Gers fans thankful to celebrate 140 years

[ian1964 10,625]

Posted by John Gow

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/rangers/id/2419?cc=5739

 

When the Rangers enter the field Saturday against Stirling Albion, they will be welcomed with the roar of 50,000 supporters. Such a huge crowd will not be at Ibrox because they are in the Champions League or are playing a great European club. Like previous home matches this season they will be in attendance just for the pleasure of watching their team play football.

 

But on this occasion they will also participate in the official 140th year commemoration of The Rangers Football Club, and it's bound to be an emotional occasion.

 

It would be special in normal years but the fans know that there were days during the summer when the club was close to extinction. Instead of a finished book they will be thankful it's one with many chapters still to be written.

 

It would be silly to say that the financial collapse and demotion to the fourth-tier was a good thing or 'worth it', but it's certainly true that one positive to be taken from those horrible months was that Rangers fans all over the world discovered what the club really means to them.

 

In objective terms it is only a sport, but the great football clubs are more than that to their local community. Saturday will therefore be a celebration of a small football team started by young men which became part of the fabric of Glasgow.

 

But it didn't end there. Rangers will always be anchored in its home city, but it also has a special quality that has captured so many from around the world who have come into contact with the club.

 

From Australia to America and Italy to Ireland there are fans as fanatical as you will see in Sauchiehall Street. Even former players such as Nacho Novo, Lorenzo Amoruso, Brian Laudrup, Jorg Albertz and Michael Mols believe that they didn't just play for a foreign club, but that they played for their club.

 

Look at USA star Carlos Bocanegra. He can't speak highly enough of the Light Blues even though he had to leave on loan to Racing Santander so he could keep his place in the U.S. national team.

 

When back at Auchenhowie a few weeks ago, he showed that he understood what the club means to him and others as well as any understated Glaswegian. He said, â??I do miss being at home and playing in front of the fans at Ibrox; the atmosphere like that you can't find anywhere else. My teammates over in Spain ask me how 50,000 people come to a Third Division game and I just say 'Hey, it's the Rangers and that's how it is.' "

 

There are few clubs in world football who have seen so many sporting highs and yet so much real human tragedy. It's a story of glory but also of great mistakes on and off the field that have become part of the identity of every supporter.

 

That is why the events of 2012 did not turn the fans away as many non-Rangers people supposed. They didn't understand that the club isn't a fashion accessory and instead is an integral part of life for so many. As Carlos astutely recognised, you don't need to question why, it's just how it is.

 

Having a club at all is a victory and it is for years like 1971, much more than all the titles combined, that the history will be protected. But it's not all about the past. Recent events have created a focus and burning desire from the club and fans alike to climb from the depths, to the peak of the top division.

 

In that sense, the 150th anniversary will be different from the one 10 years earlier. Don't bet against four more league trophies in the Ibrox trophy room, each one for a division higher than the last.

[Zappa 0]

I saw this article getting published last night at half three in the morning or something. Well in John.

 

Great article btw!