a small number of fans routinely mock the death of Norrie McCathie. I don't believe this is in breach of any laws (but prepared to to educated there). Most Falkrik fans find this abhorrent and the club themselves do to, and have said as much. 

All cross sections of society have a number of arseholes in them. This clearly must apply to all fambases large and small. The test is surely is it endemic, or are the arseholes hugely outnumbered so as not to be the defining characteristics of the fanbase. I'm afraid in Rangers case I don't believe you can answer no to that honestly

 

I can't really disagree with any of your post other than I do think of course we have a lot of idiots in the support but they're very loud compared to the normal ones which can of course sway people's perception. 

When it comes to this forum it's pretty obvious the majority of Rangers and celtc fans aren't ones to engage in the bigotry and nonsense so even if the wider fanbases are considered to be filled with wrong uns it's pretty unfair to try and act like the decent ones on here shouldn't be allowed to post and have good faith patter with people and not be tarnished and labelled as bigots straight off the bat. 

[Bairnardo]

14 minutes ago, RuMoore said:

I can't really disagree with any of your post other than I do think of course we have a lot of idiots in the support but they're very loud compared to the normal ones which can of course sway people's perception. 

When it comes to this forum it's pretty obvious the majority of Rangers and celtc fans aren't ones to engage in the bigotry and nonsense so even if the wider fanbases are considered to be filled with wrong uns it's pretty unfair to try and act like the decent ones on here shouldn't be allowed to post and have good faith patter with people and not be tarnished and labelled as bigots straight off the bat. 

Yeah, I mean I sort of agree with the overarching principle that unfortunately for the decent fans, they are tarred with the brush because they are in there with their eyes open. The idea of taking your kids there for example is one I simply cannot reconcile. But that said, no one is perfect, and turning a blind eye to shite behaviour in a football stadium isn't going to see me personally shun an otherwise decent person. I think anyone who says otherwise is probably at it to an extent since we all must know a fuckload of arse cheek fans in real life. 

As a Club in general terms tho, Rangers are fucking rancid and I reserve the right to hate them.  

[MarkoRaj]

[bennett]

4 minutes ago, MarkoRaj said:

Lee is right, most of us mix through friendships and relationships and can seperate a game of fitba from real life.

 

As for the other guy, words fail me. 

[Jinky67]

You either want to tackle the problem as a whole no matter where, when and by how many. The minority/majority argument is a convienience to keep the focus centred in a specific direction.

Are there clubs with bigger issues? Yes however the approach and penalties for this sort of behaviour should be consistent if you every really want to tackle it 

[RawB93]

2 hours ago, RuMoore said:

Either we need to judge people as individuals or we need to provide some nerdy xG statistic to determine what level of reprehensible behaviour is allowed before you can support certain clubs. 

xB

Expected Bigotry

[GTee]

Why do Rangers have military days and a picture of the Queen in the dressing room. Can't see any relevance to football with that. Clearly for the minority to enjoy.

Does any other football club in the UK do something similar?

And Ally McCoist. Joke figure. 

I occasionally go to Scotland games with two Ranger's supporting mates. But nothing club related gets discussed thankfully

[Leith Green]

8 hours ago, RuMoore said:

My issue with people being so absolute on the matter and saying things like every Rangers fan is a bigot or at least complicit doesn't give way for the fact abhorrent behaviour is clearly relative and exists within most football teams. 

What's the percentage of a fan base that means the non participants of poor behaviour are considered guilty?

I've seen people that refer to fanbases singing about historic battles being ridiculous yet they're happy singing Flower of Scotland with a passion like they fought in the battles themselves. We saw that abhorrent Harry Kane song get sung by a depressingly large percentage of people...

A lot of the larger fanbases have a big percentage of bams that engage in stupid offensive chants or hooliganism, are Hibs fans guilty of supporting a club where a massive proportion of fans sang anti-refugee songs or should Aberdeen fans that are sensible not disassociate with their club due to their fans exuberance when it comes to sectarian terms? 

