The Hate That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Interesting article from Graham Spiers on the Times website following the Old Firm match on Sunday. Spiersy is wrestling with a dilemma: Should he report the sectarian abuse he heard from a Rangers fan at Ibrox on Sunday?

He's in two minds:

"But journalists getting involved? It is one thing for someone in my position to report it and comment on it, but quite another to wade in and become an active participant."

And what would be achieved from making the complaint? Would the fan in question be charged? Banned from the stadium? Or would the complaint be greeted with a shrug of the shoulders from the authorities and the club?

It's a tricky one. To not complain is the default position because you can't see it serving any useful purpose. But not complaining when we hear things like that is to let the perpetrators go unchallenged, to let them think that they're idiocy is acceptable. Not complaining is to become complicit in the idea that sectarianism is just a part of Scottish life.

Spiers also notes that things have gone quiet in the battle against the bigots. The fighting talk of a couple of years ago has been replaced by a silence from Rangers and the Scottish Government appear to have dropped their initial fervour for tackling the problem.

But the grim reality remains. Whatever action they have taken in the past Rangers remain a football club with a problem. There are sections of their support who should be no more welcome in a football ground than they are in a society that looks on itself as a modern country.

Every club is supported by Neanderthals. What sets Rangers apart is their vitriolic attitude to religion. It's not all of their fans but it is enough to be noticeable.

This is a club desperate for a new owner, desperate to move into the glamour of the English Premier League. The fans have become an embarrassment yet Rangers seems to lack either the power or the will to silence them.

What can we do? I don't know. It is no longer acceptable to say simply "it's always been like this." Something does need to be done. The imbecile that Spiers heard was in his late teens or early twenties which suggests that the Rangers bigots are in no immediate danger of becoming extinct.

Perhaps we should all complain. Any time we hear the chanting on our TV's or at our home grounds we should complain. To the TV company, to the police, to the football clubs, to our local politicians.

Write to national newspapers detailing what you've heard and asking what Scotland is going to do to combat the problem. Stick videos on YouTube. Anything to get noticed.

All that might seem a bit hysterical. But remember the line that Rangers always trot out: Bigotry problem is caused by a vocal minority. Well, why don't we rise up as the vocal majority?

If ordinary, decent football supporters make a nuisance of themselves then people will start to take notice. Rangers can get away with doing nothing as long as the problem is given little coverage, the louder we shout the more desperate Rangers will become to stop their image becoming tarnished.

Politicians will fall into line because they'll be less worried about offending a few morons if they see they can take up the side of the majority.

Will any of this happen? No, probably not. Most of us are immune to the abuse now, we shrug our shoulders, maybe even laugh at these fossilised idiots. We shouldn't accept it but we do because it's always been like that. Sadly the price we pay for meek acceptance is allowing these people to continue to pollute our society.

So Graham, should journalists get involved? That's up to you but you can at least use your position to ensure that the curse of sectarianism is no longer ignored.

The Story So Far...

The less than welcome international break gives us an early chance to take stock. We’re seven games in now and what have learned?

Celtic
Atop the pile and Tony Mowbray seems confident that they’ll be up there at the end of the season. That’s the positive. The negatives are he doesn’t yet have the players to play the kind of game he wants, he has not got any faith in the defenders Gordon Strachan bequeathed him and the natives are, as ever, getting restless. Little comfort has been provided by Europe either. I still think Celtic will win the league but it will not be the comfortable journey they’ve enjoyed in the past.

Rangers
The draw with Stuttgart and the Old Firm are the high points. A three game run of 0-0’s in the league and the hammering by Sevilla are the negatives. This is a poor Rangers side and the likely loss of Bougherra in January will rob them of their best player. The club is enduring a period of turbulent finances and there’s little cheer to be found on the pitch. The win over Celtic closes the gap for now but Rangers are a country mile short of where they need to be. Teams will go to Glasgow and come away with points this season as both sides of the Old Firm are there for the taking.

