Before I begin this entry, I am
going to pre-empt all dissenters who are ready to accuse this blog of crying ‘but
they did it too…’.
I am aware two wrongs do not make
a neutral, never mind a right, but let us try to get some fair impartiality
here shall we?
Last night Rangers fans at Stark’s
Park were guilty of a few of the naughty songs. There is no denying this. It was
not quite Graham Roberts conducting the Ibrox choir like in the 80s but there were
definitely songs unacceptable in this day and age and Rangers, as a club, have
done a great deal to eradicate bigotry and sectarianism from our song book in
the past 20 years.
We know the job is not complete,
with last night being evidence, but we can hold our hands up to what really
happened and our heads up high that we address the issue and try to deal with it.
The problem, as articulated so
many, many times, by more intelligent observers than myself, is that Celtic’s
song book, Aberdeen’s song book and many other
clubs in Scotland
do not get anything like the same treatment Rangers fans do.
At what point did ‘offensive
singing’ exclude glorifying the IRA, anti-British songs, and songs mocking the
dozens who lost their lives in the two disasters at Ibrox?
There is simply no evidence that
the vile songs from other clubs’ fans are being equally scrutinised to the
level of Rangers’ fans.
Whenever a Celtic match is
broadcast live, the litany of IRA songs fills the mics to an embarrassing
degree, yet rarely if ever is action taken.
And then when you have a
delusional fantasist like Stan Collymore trying to change ‘wife-beating b*st*rd’
to ‘black f*n**n b*st*rd’ the realm of Walter Mitty comes into play.
It is bad enough to hear genuinely
offensive songs, far worse when a group of fans rightly defends itself against
a man who has attempted to persecute them via lies and does so again while using
his 700,000 followers to spread that misinformation.
I ask the SFA, the SPFL – why exactly
are Aberdeen
fans allowed to sing about the Ibrox Disasters? Why are Celtic fans allowed to
sing about glorifying of the murders of the very people who gave them the
freedom of speech to express their ‘opinion’? Why are Hibs fans allowed to
emulate the latter?
Why is it all ‘acceptable’ unless
it is Rangers, at which point the book is flung, followed by the library,
brick-by-brick.
I am not asking for dispensation
for Rangers, I am asking for an even playing field without selective charges.
Too much to ask? Probably.