A word of sense from Graham Spiers

From The Times

May 16, 2008

A club with a poison at its core

Graham Spiers

Utterly predictably, the fate of Rangers is once again to find excitement on the field marred by loutishness and delinquency off it. Losing the Uefa Cup final in Manchester on Wednesday night was no disgrace for Walter Smith or his team, whose very presence at the game was a triumph in itself. Beyond the stadium, however, before and after the match, events told their own story of how accursed Rangers remain as a club.

Willie Waddell, a memorable Rangers manager of the early 1970s, whose team brought the 1972 European Cup Winners’ Cup back to Glasgow, once aimed the following simmering words in the direction of his club’s supporters: “It is to these tikes, hooligans, louts and drunkards that I pinpoint my message. It is because of your gutter-rat behaviour that we are being publicly tarred and feathered like this.”

After that European triumph of 36 years ago, Rangers were banned by Uefa for the rioting of their fans, causing Waddell to implode with rage. The blight of Rangers - defined by loutish behaviour and bigoted chanting among groups of supporters – is proving a durable social poison. Here we are four decades on, still lamenting the seemingly endemic way in which these supporters behave like primitives.

The chaotic scenes in Manchester on Wednesday night - a Zenit fan stabbed, rioting Rangers fans, and 15 policemen getting injured - were frightening to behold. Moreover, the footage released yesterday and shown on Sky News, of hundreds of Rangers fans charging at police and setting upon one who stumbled to the ground, will make the already weary Ibrox hierarchy cringe.

Rangers have a repeated get-out for these episodes: the script always says this is “just a small minority” of fans. Moreover, as incident upon incident passes with the club’s supporters - at Villarreal in 2006, in Pamplona in 2007 and now in Manchester in 2008 - it is always “heavy-handed policing” and not the Rangers fans themselves who are said to be the blame.

Well, this is no small minority of Rangers supporters, and nor are the Greater Manchester Police renowned for their truncheon-wielding brutality. Instead, this is a football club with a poison somewhere at its core.

Such scenes will enrage those legions of decent Rangers supporters who love their club and follow it with impressive ardour. The postmatch eruptions were all the more depressing on Wednesday because the vast Rangers support gathered inside the City of Manchester Stadium had created a brilliant spectacle of colour and noise, including many who stayed on to applaud the Zenit St Petersburg players on their 2-0 triumph.

Other aspects, however, were familiarly ugly. During the day before the match, and certainly in the drunken aftermath, there was too much evidence of the sort of primitivism that enraged Waddell 36 years ago. In particular, bigoted or sectarian chanting remains an excruciating pastime for too many Rangers supporters, despite repeated pleas by the club to give these anthems a rest. For two days in Manchester, if you were based in the city centre as I was, you woke up to these dirges in the morning and you went to sleep to them at night.

Since being punished by Uefa two years ago for such antics by their supporters, Rangers have hired PR people, as well as Kenny Scott, a seasoned and former high-ranking Glasgow policeman, to try to gouge out the social disease which has clamped itself to the club. Scott, in particular, knew very well the inherent dangers of 100,000 Rangers fans descending upon Manchester for the Uefa Cup final.

The downside of Rangers reaching such a prestigious game in as close an area as the north of England was that it was an open invitation for the club’s less impressive followers to display their capacity for drinking, aggression, and sectarian abuse. I would go so far as to say that Scott, as head of security at Rangers, will have been cringeing at the very prospect from the moment the club qualified for the final.

Some spoke yesterday of another Uefa investigation of Rangers, but this surely won’t occur. It is almost impossible for Uefa, however much they care about the image of football, to weigh in on such affairs as public disorder in the city centres of Britain.

But who has the answer to this blight? Can anyone offer Rangers a cure for this ugly delinquency which afflicts a sizeable group of their supporters?

Until that cure is found, the once-proud name of Rangers FC will always trigger thoughts of yobbishness and bigotry. The club, to be blunt, is paying a heavy price for its century-long antipathy towards signing Catholic players, a policy which planted this bitter harvest.

© Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.

All Done

I’ve finished my last essay of the term.  It was a report on how to conduct a critical literature review.  Hard going!!!  But that’s me all finished for this year.  Just two modules and a dissertation to go and I will be a Master!

Tomorrow I’m off to the URC Synod of Scotland minister’s conference.  They are spending 3 days looking at Risk and I’m leading a session on Thursday morning on Risk and Young People so I want to see what they have already covered.  No point in repeating!

In other news Lucky Dave is in Manchester clutching his ticket for the Uefa Cup final tomorrow night where his beloved Rangers take on St Petersburg.  I hope Dave, Marc and Sponge have a brilliant time.  It was great to see all the cars an buses heading down the motorway towards Manchester today.  Good luck tomorrow.

My team, Motherwell, have qualified for next year’s Uefa Cup.  Here’s hoping we get just as far!!!

down south

I’m down south for our Youth & Children’s Work team meeting.  We finished the meeting part to do some work in groups with one eye on the Liverpool game, but it’s on SKY!!!

amazing football

I’ve just watched possibly the best display of football in years.  Barcelona were simply amazing against Celtic who did well to score twice but lost 3-2.  What a game.  Ronaldinho, Henry and Messi were unbelievable.  Football the way it’s meant to be played.

