Scotzine article by Tam Payne

Bib Fortuna's Maw · Aug 7, 2012

Before we start, let's get the whitabooting dealt wi.

Andy Muirhead (who runs this site) is rumoured to be a Tim - it's not written by him and I presume the guy who wrote this is also - now we've got the inevitable "but he's a Taig" comments dealt with, get yer swatching gear reading this:

Paranoia and bigotry â it was just a matter of time

Posted by Guest Writer Since Tam Payne's last article he has not only seen the beginning of life for Sevco in the third division but he has also seen the arrival of an all-too familiar and very dangerous combination...bigotry and deranged paranoia.

An interesting week in Scottish football has come and gone. The Scottish Premier League season kicked-off ( with healthy crowds, no sign of footballing Armageddon.) The League Cup has begun, the SPL secured a TV deal, Celtic came back from behind to win in the first-leg of their champions league qualifier and Sevco Scotland â now dubbed âThe Rangersâ â kicked off their anticipated Ramsdens Cup adventure with a laboured extra-time win over Brechin City. This was the reality of it all finally arriving on our doorstep and I for one enjoyed it. Months of mythology, half-truth and propagandism was now being replaced by cold-harsh reality. Football it seemsâ¦â¦will go on.

The complete and total cataclysm that was to befall Scottish footballâ¦..simply did not materialise. Notice the theme that has emerged throughout the last few months i.e. The mainstream media run a strongly worded interview with an ex-Rangers figurehead where the figurehead spouts intimidating and one-sided propaganda, the media then publish and discuss âguessesâ about Armageddon and the end of Scottish football, as if these are the only outcomes and then reality occurs and nothing of the sort even happens. There was even a senior sports editor â and well-known writer at a struggling down-market gutter tabloid â who claimed as recently as 3 weeks ago that âThe Rangersâ would STILL be starting this season in the First Division. This was obviously little more than wishful thinking aloud from the writer in question ( I have avoided the term âjournalistâ as it is the opinion of many that the writer shares more attributes in common with a George Lucas creation than a journalist. ) or some form of last ditch PR assault on behalf of a former friend at the old Rangers. Either way, it didnât happen. âThe Rangersâ are a third division club.

The whelping of âThe Rangersâ into existence was supposed to be a glorious event to behold. The lowly Brechin City could not be expected to put up much resistance against the third division newcomers who are apparently known to their fans as âthe same Rangers we always wizâ so Brechin would SURELY be on the end of a 6-0 thrashing powered by dignity and embittered payback. But like everything else in this saga it simply did not happen as predicted. It was very much less a glorious and heavenly birth and more of a whaling and bloody Cesarian. Brechin took âThe Rangersâ into extra time where a grubby Lee McCulloch header saved the new clubâs blushes. Despite the surreality of what we were seeing, and my goodness it was surreal, there was a definite party atmosphere in the run up to the game. Taxi firms, burger vans, newsagents, local pubs and other small businesses witnessed an increase in profits and were treated to a pay-day which they had never known before. This was âThe Rangersâ and their followers who once followed the original archetype of this new entity giving back to the Scottish football community and the Scottish business/taxpayer community. A few choice songs and a semi-literate scribble of poor taste on a soiled bed-sheet did little to take away from the sense that âThe Rangersâ and their fans penance had begun.

With the game over and the hedge looking ball-beaten and dishevelled it was time for the post-match interviews. Charles Green took centre stage and then began to produce one of the most virulently botched and embarrassing interviews I have ever seen. Teary eyed, emotional and with anger hijacking his every vocality he proceeded to slabber on about how âThe Rangersâ have found themselves in this position due to the bigotry of others. When asked to expand on this he gave no coherent explanation and didnât even attempt the old classic âdesperate back-trackâ. He left this out there hovering. Now in most situations this would have been shrugged off like a pesky bumble-bee but in this particular time in Scottish football we have to tread very very carefully. Ally McCoistâs pre-match crying aloud, about not accepting the stripping of titles should the old-Rangers be found guilty of incorrectly registering players, set the tone of the week. Throughout this whole sorry saga the consistent bug-bear of the non-Rangers fans in Scotland is the bullying, threatening, remorseless, supremacist and intimidating language from some Rangers fans groups and even ex-Rangers players and staff. Well even as Sevcoâ¦sorryâ¦.âThe Rangersâ it seems that ,like Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr once said, âplus ca change, plus cest la meme choseâ which meansâ¦.âThe more it changes the more it stays the same.â