Hibernian
A pleasant start for Yogi at Easter Road. In true Hibs style it could/should have been better with a sub par performance at Hamilton meaning they missed the chance to enter the break joint top. Third is not out of reach although questions remain about consistency. Expect Hibs to get a few results that raise eyebrows – both good and bad – as the season progresses.

Dundee United
Always likely to be there or thereabouts. Craig Levein’s team have resilience and perseverance at their core and the 2009/10 version is no different. Danny Cadamarteri and Nicky Weaver both look like good signings and the team retains a physical presence. Third is a possibility and fourth should be a minimum return from a decent group of players working under a talented manager.

Motherwell
Jim Gannon’s arrival coincided with one of Motherwell’s periodic episodes of crisis. In less than promising circumstances he has built a young team that have continually impressed. This year’s surprise package, their excellent start might not be maintained as the season wears on but given how things looked in July and August even a run at making the top six would be considered quite an achievement.

Aberdeen
Hopes that Mark McGhee’s homecoming would end the Aberdeen soap opera have proved unfounded. Defeats in Europe and the League Cup suggest that a frailty in knockout tournaments remains. Their league form has been so-so with McGhee shoring up the defence but not quite making things click together going forward. The introduction of youngsters hints at a cash shortage but also offers hope for the future. A season of transition but the top six beckons.

St Mirren
Stuffy, hard to beat and capable of pulling off the odd surprise: Gus McPherson might be a one trick pony but he does it very well. After last year’s dogfight expect St Mirren to rise above the very bottom this year. The top six is not impossible but would seem to be a big ask although if they can start winning games at home they certainly stand a chance. Establishing themselves as a top flight fixture.

Hearts
Money is the root of all evil apparently. The Hearts fans would say being skint is fairly unpleasant as well. A team with some talent and a decent manager but also, alas, an absent but very much in control owner. Vlad the Mad isn’t backing Csaba Lazlo and the cracks are showing on the pitch. The last two results, a 2-1 victory over Hamilton and a 2-1 loss to St Mirren, indicate the company the Jambos will be keeping come the end of the season.

Kilmarnock
One win and three draws. Still a reasonably effective unit but not enough at their disposal going forward to have a sustained run of form and the lack of cash for new faces in the summer is obvious. Might be a few uncomfortable months before they rise above the relegation zone although they should survive with something to spare.

St Johnstone
The new boys have been free scoring but have also been quite generous at the other end. It’s an exciting combination for the neutral but a worry for the manager. They look, at this moment, to be better equipped than Hamilton and Falkirk but they lack the dogfight experience of those two teams. It is that group of three that I see the casualty coming from but I reckon a wee run or two isn’t beyond them and that should see them safe.

Hamilton
Billy Reid could have done without rebuilding his team in the summer. At the moment the changes are showing and there is a grim comparison to their great start 12 months ago. Difficult second season syndrome? Definitely and I think it will last right through until May. I don’t want to see them go down but that is the real danger.

Falkirk
Losing a manager, players and a great deal of self respect made Falkirk’s European summer rather less memorable than they would have hoped. Eddie May needs to change their fortunes quickly if they are to make a fight of surviving. Three goalless draws in a row before a narrow defeat at Motherwell point to a fighting spirit that is alive and well. Unfortunately they need points and for that they need goals. It’s hard to see them getting very many of either this season.

Sorry, Why?

On the subject of obsessive fans I was speaking to somebody last night who was determined that he was going to make the trip to Japan to watch Scotland next weekend. I told him I thought he was mad. Most of the players, I said, don’t want to go.

No surprise then that Monday morning kicked off with Danny Fox, Robert Snodgrass, Kevin Thomson and Garry O'Connor withdrawing and a major question mark hanging over Scott Brown. Fox and Snodgrass were in line to make their debuts and their injuries mean George Burley is denied the chance to see how they fit into whatever plans he has for the Euro 2012 campaign.

The whole exercise seems quite unbelievably pointless. To take players all that way for a meaningless friendly at this stage of the season smacks of SFA arrogance and the creation of entirely avoidable tension between clubs and country.

