“Aye Ready” for Life Without Rangers (In Administration)

I was thinking of phoning Radio Clyde tonight to ask them what I would really like for my dinner as I am honestly not sure I can trust myself to be truthful with my own feelings. You see there have been a number of hardened Celtic Fans who took the bait and phoned up over the last week to share with the panel that they would still purchase season tickets regardless of there being an old firm game to watch. Thankfully Hugh Keevins and others were on hand to tell them that they were lying to the nation and to themselves and that they would in fact not buy a season ticket but desert the club they had supported both emotionally and financially all their life.

This is the new blackmail being directed towards the Celtic support along with the “be careful what you wish for” threat. The debate on the punishment that should be handed out to a newco Rangers (In administration) rages on and we all have our views on how this would impact on the Scottish game. I have previously stated in this blog that there is not going to be an extinction of Rangers (in administration), it is at worst going to be a three year sabbatical for them from the SPL and as such any debate and argument should have this at its foundation. The media are putting across this debate as if it’s a Rangers (In administration) in the SPL or no Rangers (in administration) at all.

My thoughts have turned to whether I would miss the matches against Rangers (In administration), albeit for three years and not the forever as the media would have you believe. My first derby game at Celtic Park was the 1-0 victory in 1988 courtesy of a Billy Stark strike and my first derby game at Ibrox was the 1-0 defeat when Maurice Johnston scored in the dying moments in 1989. The feelings of elation and abject misery experienced in the aftermath of both matches were to be mirrored for seasons to come as I became a regular attendee of the fixture. These along with the European matches were the ones that you looked forward to the most every season but not always the ones you derived the most pleasure from, as any Celtic supporter through the 90’s would concur with.

It was two years after my first Celtic match that I was permitted to go to a derby match and was a further year before I was allowed to attend ibrox. My parents, who by now were no longer match goers themselves had a fear of allowing me to attend, not due to my own conduct but for fear of being caught up in trouble gong to and from the match. It was always a real bone of contention at the time and my immaturity and enthusiasm to attend prevented me from acknowledging their concern. This concern had previously been expressed in even earlier years when I was not allowed to get a Celtic Strip and had to get an English team or a national team strip. I used to get my strips out of Robertson’s sports shop in the Trongate and to this day remember the brilliant way the strip came in a box which opened out to reveal the shorts and socks on one side and the top on the other side, alas it was never to be the Hoops for me. My first Celtic top was in the centenary season.

I often think how lucky supporters are down in England or even of other teams in Scotland who can wear their colours from an early age without fear of abuse or something much more sinister. As a parent myself now I have bought my child a Celtic strip but it is strictly for wearing at home and in the garden. I may be accused of being over protective but I know deep down I am not confident enough in the society we live in to allow those boundaries to be stretched. Down the years I have on occasion been subjected to what could clearly be defined as Sectarian motivated abuse, both verbally and physically not due to wearing Celtic colours but due to the colour of my school blazer. On one occasion as a 13 year old I was subjected to a torrent of abuse from an adult on a bus which culminated on him spitting on me as he exited the bus. The rest of the passengers stared out the window rather than intervene and I omitted to share this story with my parents for fear of more restrictions being placed on my attendance at Celtic matches.

When I was around sixteen my mates old man came in one Friday night and declared he wouldn’t be attending another match at ibrox, he had come to the conclusion that he could not square with himself the process of giving money to a club and a collection of people who hated him because of his religion. He was true to his word and after decades of going to ibrox for the derby matches he never returned. Myself and my mate scoffed at him and for years shook our head in disbelief at this decision to give up what for us was the biggest match of the season. Its funny what maturity and life experience does to you but I reached the same decision a few years ago now and attended my last match at ibrox in 2007. My last memory of seeing Celtic at ibrox will be Artur Boruc heading off the pitch waving a Celtic Champions Flag after we had been defeated in a meaningless match.  

I arrived at this decision for similar reasons as my mates old man all those years before. I no longer enjoyed the “occasion” of visiting ibrox and being surrounded by this threatening atmosphere of hate and bile directed towards us inside and outside the ground. I didn’t like the idea of sponsoring and encouraging this abuse by contributing £40 for the privilege, I would leave the place feeling drained and a little depressed at the state of sections of our society that bred so much hate and anger. The matches at Celtic Park are different, the songs we sing on these occasions are the same as the ones we sing every week and the volume is ramped up to block out the venom coming from the away end. The years of bias and social injustice suffered by the Celtic Community and our struggle through history to achieve equality on and off the pitch have been a defining character of our club. The discrimination of a community of people on the basis of their religion, miss-placed elitist arrogance and economic superiority has been the defining character of our rivals and is evident on match days at ibrox.

Following the politically engineered summit last year Strathclyde Police stated that the indirect cost to the country in policing the match and aftermath was £40 million pounds a year. There were even suggestions at the time that there should be closed door derbies for the next two or three matches following the “shame game”. Les Gray was quoted “Taxpayers are paying for policing. They’re also paying to pick up the excesses of violence” Obviously in referring to tax payers he was excluding Rangers (In Administration). Just think a saving of £40 million a year for three years would almost wipe out the losses incurred by the tax payers in funding Rangers this last decade – so there is the first positive. 

I am not naïve enough to believe that by removing Rangers (In administration) you remove the rancid sectarian element of our society, they will still exist and will still be offended by a young schoolboy wearing the wrong colour of school tie on a bus. However if one big part of the motivation and conduit for their unjustifiable hate is removed or lessened then it can only improve the world we live in. It may allow me to take my children to the football and enjoy the whole spectacle as a sport as opposed to having to explain to them why their biggest sporting rivals hate them for the religion they were born into.

So when the media tell me that I will miss the Rangers (In administration) game to the extent that I will drift away from the club I love then I can assure them without hesitation that I won’t. I already do not miss the matches and will continue to support my club as I have done all my life which is to buy my season ticket to see Celtic play. I will happily take my children along to a cleansed SPL and perhaps romantically hope for a day when you don’t have to think twice about letting your child out to play with their club colours on. I also look forward to a day when you could win the title on the date and at the venue it naturally falls rather than the governing bodies manufacturing it to avoid you winning it against a certain team.

It’s perhaps difficult for a media pundit to understand this sentiment given that they never have to buy a season ticket every year and don’t actually know what motivates people to watch their club and invest in it. It is also compounded by the realisation that there will be less of them required to service the sports pages when you remove Rangers (In Administration) from the SPL. Isn’t it amazing when you think back to the number of comments you have read from these same columnists criticising the amount of people who leave their local towns every week to support the big two clubs instead of supporting the St Mirrens, Falkirks, Hamilton etc. You would have thought they would be talking up the opportunities for these local teams to receive a boost to their supporting numbers wouldn’t you?

Well in the end I couldn’t get through to Clyde tonight so I had the thai green curry followed by Jelly and Ice Cream as I had intended to. I’m pretty sure it’s not the dish they would have recommended.