I think most of the posters on here aren't inclined to engage in the behaviour I've listed above and I don't think they should be held accountable for others actions and words. 

Either we need to judge people as individuals or we need to provide some nerdy xG statistic to determine what level of reprehensible behaviour is allowed before you can support certain clubs. 

Rangers dont get a pass on this because other clubs have some radges associated with them who sing unsavoury songs.

Your example above, while meant as whataboutery, is actually useful -  

If you can tell me the last time you heard the Skacel song being belted out by all home stands at Easter Road I will happily step back. 

Edited September 15, 2023 by Leith Green

[GHF-23]

I think the point I really stopped having any sympathy for the decent Rangers fans (not doubting that they existed, but having no sympathy with them) was going to an OF 4 years ago (Ibrox, end of the 18-19 season, rangers won).

A mate of mine had a spare ticket and I thought it's probably worth experiencing once. The bigotry never really stopped tbh. There were some horrible songs about Leigh Griffiths, but given the aforementioned songs Hibs fans have sung about Skacel I couldn't complain too much about that. But the songbook was out for the whole game, and around me it was a mixture of guys roaring out the most despicable parts and others mumbling along when it got dicey. To not complain about it was one thing but to have guys be such wee cowards as to pretend that by not annunciating the bad stuff that made it alright was really sickening tbh. 

[AndyM]

2 hours ago, Leith Green said:

Rangers dont get a pass on this because other clubs have some radges associated with them who sing unsavoury songs.

Your example above, while meant as whataboutery, is actually useful -  

If you can tell me the last time you heard the Skacel song being belted out by all home stands at Easter Road I will happily step back. 

For anyone to try to put Hibs on anything approaching the level of nastiness this thread is dicussing is ludicrous. That horrible chant about Skacel does not get sung and   it was only ever sung by a few pissed up bams mainly in pre match pubs. I never ever heard it at the stadium from my seat in the West Stand. It's vile and goes against everything or club stands for.

There did used to be IRA chanting and Republican songs at Easter Road. In the early to mid 1970s which was massively ironic considering the number of local lads serving in the Army in NI who would attend Hibs games. The Chairman Tom Hart ended this when he angrily got the fans reps in and told them they were embarrassing the club chanting this crap.  It had died out by the time of my first games in the 1979 cup final season.  

[Jinky67]

Just now, AndyM said:

For anyone to try to put Hibs on anything approaching the level of nastiness this thread is dicussing is ludicrous. That horrible chant about Skacel does not get sung and   it was only ever sung by a few pissed up bams mainly in pre match pubs. I never ever heard it at the stadium from my seat in the West Stand. It's vile and goes against everything or club stands for.

There did used to be IRA chanting and Republican songs at Easter Road. In the early to mid 1970s which was massively ironic considering the number of local lads serving in the Army in NI who would attend Hibs games. The Chairman Tom Hart ended this when he angrily got the fans reps in and told them they were embarrassing the club chanting this crap.  It had died out by the time of my first games in the 1979 cup final season.  

It’s not about putting any club on a level, it’s about where these songs (and by these songs I mean anything sectarian or otherwise offensive) are heard no matter how small the numbers or how infrequently the clubs need taking to task. It’s the only way you wipe it from the stands from every club, in every part of the country. No levels required just a consistent no tolerance approach

[kennie makevin]

All clubs and the national team have mentally insignificant idiots among their support. The point I think is not that but how certain clubs deliberately market themselves as being representative of some perceived section of society, usually it's lowest common denominator, as a cynical money making exercise. Rangers do this. To a less odious degree do Celtic. I know of no other professional football clubs in Scotland who are guilty of this. If you are a fully functioning adult who supports Glasgow Rangers you must know what they, and by association you, are.

 

[Squonk]

While it’s fair to acknowledge that most clubs have a minority of neanderthal  fans, there’s a danger of conflating that matter with a football club actively encouraging sectarianism as a tool for increasing or maintaining commercial revenue. By falling into that trap, we're effectively letting Rangers* as a club off the hook by diluting its culpability. Orange kits and employing David Graham are just two recent examples of the club appealing to the bigots.