In other news Motherwell 3 - 1 Inverness.  C’mon the ‘Well!

Uncle Phil

Phil O’Donnell, Motherwell FC’s captain, died on Saturday aged just 35.  ‘Uncle’ Phil collapsed during the game against Dundee Utd and died later in hospital.  Phil was part of the Motherwell team that won the Scottish Cup in 1991 and I’ll never forget his goal.  A great player and a good man, he will be sadly missed.

‘Well ‘Well ‘Well

Jack had his first experience of live foootball today when he joined Ben and I at Fir Park to watch Motherwell take on Gretna on a cold and wet afternoon.  Well done to Motherwell who gave out loads of vouchers to local Primary Schools for free entry if you brought a grown up.

Gretna closed Motherwell down for most of the first half although the ‘Well should have scored 3 times in a minute with 2 shots headed off the line and one hitting the post.  The opener came eventually and from there on in Motherwell were on easy street.  It finished 3-0 and could easily have been more.

Scotland Win World Cup

Scotland have won the World Cup… of Golf.  Well done lads!  About time too!

In other World Cup news, Scotland seem to have a decent draw for the FIFA World Cup qualifying.  Holland, Us, Norway, Iceland and Macedonia.  Not bad, although when listening to the radio after the draw someone said… ‘Holland… could be worse!’ to which Richard Gordon replied ‘Yes… because they only beat us 6-0 the last time we played them!’.  I have a good feeling about the group.  An interesting coupld of years of international football ahead.

English Football

Sorry, couldn’t resist!

As a Scot I don’t mind the England Football Team.  They seem like an alright bunch of guys, among them some of the best players on the planet.  What bugs me, and most of the rest of the world, is the English media and their insistence on England’s divine right to win.

England won the World Cup 41 years ago.  Before I was born.  Before any of the current group of players and half the fans were born.  I could understand if they had won several times and added a few European Championships to the haul, but they haven’t.

Given that, when fit and available, England have probably 6 of the best player in their positions in the world, you have to ask why have they underachieved some often?

There could be, and probably are, many reasons.  Too many club games, not enough talent beyond those 6 or seven world class players, other nations improving, poor management.

Last night they were just poor.  Croatia are a good side.  They played well.  They deserved to win.  They will do well next summer in Austria and Switzerland.  Maybe the rest will do England good.

Someone suggested restarting the Home Nations Cup next summer.  Great idea, but I’m not sure England would want to… I know if I were them the last thing I would want is to be beaten by Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who all seem to be doing so much better with much less talent.  I’m sure England will hope to avoid all of us Celts in the World Cup draw at the weekend.

Perhaps Steve McLaren isn’t the only one who should be taking the blame.

another glorious failure? not this time!

Well, Scotland didn’t qualify for the European Championships next summer after losing in the last minute to Italy.  This all sounds just like Scotland.  On the brink of success only to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  But to be honest it wasn’t quite like that tonight.

Scotland were in the depths before this qualifying campaign.  We were ranked 86th in the world and to be honest that was probably generous.  Scotland were dire.

But that’s all changed.  Walter Smith took over.  He brought in Tommy Burns and Ally McCoist and some organisation and pride.  Suddenly Scotland started winning.  We were in the group of death.  3 of the 4 semi-finalists from the last World Cup were in our group, France, Italy and Ukraine.  We weren’t supposed to do well in that kind of group.  But we did.  We beat France, twice, Ukraine and but for a last minute goal would have taken a well deserved draw from Italy.  Scotland got 21 points in a group we would have done well to get 18 in.

Today was a hopeful day.  We were all really excited about the game.  The whole country seems to be on a high and today was perhaps just one more step on the ladder of national confidence that we seem to be climbing.  Italy, the world champions were at Hampden.  They needed at least a draw.  We really needed a win.

Italy scored in the first minute.  But Scotland never gave up and came back from the shock and equalised in the second half.  The Tartan Army were going crazy.  But it wasn’t to be.  That we even had a chance was amazing.

It looks looks like we have some good young players coming through although we are still short if any of the starting 11 are out.  The draw for the World Cup qualifiers is next week.  Our rise to 13th in the World Rankings means we will be in pot 2, meaning we should avoid having 3 of the top 4 sides in the world in our group.  I think we might even qualify this time… but then eternal optimism seems to be part of a Scotland fan’s make up.  The Famous Tartan Army seem able to treat victory and defeat in the same way.  Never too high, never too low.  The DJ’s choice of song at the final whistle… Que Sara, Sara.  We should maybe adopt it as our national anthem… but then I’m starting to think that we might actually believe the future is in our own hands.  And it looks bright.

Scotland V Italy online

A while ago I had a bit of a rant about the Scotland games all being only on Sky and not available online.

Well… someone at the SFA was listening.  You can watch Scotland V Italy online at the SFA site HERE.

We’re off to my parents to watch the game. David is off to Glasgow Green to watch on the big screen.

Starting to get nervous…  But there seems to be something in the air…  C’mon SCOTLAND!!!