Exploring the fundamental dishonesty of Scotland's sectarianism industry

[Frankie 8,562]

An article from yours truly on the events of the last year or so now on the main site.

Please note some words were censored in this article as Newsnow won't publish articles with certain terms used within them.

 

http://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/news-category/current-affairs/681-exploring-the-fundamental-dishonesty-of-scotland-s-sectarianism-industry

 

The few days after any Old Firm game are often as cringeworthy as they are fascinating. More often than not we have one set of fans boasting about their win and the other looking to deflect from it. Sometimes it’s the referee’s performance people prefer to examine (usually to hide from their own team’s failings) but, increasingly over the last ten years or so, it’s now what happens off the park.

 

I specifically mention ten years as it was in 2006 that UEFA first censured Rangers for The Billy Boys and, what was defended as an old battle hymn by Rangers supporters, was banned for the sectarian connotations of the word fen*an.

 

This UEFA action came after complaints arising from the Scottish media with the experienced broadcaster and journalist Graham Spiers at the forefront of raising the issue within the football authorities. Spiers – along with many Celtic supporters – had decided that the word's usage had evolved to often mean Catholic and, as much as that may not be the case for everyone who sang the song, it was enough for UEFA to proscribe the term and the chant going forward.

 

The song then largely disappeared as Rangers fans, working together with their club, essentially self-policed the chant out of existence. Yes, it reappeared in certain rare contexts but it was effectively dropped overnight. Unfortunately, others were created to replace it. The Famine chant (a crass two-line attempt at banter vis-à-vis the 19th Century Irish potato famine) rose to prominence but thankfully died out as the media again brought criticism. Certainly, as much as Rangers fans deserve occasional condemnation for aspects of their songbook, there is evidence they do act when pressed to do so.

 

The one strand of comment throughout this period is any attention was placed upon Rangers supporters and Rangers supporters only. Other clubs did suffer from the occasional piece of gentle negative coverage but, to this day, the only song UEFA have proscribed within our game is The Billy Boys. No songs about the IRA, no songs about Orange b*stards and no songs about h*ns have ever been removed and Graham Spiers certainly hasn’t lobbied UEFA for their censure. In fact, as recently as September of this year, Spiers has strangely admitted he finds perceived ‘medieval’ bigotry worse than terrorist glorification (itself based on sectarian conflicts) which he merely describes as ‘cack’.

 

Now, it’s perhaps unfair to concentrate on Mr Spiers – despite him being at the forefront of the anti-sectarian issues in Scottish football. For example, as much as some like to claim they want to eradicate bigotry, not many ever follow through on their criticism or, worse, are guilty of double-standards. Indeed, it’s this fundamental dishonesty throughout the debate that means any attempt to address sectarianism in Scottish football may never be successful. The last year or so has perhaps shown why this is true.

 

First of all, we had former Celtic player John Guidetti censured by the SFA in 2015 for singing about ‘deid h*ns’ – a term, like fen*an before it, can now be argued to mean Protestant in certain contexts. Both words are literally very similar and often used in equivalent situations and are noted as historically sectarian via the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Yet, the same journalist who decided fen*an was bigoted mocks Rangers fans who are offended by the term. Celtic, meanwhile, were ‘surprised’ at the initial charge and made no comment after he was found guilty.

 

Later that season, then Rangers skipper Lee McCulloch was assaulted with a flag-pole during a play-off defeat by Motherwell at Fir Park. As the final whistle blew thousands of ‘Well fans also invaded the pitch to goad disappointed away supporters. Yet, one year down the line there has been minimal criticism and only the suspended threat of punishment for those involved.

 

Moving onto 2016 and at the Scottish Cup semi-final between Rangers and Celtic at Hampden perhaps reflected rising tensions between the fans as Rangers neared promotion back to the Premiership after four years in the lower divisions. Songs and actions perceived to be sectarian – including The Billy Boys and Celtic fan banners about ‘h*n sc*m’ – were prevalent and both clubs were criticised for their behaviour. Though no remedial action was taken by the SFA.

 

Fast forward to the end of May and the competition’s final at Hampden. As Hibernian won the game in injury time, police and stewarding operations clearly failed and many thousands of Hibs fans invaded the pitch. During this period, various Rangers players – including goalkeeper Wes Foderingham and captain Lee Wallace – were assaulted and the remaining Light Blue supporters goaded into violence by many of those on the pitch. Unfortunately, a couple of hundred of our fans reacted and disgraceful scenes of fighting were relayed all over the world. Bizarrely afterwards, an anonymous police spokesperson and the Daily Record journalist Jane Hamilton attempted to blame Rangers fans who had left the ground for the police’s poor response to the riot. Thankfully the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) upheld a complaint against the newspaper’s inaccurate coverage.