Immediately after Greenâs comments the football forums and twitter began to erupt with demented sentences like âtoo right! You tell them Charlie!â and âitâs about time someone defended our club!â. A well-known Rangers forum had a thread that might just have been some form of mass ironic joke that I didnât get but it looked upon initial reading that the red,white and blue faithful had decided that it was now all the fault of Peter Lawwell, the vatican and Harper McLeod and some strange catholic conspiracy to bring down Ra Berrz. Thats right folks. Apparently it is all one huge ploy to destroy Rangers so that Celtic or âThe athletic wing of the Vaticanâ as one demented poster on twitter calls them, can dominate Scottish football forever. You would expect that Sir David Murray, Walter Smith, Dick Advocaat, Craig Whyte or even Martin Bain would be the source of ex-Rangers fans anger instead they have focused their energy and time on some strange elaborate conspiracy theory that Dan Brown would be proud of. I am not a Catholic but I donât have to follow a religion to be aware that paranoia regarding one particular religious group and the general spreading of mythology are very dangerous ideologies to tolerate. Look at the âGordon Riotsâ in 1780 where the demented aristocrat Lord George Gordon whipped up a mob in a frenzy of anti-Catholic hatred that led to nights of rioting, burning of churches and attacks on innocent catholic families. To read a surprisingly accurate fictionalisation of the âGordon Riotsâ I would recommend Charles Dickens novel âBarnaby Rudgeâ.

This is a dangerous time for Scottish football anyway without demagogues like Charles Green and John Brown whipping people up into a frenzy. Now Harper Macleod , who are a fresh target for the conspiratorial ire which is coming from the often-confused and perpetually frustrated Rangers fans who occupy the internet, are overseeing the investigation into Rangers alleged side-letters and alledged miss-use of EBTâs. Harper Macleod once represented Celtic for a while and some Celticy people with Irishy names happen to work there so you can imagine how angry the lunatic fringe over at Ibrox are right now. In fact, not just the internet loonies and follow followers have bought into this nonsense. Three Rangers supporters groups have issued a joint statement slating the appointment of Harper Macleod because they represented Celtic and have some vague and meaningless links to Celtic-minded people. To accuse one of the sponsors of Glasgowâs Commonwealth Games to be working for the interests of one of their former clients instead of conducting themselves in a professional manner just stinks of deluded desperation. We have safely navigated our way over some difficult terrain in the run-up to this season but this atmosphere of conspiracy, bigotry and paranoia is one that must be emphatically smacked down.

It was sad to see some of my colleagues in the conventional media running with this as a serious story, even the tone of some of the reporting had a âno wonder they are suspiciousâ feel to it rather than a âthey are just desperate for this to somehow be Celticâs fault.â. Let me make this clear on behalf of every non-Rangers fan in Scotland â it wasnât Celtic or Peter Lawwell who allegedly issued side-letters and dual contracts to Rangers players on EBTâs, it wasnât Celtic or Peter Lawwell who ran up a unservicable and ridiculous Â£80 million overdraft with the bank, it wasnât Celtic or Peter Lawwell who sold Rangers for a pound to a venture capitalist specialising in profiting from liquidation, it wasnât Celtic or Peter Lawwell who ran up Â£50 million of business debts and failed to pay Â£10 million of taxes in the last yearâ¦â¦no, I am sorryâ¦..this was ALL RANGERS FAULT. It was the school of great whites who swam their way into Rangers boardroom who created this mess. Rangers fans groups should be thanking those investigating the actions of the former administrators who helped kill their club but they seem incapable of this. To put it all down to a Celtic-Catholic conspiracy is disrespectful to the fans of every other SPL and SFL club who made their feelings known regarding Rangers starting their second-life in the Third Division. These fans have no interest in âattacking the protestant institutionâ and all the guff that is coming out on the net. This was simple. Rangers did wrong, received some light punishment and then were left to suffer the consequences of their own actions. So letâs just stop all this silly bigoted conspiracy stuff right now please.