No other football club I know of deliberately operates a policy of pandering to bigots in order to retain their physical attendance and financial support. Limited progress has been made since the days when the old club employed a strict non-Catholic signing policy, but the current franchise playing out of Ibrox is still guilty of dragging its feet past the 17th century, despite the lip-service it occasionally feels obliged to pay.

Sectarianism and anti-Catholic/Irish bigotry is a money spinner for a club steeped in Protestant unionism, and as others have said, if the Catholic/Irish were instead black, Muslim, Jewish or homosexual, there would be serious consequences, including the threat of stadium closures, or even league expulsion.

AJF and bennet (and probably others) should rightly be commended for their condemnation of the behaviour of fellow fans and their club, but @VincentGuerin is absolutely right to question why any right-thinking person wouldn’t walk away from such a vile ‘institution,’ regardless of how much affinity that person might have built up purely from the on-field stuff. It’s a bit like admiring Hitler for his love of his pet dogs.
 

[Dons_1988]

Amazing that on this issue some old firm fans are very passionate that all clubs be treated equally and operate on a level playing field. Very interesting. 

[Wee-Bey]

There was a chance to make a serious dent in this issue when the old club died and the new entity were scrambling about in the seaside leagues.

Everyone shat it though. The lure of the bloo pound is too intoxicating.

['WellDel]

One of the biggest problems is that those in authority who have the power to force change are too shite feart to tackle the issue in any meaningful way. 

 There are far more bigots on both sides than either would care to admit, and both clubs are complicit and abhorrent in their continued weak acceptance of it all simply for money's sake. The removal of sectarianism combined with a drop off in success levels would see either of these 'institutions' reduced to half their size pretty fucking quickly. Sadly, there's not a single person in authority at either club or in charge of the league who has the balls to tackle it head on and force it out of our game. It's unfortunately an embarrassing and sad indictment on our society that is going nowhere anytime soon. 

[Dons_1988]

Just now, 'WellDel said:

One of the biggest problems is that those in authority who have the power to force change are too shite feart to tackle the issue in any meaningful way. 

 There are far more bigots on both sides than either would care to admit, and both clubs are complicit and abhorrent in their continued weak acceptance of it all simply for money's sake. The removal of sectarianism combined with a drop off in success levels would see either of these 'institutions' reduced to half their size pretty fucking quickly. Sadly, there's not a single person in authority at either club or in charge of the league who has the balls to tackle it head on and force it out of our game. It's unfortunately an embarrassing and sad indictment on our society that is going nowhere anytime soon. 

Feart but also no real desire to do so. 

There’s a commercial aspect here too, if there’s any interest in the old firm outside of direct fans of the clubs, it’s for the baggage that comes with it. In England they just think it’s a noisy, colourful novelty act and nobody really considers what all the flag waving and singing actually means. 

The league will never say it but they see it as a USP for the brand, and whilst there’s a line it can’t cross, they’d never want it removed completely. 

[Jinky67]

1 hour ago, Dons_1988 said:

Amazing that on this issue some old firm fans are very passionate that all clubs be treated equally and operate on a level playing field. Very interesting. 

When it comes to dealing with intolerance, hatred and offensive singing absolutely, unless you feel differently? 

[Dons_1988]

16 minutes ago, Jinky67 said:

When it comes to dealing with intolerance, hatred and offensive singing absolutely, unless you feel differently? 

Oh no I agree, albeit your posts lack any detail of what it actually means but in principle we’re agreed. 

Im just less selective on when fair treatment is important I suppose. 

[Jinky67]

25 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

Oh no I agree, albeit your posts lack any detail of what it actually means but in principle we’re agreed. 

Im just less selective on when fair treatment is important I suppose. 

Tbf mate I think dealing with issues regarding offensive behaviour and sectarianism slightly supersede any gripes you have over the fair split of revenues and how competitive our league is. Just my opinion of course