Over the past few days, foul old wounds have been reopened by certain sectors of Scottish football, following a successful appeal by HMRC (at the third time of asking) against the original 2012 BTC verdict.
From Rangers’ colossal form of 100% in the Championship, one defeat to Hibs followed by the retreading of old ugly ground saw the muck dredged up and Rangers hitting the news for all the wrong reasons.
Yet two remarkable aspects must be noted before digesting all these stories.
1: This was media and opposition club supporter-driven press – through national publications and social media, the hive was stirred – even the SPFL have already effectively confirmed this successful appeal will not affect any ‘sporting integrity’ nor will the nonsense of stripping titles hold any court. But that did not stop every feverish Rangers-opponent from peddling obsessively the notion of stripping titles, despite the facts staring them in the face.
2: Rangers fans, once the initial news broke and confusion reigned, began to enjoy the story in a satirical fashion thanks to Twitter user The Phantom Blogger whose outstanding “EBTMemories” hashtag gave fans some of the biggest laughs in years. It was a glorious way of showing the hordes of Scottish football’s underclasses that Rangers really do not care how much you loathe the club and its fans, and we are more than happy to have a damn good chortle at your expense. As long as we get paid an EBT for our time, you understand.
It is Scottish football and its angry psychology, which loathes all things Rangers and Ibrox, who jumped with comical glee over this verdict; every authority continues to plod along as normal adjudging that nothing has changed.
OldFirmFacts summed it up rather amusingly:
“As the fallout from the HMRC verdict continues, Rangers fans insist they’re a new club and Celtic fans insist it’s the same club.”
The point is Scottish football got its knickers in a twist and not for the first time – its hate of Rangers bubbled up again.
But truthfully, “no one likes us, we don’t care.”