TBC...

Click to expand...

http://www.scotzine.com/2012/08/paranoia-and-bigotry-it-was-just-a-matter-of-time/

Bib Fortuna's Maw · Aug 7, 2012

While we are on that subject, the fans of the other 40-odd clubs in Scotland would like me to clear something up for ex-Rangers fans who seem to be locked in some strange time-paradox where they keep repeating the same incorrect account of history on the radio and internet. Let me clear something up for them. Ex-Rangers have not been “punished enough” in fact, old-Rangers have barely been punished at all. The only punishments that the old Rangers received was a fine for Craig Whyte and a one year transfer ban. That is it. Two punishments. TWO. The rest is not even punishments. The 10 point deduction is a statute of the SPL and is merely a consequence of entering administration. Rangers were not “relegated” to the third division in fact, Rangers were liquidated and ceased to exist so as a new club the new Rangers had no league to play in and had to APPLY to join the SPL, the first, second and the third division. They were refused new member status by every league except the third division. Again, this was not a punishment and was simply a consequence of their liquidation. The European ban…..again, not a punishment, it is that new Rangers do not meet the requirements to qualify for Europe. So in a nutshell, you have had two punishments and everything else has simply been the outcome of your own clubs actions.

What is important is that the fans of all clubs in Scotland stick together and keep supporting Scottish football from the SPL right down to the third division. We must turn up for cup games, european games, we must continually promote and support our game and we have to push for change. But, in the meantime, we must protect our football from paranoid and bigoted conspiracy theories that cause nothing but harm to everyone involved. We now have a chance to create a new order of the ages in Scottish football. A quote from George Canning sums it up “The order of the new world has been called into existence to redress the balance of the old.”. Let us unite and move forward together. Maybe then, we can become the greatest wee footballing country in the world after all.

Click to expand...

Don't agree with how this guy has put everything but it's mostly worth it even just for the "the Vatican's sporting wing" comment.

The Raging Oxter · Aug 7, 2012

A good read but sadly the conspiracy and crackpot theories coming from the huns will continue apace, at least until the outcome of the side contracts is sorted out. And if they are found guilty and have titles stripped the NASA rover will be able to record the meltdown all the way from Mars!

rogueleader · Aug 7, 2012

StereoTypist said: ↑

A good read but sadly the conspiracy and crackpot theories coming from the huns will continue apace, at least until the outcome of the side contracts is sorted out. And if they are found guilty and have titles stripped the NASA rover will be able to record the meltdown all the way from Mars!
Click to expand...

and uranus.

The Raging Oxter · Aug 7, 2012

rogueleader said: ↑

and uranus.
Click to expand...

Especially after my Friday night vegetable vindaloo.

DevAdvocate · Aug 7, 2012

Decent article that

Scotzine article by Tam Payne

Bib Fortuna's Maw Well-Known Member

Bib Fortuna's Maw Well-Known Member

The Raging Oxter Well-Known Member

rogueleader suave gringo

The Raging Oxter Well-Known Member

DevAdvocate Gigging bassist

Share This Page

About Us

Quick Navigation

Like us on Facebook

Buy us a beer!

Useful Searches

Scotzine article by Tam Payne

Bib Fortuna's Maw Well-Known Member

Bib Fortuna's Maw Well-Known Member

The Raging Oxter Well-Known Member

rogueleader suave gringo

The Raging Oxter Well-Known Member

DevAdvocate Gigging bassist

Share This Page