Before I start this article I would point out to you that I am a true blue; an extremely passionate Rangers supporter, who has followed our beloved club since the early 60’s when my friend Alex McDonald played with a wonderful set of Rangers legends. I was at Barcelona when the Spanish police made a mess of a happy occasion and they got it all wrong by the way they treated us that night.
I say this, because I know full well that it is not everyone that is going to approve or agree with everything I am saying in the following feature. However I welcome your honest comments and opinions from genuine Rangers supporters and I am totally uninterested in some of the Celtic fans who have a fixation with everything Rangers and spout a load of rubbish in the Ibrox Noise replies.
When Rangers fell into financial meltdown in 2012, they were hiring Catholics and other religions to work for them and had stopped asking people what school they went to etc. In spite of this, fans from other clubs were intent on burying us, and it was extremely difficult to take. I want to move on from that dark period, as many Rangers fans think there is no point of going over old ground, but I am trying to get to the bottom of why so many clubs felt the exact same way against us.
Why do we continue to rub other fans up so much to the point that they hate us? It only attracts trouble and our fans are stereotyped as bigots because a minority of our songs are a huge concern to UEFA who have threatened to punish us severely, if we continue to sing offensive lyrics.
It really is a new era for Rangers and let’s take advantage of this time to sort it out ourselves, by using the help of the new Club 1872 organization. We need a few new songs to sing which are all about Rangers and not about anybody else. Some great singer songwriters are also Rangers fans, so why not get a few to prepare some new catchy tunes with appropriate lyrics for 50,000 voices to sing at Ibrox every other week. I am sure that would appeal to them as Gerry Marsden of Gerry & the Pacemakers is still chuffed every time he hears the Liverpool fans singing, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” at EVERY game they play; it is their anthem song since the 60’s. Celtic fans stole it years ago and now use it in the same manner – absolutely pathetic and a vile way to behave.
Some of the moronic things shouted from the terraces are from a small minority of a-holes who are still living in the past and it has to be eliminated immediately if we are to be taken seriously by our new board who are trying so hard to come up with the cash to maintain the high standards demanded from our brilliant support.
I would also like to think that in Scotland we have moved on a tad from a few nutters, and as an award winning, giant club, we are bigger than this rubbish spouted out by so few nowadays. F the Pope, is a no-no for a start, what help to our team comes from shouting it out LOUDLY for the TV companies to criticise the club openly and let’s be honest with each other, they are quite right to point this out to the SFA.
The SFA don’t like us either, because of the behaviour of some of the songs we sing, especially at away games and at Hampden Park in SFA show games. All these games are usually live on TV and can be very embarrassing to their viewers. I know that Celtic fans sing pro-IRA songs, but let’s get our own club in order first and then we can tackle them via the SFA and the media.
As true blue Rangers fans, we should be singing songs that support our team and lift our players to perform even better when they hear us cheering them on, spurring them to greater achievements. Surely it is all about supporting the greatest team in Scotland, other than trying to demean other opposing fans. If a referee makes a mistake, it doesn’t make him a f*n**n b*st*rd, as these comments are often despised by many of our own supporters.
What is a f*n**n anyway? A f*n**n was in the f*n**n Brotherhood political army made up of Irish and Americans, who have been traced back to their origins to 1798 and were also known as United Irishmen. They were originally an open political organization only to be suppressed and they later became a secret revolutionary organization, who rose as rebels, seeking an end to British rule in Ireland and the establishment of an Irish Republic. They were eventually suppressed, but the principles of the United Irishmen were to have a powerful influence on the course of Irish history. This is the reason that Catholics don’t like being called a f*n**n as they are not part of a political army party from 1798.
Perhaps other clubs didn’t recognize the changes at Rangers. Maybe it was ignorance in their part that they were not aware that Rangers had become a club that had stopped worrying about what religion, colour, creed or nationality you were, as long as you could do your job correctly.
We have the best management team in Scotland and everything has changed for the better within our wonderful club. It may take a year or two before we can win the Premiership, but it is only a matter of time until it will happen. If it is this year it will be a big bonus, if not, please be patient as Celtic have a far superior budget to work with.
Do you think 2016 is the time to stop singing sectarian songs?