 

Unfortunately, the newspaper refused to apologise and also defended the journalist in question. A cursory look at Ms Hamilton’s Twitter account shows she’s also fond of using terms like ‘h*n’ and ‘animal’ to describe Rangers supporters. The hypocrisy from this newspaper in terms of offensive coverage really is quite something.

 

A regrettable theme from the above examples of serious crimes being perpetrated against our fans is the re-emergence of The Billy Boys by way of defiance from a section of our away support. Quite simply because of the lack of exposure and criticism of offensive behaviour towards our fans, staff and club a small element have decided (erroneously but perhaps understandably) what’s good for the goose is good for the gander at games away from Ibrox. Hence the proscribed chant above has been heard in pockets in some games and, adversely, from larger sections in other matches. As recently as last month, the song was heard at Rugby Park in response to Kilmarnock’s own version of the chant which celebrates ‘being up to their knees in Ayr blood’. Interestingly, Graham Spiers saw fit to offer strong negative comment on the Rangers version but ignored the Killie one.

 

Moving forward to last weekend and the first Old Firm league game for four years took place at Parkhead. On the park Celtic destroyed Rangers 5-1 and, off the park, images were released minutes after the final whistle showing Rangers fans had destroyed the Celtic toilets. Valid criticism was immediate and came from various quarters including politicians present at the game. Although this kind of wilful damage has also happened previously at Ibrox and elsewhere, it’s impossible to defend, incredibly stupid and costs both sets of clubs huge amounts of money to repair. No-one wins out of such mindless hooliganism.

 

However, it was what came out next that is of more interest. Once again, Celtic fan group the ‘Green Brigade’ conducted a display in glorification of the IRA and banners about ‘h*n sc*m’ and ‘kill all h*ns’ were proudly presented in the group’s area. Interestingly, this new safe-standing section of the stadium cost the club around £500,000 to install and accommodates over 2,500 fans. Celtic, despite banning the group previously for similarly offensive displays, also continue to assist them with other logistics – including the storage of display materials and advice over display content. Did the club approve this pro-IRA demonstration and anti ‘h*n’ sentiments? At the very least they made no effort to remove the banners. Given their ‘surprise’ over John Guidetti’s behaviour, perhaps that’s not unexpected.

 

Meanwhile, in another section of the stadium, an even more worrying display had taken place. This time, effigies of a Rangers fan and Orangeman were hung from the top tier depicting some sort of execution – along with huge banners about going to war. It’s unclear what these effigies were meant to represent but, once more, we can only assume they were approved beforehand. Certainly neither Celtic nor the police found them offensive enough to remove in-situ. Little wonder then that, emboldened by this, huge swathes of the home support went into sing songs in victory about the Rangers manager being a ‘sad Orange b*stard’ and told the away ‘h*n’ fans to go home. As per recent examples, perhaps in defiance but also to be condemned as much, Rangers fans retaliated with a rendition of The Billy Boys.

 

Despite all the above, the police made just one arrest at the game for an alcohol related offence. That’s one arrest unrelated to any of the various laws being broken above. At the time of writing, Celtic have also made no comment on the content of the offensive displays despite Rangers publicly criticising the overtly sectarian hatred within them.

 

Now, I don’t think any reasonable person wants football fans put in jail or convicted for effectively singing songs with naughty words. Indeed, in recent weeks the Labour MSP James Kelly has introduced a proposal to repeal the much criticised Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act (OFBA Act) introduced by the SNP in 2012 – which was born from the fall-out of another high tension Old Firm match. Interestingly, Mr Kelly has had much support from various areas – including ‘Fans Against Criminalisation’ which represents a few Celtic fan groups (the ‘Green Brigade’ are part of this) and journalists such as Graham Spiers.

 

The suggestion from Mr Kelly is that the 'legislation is flawed on several levels, including its illiberal nature, its failure to tackle sectarianism, and that the police already have appropriate charges to prosecute.’ In many ways he’s right (and this site warned against such before the OFBA Act was introduced) but when asked to comment on the issues from Saturday’s game by Rangers supporters, Mr Kelly – like his colleagues in the SNP including Humza Yousaf (who had highlighted the toilet vandalism) – decided not to answer. Perhaps it’s only Celtic fans he prefers to converse with?