That our eastern adventure coincides with what is the business end of 2010 World Cup qualifying for other, more competent nations simply pours salt into the wounds.

There is also the chance that Japan will beat us. That’s bad news for a dispirited team and a manager who might not be a dead man walking but still seems some time away from being full of life. That will leave Burley having to explain that the game is nothing but a meaningless friendly (despite the protestations of his employers) and the press going for his head again.

With depressing predictability, but no little flair, the SFA has somehow masterminded a completely lose-lose situation. On some level they should be congratulated. It can’t be easy to sustain this level of incompetence but they appear to manage it almost effortlessly.

In the meantime Burley will be talking about getting the chance to see players he wouldn’t normally pick (great boost for them) and try out new things. Well we could save some time by saying that Derek Riordan will never be a regular in George Burley’s Scotland squads. Lee Wallace has been called in late but the knowledge that the manager’s preference was for Fox – who has been Scottish for a matter of minutes – won’t fill him with confidence.

Whatever happens on this trip there is a depressing certainty that our first competitive game will still feature Kenny Miller up front on his own.

Still let’s just hope the blazerati enjoy their trip. If they do then we can console ourselves with the knowledge that not everything about the exercise has been a waste of time.

**It seems we are now set to play Wales on 14 November. That would appear to be sensible as there's so little travelling involved. It also begs the question of why, with no competitive games on the horizon and a game in Wales in the offing, this Japanese trip was ever required.

Fanning The Flames Of Obsession

A funny little story on the BBC website the other day.

It seems 20 year old Frazer Boyle from Coltness had taken the dramatic step of changing his name to Motherwell Football Club, the better to prove his unwavering loyalty to the Steelmen’s cause.

For just 33 quid you can change your name to anything you like and, apparently, the UK Deed Poll Service think “it’s a good idea and we are always happy to help people change their names to a football club or celebrity.

“Good idea” is not what I had first thought when I read the story. “What a fecking plonker” would be more like it. Which is inevitably going to be what Mr Motherwell Football Club says himself when he wakes up one morning and realises the stupidity of what he’s done.

Strange ways of proving your support are nothing new of course. And Mr Motherwell Football Club deserves some credit for inflicting the damage on himself rather than waiting and calling his first born child something like Steven “Maxwell Nijholt Paterson McCart Boyd Griffin Angus O'Donnell Cooper Ferguson Arnott” Boyle. Maybe it’s just me but people that do kind of thing deserve their children to grow up and support another team as revenge.

Still names, tatoos and car registrations are all ways of asserting your place in the fandom firmament. Football makes us do silly things. For an illustration of that the next time you’re at a match take a look at the number of heavy set middle aged men who have crammed their gargantuan guts into overpriced sweatshop produced polyster as way of displaying their support. Take a close look at those wearing full tracksuits, they’re probably wearing shorts and socks underneath just in case there’s a player emergency and the manager decides what he really needs is a fat fifty year old to turn out for the side.

For me a scarf is enough. The money spent going to the game and the emotional attachment of a lifetime supporting the same side through thick and thin is evident to me and those that know me and I’m quite satisfied by that.

But there’s definitely an interesting type of supporter that we me might call “the competitve fan.” Never short of a boring anecdote about the lengths they will go to follow their club, the penury and deprivation that they’ve suffered to ensure they’ve not missed a reserve game since 1963. These self styled “super” fans look down on us mere mortals as simply pretenders, playing at being dedicated fans.

You’re best to either humour them or ignore them. You can’t really tell them to get a life because the team they support is their life and they would have it no other way. The most diehard among them would make the most ardent Trekkie look like a novice in the obssession stakes.

In Scotland for now, however, Mr Motherwell Football Club has put the rest to shame. He is now the “super” fan’s super fan. Number uno.

That is until the copycats start. And I can’t wait to meet Mr Queen of the South.

