This week we saw the next step: the Celtic chairman has gone public to give Rangers a verbal kick in the ribs, directly implying in a brass-necked manner that his club has been successful in their efforts to eradicate bigotry from the support.
There's an email doing the rounds - you may have seen it - giving links to several YouTube videos showing Celtic supporters and their staunch support for the IRA, amongst other things. Some of these are from the recent trip to Milan, others from some time before, but it's not as if you need video evidence to hear the rampant bigotry emanating from the Celtic support; just listen on a match day and you'll hear that "soon there will be no Protestants at all."
Some seventy years ago there was a wee moustached man who was adamant that "soon there will be no Jews at all." The Parkhead faithful were in support of him during the early 1940s to much condemnation from all out with their club, but change "Jews" for "Protestants", fast-forward to Scotland in the 21st century and there's a deafening silence.
The most sickening aspect of this isn't that the Celtic chairman is having a pop at Rangers; after all, everyone is doing it these days. Instead it's that not one single person in the mainstream media will take Quinn to task for his lies and hypocrisy. You can be damn sure the Celtic-minded will jump on his comments to twist the knife further but the mute media Bears will be nodding like puppies, towing the party line as they are so used to doing.
Focussing on our own business, supporters groups and Rangers last week released a statement to encourage self-policing amongst the support. It may not be an ideal solution but it is a start and something we are collectively very capable of. Unfortunately, as with most things coming from up the marble staircase these days, there was a downside and John McMillan's recent comments had me shaking my head in disbelief.
One thing I'm sure we can all agree on is that people, by nature, do not like being told what to do. With this in mind, our support as a whole being lectured to - particularly by no-mark journalists - is going to have a negative effect and when you combine this with a fans spokesman encouraging people to immediately grass on fellow supporters, that's just not a workable method for change.
So while the Rangers support recognise that something has to be done and are active in this, all we're met with is further condemnation from ignorant egotists who are happy to shout and scream from their soapbox yet offer no solutions. Compare to the mob across the city, vocal in their support of terrorist organisations and not hiding their anti-British stance, yet the denial of any problem is met with praise in the rags. You really could not make that up!
Scotland's anti-sectarian superhero has been relatively quiet during this latest onslaught (maybe he's too busy covering shinty for the Times?) and it seems he now has a serious rival. Over the last couple of weeks Jim Traynor has become quite vociferous with his anti-Rangers stance. The former lapdog of our chairman - I use lapdog but 'bitch' is clearly more apt, given the verbal dressing down he took from Sir Dave - has turned on his former owner and has attacked Rangers almost non-stop.
If you listen to the 5Live phone in or Talksport with Gab Marcotti then you can only cringe when met with Scotland's excuse for a fans forum. The ironically-named Your Call is a platform for Traynor to launch his career as a stand-up comic; talking over callers, cutting off anyone that may have a decent point, moving the conversation from football to the weather or how awful [insert name of town here] is and giving brain-dead neds minutes of airtime.
Something dropped into the show on Saturday was Traynor telling us he has been outspoken against sectarianism going back almost a decade to his days as a reporter at the Herald. Given this claim, Jim, could you please forward copies to FollowFollow of your articles condemning:
- Neil Lennon's DOB outburst after a Glasgow derby;
- Celtic paying money to an ex-IRA terrorist for the Stein banner;
- Celtic allowing a pro-IRA group to film at their stadium;
- "Provos On Tour" in Seville;
- The brushing under the carpet by Celtic and the media of the IRA karaoke at a night attended by players, club officials and the chairman (compare to how Donald Findlay was treated in May 1999);
- The rampant hypocrisy of Bhoys Against Bigotry given the pro-IRA stance of Celtic and the support.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Speaking of Bhoys Against Bigotry, if it has been such a success then is Brian Quinn admitting that the Celtic support used to be a shower of IRA-loving bigots? Nah. It worked, but they were never bigots to start with by ra way.
For football fans it really is sad that there is no genuine, open discussion on the Scottish game. The Parkhead PR machine coupled with Celtic-minded and spineless journalists means that any phone in will be sanitised to some extent. And considering that the vast majority of mainstream Scottish football journalists can't give you any insight into the game, it is little wonder we have a show like Your Call that offers nothing.
I'll state again: all we want is a level playing field. We don't want blue-tinted bias, empty awards appealing to a childish, wanna-be-loved fanbase or stories about the Gers that resemble a competitive, literary wank-fest. We want credit where it's due and, above all else, we want to be Rangers supporters with the needless abuse dished out from all comers.
Rangers are not prepared to tackle this in the manner we want and expect and it is astonishing to see Sir Dave not giving a chuff as the media so blatantly take the piss out of him by association. But we have to remember that neither the chairman nor Bain can be counted as one of us.
The RST Summer conference is something I look forward to more on a daily basis. Given some of the people that have already expressed a desire to attend, it should be an excellent opportunity for Bears to have our say and to hear from people that know what they're talking about. Of course, we can also expect the soap-box journos that pollute the Scottish media to be in attendance to open up the debate they fuel day on day. I'm sure they would be more than welcome…