ian1964 10,761 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 ...does that mean if I go to a Rangers game I'll get kicked out?. IBROX legend played 431 games, scored 61 goals and won honours galore yet he's not sure if he'll be allowed into Ibrox after Rangers ridiculous ban. THIS morning I’ll be officially requesting a ticket for Friday night’s Rangers v Hibs match in my capacity as manager of Clyde. There’s nothing unusual in that. Whenever my own team is not playing I try to get to as many matches as possible to see other teams in the flesh so I ask the club secretary to fix me up with a seat. I consider it to be a valuable part of my education as a coach. Last week, for example, it was Falkirk versus Brechin and, as I’ve been looking forward to the chance to see Hibs in person, I always had an eye on going back to Ibrox this week. But now that the Daily Record has been hit with a complete ban by the Rangers board , I don’t even know if those in charge of my old club will let me into the stadium that I used to call home. I must say I find the whole situation absolutely ludicrous but, as a Daily Record columnist, I’m not expecting any special treatment. If the journalists from this newspaper have been banned for telling the truth - and if that stops me from going to watch the team I supported as a boy - then fair enough. I’ll just put a line through it. Let’s face it, bigger and better Rangers men then me are no longer made to feel welcome there anymore. John Greig is the club’s greatest ever player, Walter Smith is its greatest ever manager and Ally McCoist it’s greatest ever goalscorer but none of them will be in the stand on Friday night so maybe I shouldn't take it too personally. It’s sad but it’s the nature of the beast just now and this morning I’ll be asking if I am now on the banned list too - if I turn up at the front door to pick up my ticket will be I escorted off the premises by some bouncer in a bright yellow coat? I can only assume that’s the case because as far as I’m concerned I’m part of the Daily Record team and, quite genuinely, I am proud to say so. I've been a columnist for this paper for more than a year and a half and I have enjoyed every single minute of it. It has allowed me to connect with the readers in a way didn't realise would be possible and to get my true personality across to those who thought I was just a moaning faced wee so-and-so. That’s not to say they were wrong, by the way. Keith Jackson: Banned again but Craig Whyte couldn't ban us from Ibrox I have also been proud of the work the journalists on this particular paper have done to uncover what has been going on behind the scenes at my old club. I have to credit them for the information and stories which they have brought into the public light. I could understand it more if these stories were untrue. If journalists were deliberately writing malicious stuff about Clyde - spreading false information which was not based on any sort of fact - then I might think about kicking them out of my club too. But pretty much everything I have read in the Record about the shenanigans at Ibrox have turned out to be 100 per cent true - from Craig Whyte mortgaging off the season tickets three and half years ago to the Millennium Hotel not hosting next month’s egm . They’ve been spot on all the way through. So, effectively, the Daily Record has been banned for telling Rangers fans the truth about their own club and that just sums the situation up for me. It’s so pathetic that it’s laughable. If this ban extends to myself then fine. Of course I wouldn’t be happy to be told I was no longer welcome at Ibrox but so-be-it. If that’s the way this board wants to behave itself then it’s completely their business. The rest of us will see it for what it really is: childish, silly behaviour which reflects badly on the people running the club. I wouldn’t go as far as to describe it as a disgrace or anything on that kind of level. It's not. It’s just grown men acting like children and throwing a their toys out of the pram because they’ve been found out. I was also reading the other day about the latest would be investor, Lalit Modi. I know all about his criminal past, the cocaine and the kidnapping convictions as well as his possible links to Rafat Rizvi, an international fugitive who is wanted by Interpol but who was given the guided tour of Ibrox and Murray Park just a few months ago. When you think about it for a second, it sounds more like a script from a bad Bollywood movie than from a Scottish football club. But I’m grateful that I and the Rangers fans in general know about all of this stuff. And the reason we do is because we read about in the Record . It’s vital after everything that has happened to Rangers over the last three years that the fans know what is really going on. That’s been one of the biggest problems. Last week I praised Kenny McDowall for telling the truth about being told by the board to play five loan singings from Newcastle . I commended him for his honesty because it was the first time in a long, long time that someone from the club has been so open and transparent with the fans. I know plenty of these fans and I meet others in the street every day who wants to know what is going on. Some of them are absolutely heartbroken about the state Rangers are in and every single one of them is worried about where the club goes from here. Let’s be honest, they’ve gone through three years of hell. They might not have always ‘enjoyed’ reading the Daily Record over that period but at least they will have been informed by it and told all the things the various boards and directors didn't want them to know. They have been treated by contempt by their own club for too long and even now, when it looks as if there is a chance that the whole thing can finally be fixed at an egm, the board decides to hold it in London. That was another slap in the face to the ordinary guy in the street who wants to have his say. Some of the shareholders I know haven’t got the time or the money to travel down south and this is another kick in the teeth for them because they desperately want to be there on the day to have their say. This is their club. This is their city. It’s an insult that the board of directors could think about staging this vote anywhere else but in Glasgow. I realise votes can be sent by post or proxy - and they will be - but the board simply do not understand what makes the average Rangers fan tick. Listen, they could book a conference room in hotel in Siberia fro this egm and it would still be packed to the rafters. That’s how much these people care about their club and how badly they want this farce to come to an end. March 4 can’t come quickly enough for shareholders and fans alike. As a Daily Record columnist I must admit I feel exactly the same. The sooner this is over and the sooner Rangers are given a fresh start the better for all of us. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/barry-ferguson-write-daily-record-5142367 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,808 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Methinks if he's a paying customer, he will not be turned back. Then again, you never know with Llambias and Co., but doing that would just excelerate their fall. Not that I think that Ferguson was their main bone of contention with the DR. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laudbertz 0 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 I dont think the board will be bothered, unless they want to use it as an excuse to deflect something else they're trying to get away with. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilledbear 16 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 The Board banned the Record to keep in with the fans ( some at least ) Roddy Forsyth at the Herald has been more critical than K Jackson. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete 2,499 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Personally I hope he is banned for good. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calgacus 8 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 The Board banned the Record to keep in with the fans ( some at least ) Roddy Forsyth at the Herald has been more critical than K Jackson. Isn't Forsyth the Telegraph? - which I think is banned by Newcastle Utd 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darthter 542 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 The Board banned the Record to keep in with the fans ( some at least ) Roddy Forsyth at the Herald has been more critical than K Jackson. but the DR has a higher number of readers, therefore the ban has more of an impact....bottom line is, it's all for show & to try and discredit anything the record prints. I'm sure Ferguson will be fine if he's there on non-DR business. After all, he is not only a fan but a fellow manager. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTP 0 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 A poster on FF said Ferguson has been told to stay away on Friday as he won't be allowed access. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,761 Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
the gunslinger 3,366 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Barry is legend and banning him is shameful. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.