 

In terms of balance, it’s difficult for anyone to approach all the above from a genuine position of neutrality. I’m a Rangers fan and I have my biases so, as much as I want journalism and politics to be free of same, it’s perhaps naïve, unrealistic and unfair to expect it. However without such professional integrity, football will never been free from an issue that has blighted it for many years – especially if the law, new or old, is not applied. Most worryingly, the worst among us will take this as a licence to continue singing banned songs and display offensive banners which manifest itself via assaults in and out of football stadia. And as the last year or two has shown, more and more want to take such liberties.

 

With that in mind one has to ask when Scottish society will find the maturity to find a workable solution to an old problem that seems to be on the rise. Certainly some fans seems to struggle. The clubs and football authorities often hide behind generic rules. The media and politicians seem to lack integrity. Even senior police representatives are dishonest. Thus, as it stands, despite expensive new laws, dozens of arrests and convictions, and millions of pounds of charity donations, it seems there’s precious few people capable of standing above the usual self-interest.

 

In actual fact, sectarianism in this country seems to be a self-funding, industry instead of the 'Scotland's shame' the same people proclaim. It seems inexplicable but most involved seem to prefer point-scoring and faux offence over achieving tangible progress. That truism is something that should embarrass us all.

[StuGers 477]

Absolutely. Spot. On.

[Bluedell 5,624]

If people such as Spiers were genuinely serious about eliminated sectarianism they should realise that the only way to do it is to get buy-in from both sides at the same time.

 

When the likes of Spiers only criticise one side and ignore the other, it's clear that they are only interested in petty points scoring and not really addressing the issues that exist on both sides.

[Calgacus 8]

If the OFBA is repealed wouldn't the law revert to the previous situation where Rangers Supporters could be prosecuted for using the F word, but Celtic supporters couldn't be prosecuted for singing about the IRA because that was political and not religious?

[MacK1950 2,376]

Great article well thought out you would make a great first minister with your wisdom but then again you would not want that as first ministers have no wisdom.

[Frankie 8,562]

If the OFBA is repealed wouldn't the law revert to the previous situation where Rangers Supporters could be prosecuted for using the F word, but Celtic supporters couldn't be prosecuted for singing about the IRA because that was political and not religious?

 

Perhaps and it's something that worries me.

 

I'd recommend you ask James Kelly but he tends to ignore our fans (or me at least).

[RabiDuck 89]

If the OFBA is repealed wouldn't the law revert to the previous situation where Rangers Supporters could be prosecuted for using the F word, but Celtic supporters couldn't be prosecuted for singing about the IRA because that was political and not religious?

 

The easy solution is not to sing the F word. That way no persecution. As long as we persist with it, it's going to get more attention from media and authority figures than any other. We're really harming ourselves with the attitude of "what about them" when we need to get our own house in order. We can't start a debate on the subject at the moment without our own faults being brought up, if we've got no faults to bring up, we can push so much harder on things.

[Frankie 8,562]

The easy solution is not to sing the F word. That way no persecution. As long as we persist with it, it's going to get more attention from media and authority figures than any other. We're really harming ourselves with the attitude of "what about them" when we need to get our own house in order. We can't start a debate on the subject at the moment without our own faults being brought up, if we've got no faults to bring up, we can push so much harder on things.

 

The point of the article is that we did remove our faults (for a time at least).

 

Nothing was done to others. And they're getting worse.

[Bluedell 5,624]

The easy solution is not to sing the F word. That way no persecution. As long as we persist with it, it's going to get more attention from media and authority figures than any other. We're really harming ourselves with the attitude of "what about them" when we need to get our own house in order. We can't start a debate on the subject at the moment without our own faults being brought up, if we've got no faults to bring up, we can push so much harder on things.

 

Agreed in an ideal world, but there's always going to be a proportion of our support that will not buy into it as long as the other side are given free reign.

[StuGers 477]

If people such as Spiers were genuinely serious about eliminated sectarianism they should realise that the only way to do it is to get buy-in from both sides at the same time.

 

When the likes of Spiers only criticise one side and ignore the other, it's clear that they are only interested in petty points scoring and not really addressing the issues that exist on both sides.

 

Also spot on. When it is unbalanced, the other side are going to raise their level to match or get even worse than the other. Unless that is what they want - to continue to try and constantly get a bite from some of the less intelligent or controlled of our fans.