I looked at our Champions League draw and my heart sank - not so much
because of the quality of the opposition but because I knew right away we
would have some problems - or so I thought.
The Greeks are nutty whichever team you play, their police are not renowned
for their professionalism and Panathanikos¹ shamrock-like club emblem means
Celtic's inbreds will latch onto them and our own numbskulls will think they
are something to do with the IRA. Manchester United are labeled as a
Catholic club mainly through Celtic hanging onto their coat-tails in the
last twenty years and Stuttgart played Celtic a while ago and as the German
fan culture includes a lot of scarf and badge swapping I expected to see
some of them attired as Germanic leprechauns at Ibrox.
I was pleasantly surprised by the Stuttgart fans - I was outside the Copland
Road underground and surrounding streets and bars for about two hours before
the game and only saw one of them with a Celtic scarf - the vast majority of
them were buying Rangers gear and swapping scarves. Someone else said they spotted a wee group with Celtic tops inside the ground but to be honest I
think the Germans deserve a gold star in their jotters for being good
visitors and turning their backs on the obvious.
When we played Galatasary a few season ago there was a great interview with
a load of Bluenoses in Istanbul who were getting on great with the locals -
³we treat them like we¹d like to be treated and we've had no problems² was
the quote of the year and summed up the sort of attitude we should have.
MAKING FRIENDS AND FIGHTING OTHER PEOPLE'S BATTLES
Reading Manchester United websites and fanzines leaves you with an uncanny
feeling of deja vu. If you substituted the word Rangers for United you can
move the articles and letters into FF and not notice the difference. Like
us, though on a vastly bigger scale, they suffer from the petty hatreds and
jealousies of the unsuccessful and the unambitious.
Add in the Warrington and Arndale Centre bombings and the change in attitude
to Celtic's visiting hordes is startling. Where once they were treated as
an amusing sight - so many drunken Jocks in such a small time - they are now
viewed with horror. Those bombings have woken up loads of United fans to
what was in their midst.
So when journalists pump out "stories" (inventions more like) about 'Rangers
fans send for the words of the Manchester City song Blue Moon' ask what are
their motivations? When they fill their pages with stories of Celtic and
United fans teaming up for aggro or English hooligans trying to attach
themselves to Rangers ask what are their motivations? Their motivations
are hatred of Rangers and a sick wish to stir up trouble.
Why would Rangers fans want to behave in a way which drives any fan of any
other club into the arms of Celtic's seedy embrace?
YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW
If any numbnut starting singing about the Munich Air Disaster ask them if
they are happy for United fans to sing about the Ibrox Disaster?
You might also want to remind them of the events at the first game to be
played at Anfield between Liverpool and Manchester United after the
Hillsbrough Disaster. I've never seen or heard anything like it. The
simple, brutal, obvious thing for the United fans to do would have been to
pay back the Scousers for forty years of baiting about the Munich Air
Disaster with some frightfulness about the deaths at Hillsbrough. They
didn't. They simply handed out the biggest collective humiliation and
lesson in good manners I have ever witnessed.
Throughout the 90 minutes they sang, "Where's your famous Munich song?" -
the Scousers had no answer, they looked at their feet, they cringed, the
remained absolutely silent. Even more than that the United fans held their
discipline and not one of them sold the jerseys by mentioning Hillsbrough.
What would you pay to have fans with that wit and that sense of discipline
like at Ibrox? Or would you prefer numbskulls like the clown who ran onto
the pitch during the Stuttgart game?
Ignore provocations - anyone looking in knows who the arsehole is. Reject
the attempts at phony friendships. Don't be conned into fighting other
people's battles because some loony claims to have Rangers as his second
team - all they are trying to do is hide amongst Rangers because they don't
have the ability or bravery to take on other clubs by themselves. They'll
walk away from the wreckage and leave us to pick up the blame.
So when abroad, or meeting visiting fans in Glasgow - act as an ambassador
for Rangers.
GRANDMASTER SUCK