5 Big Ones And A Small One, Please Carol

Back again. Another week of European misery. Rangers humbled – penalty or no penalty they got a “doing" – and Celtic drawing at home in a game that they would have expected to do better in. Still, at least they’ve both got a quiet weekend to look forward to.

Onwards:

Hamilton v St Johnstone
It would be churlish not to start with the weekend fixture that most catches the eye.

St Johnstone seem to bring goals wherever they go but don’t half concede them as well. Will these two be locked in a relegation battle come the end of the season? I certainly don’t think there’s much between them right now so I will go for a draw, a scoring draw.

Hibernian v Dundee United
The long, often bitter, history between these clubs will ensure the whole of Europe is glued to the radio as the old foes meet up in Scotland's game of the season so far.

Hibs are riding high after winning at Motherwell and winning the manager and player of the month awards in the past week. That is the perfect recipe for a disappointing result and Craig Levein will be out to expose the Hibs defence. Could go either way but I’ve got to back United to get the points.

Kilmarnock v Aberdeen
In a weekend crowded with big matches this one looks like being the pick of the bunch.

Aberdeen haven’t conceded a goal since Jimmy Calderwood was white or something and, despite Jim Jefferies increasingly lonely “Kevin Kyle for Fifa Player of the Year” campaign, Kilmarnock are not free scoring. Thrills there will be few. Another draw. Possibly with no goals.

Motherwell v Falkirk
Few could deny that when the Bairns roll into town the Steelmen know that they’re going to be involved in the game of the weekend. Tomorrow looks no different.

Falkirk are in the middle of a resurgence or at least a run of draws (don’t knock it - they’ve had the same results as Ranger in the last three games) and Motherwell will be looking to bounce back from defeat to Hibs last week. Motherwell will win.

St Mirren v Hearts
In such a crowded fixture list it is a testimony to the enduring allure of this game that it remains the standout fixture whenever it is played.

Hearts won last week but still didn’t convince while St Mirren’s thrawness against Celtic contributed to everyone who watched losing 90 precious minutes of their lives. There will be huff and puff on display here but I’d fancy another bore draw.

Rangers v Celtic
Two small clubs, with small club mentalities, meet up on Sunday. Like pub teams.

The smashing sound you can here is the form book being thrown out of the window. Does that cliché apply when neither side has any form? Could be a draw or one of them could win. I don’t know. I’ll have a stab at Celtic to win it by a goal.

The story so far: 11 from 30 (p*sh)

Friends Reunited

Another European game rolls around and, refreshingly, we’re simply concentrating on what is likely to prove a mildly diverting match up of two teams keen to impress in Europe’s second tier competition to prove that they deserve to feast at the Champion’s League banquet.

Or not. One of these days Celtic or Rangers are going to enjoy a serene build up to a match. But not tonight for Celtic. Not when we can relive a glorious episode from 25 years ago involving a stunning fightback, fans misbehaving, Austrian play acting, UEFA dithering, fans losing the plot, players being attacked and Celtic getting dumped out in the Lancashire night.

Yes Celtic and Rapid Vienna. Do the names not just roll of your tongue, so redolent of the glamour of European football? Only if your idea of glamour is being sick round the back of Stagg’s nightclub after a dozen lagers and a dodgy kebab.

It’s getting rarer and rarer that I can say this but I’m too young to remember it all. Like Arthur Scargill, tight shorts and 5 Star I have only really experienced the madness of what went on second hand.

I summarise: Vienna beat Celtic 3-1 at home and turn up in Glasgow expecting to seal the deal with ease. On a raucous night Celtic lead the Austrians in a Vienese waltz and win 3-0. Relations between the players during the match are less than comradely, a legacy of alleged stamps by Peter Grant and Alan McInally in the first leg. Perhaps feeding off the players, or perhaps it’s the other way around, The Jungle is at its intimidating best.

Or worst. Because it now seems clear that objects were thrown on to the pitch that night. Bottles? Who knows? It’s almost certain that no Rapid players were hit by anything bigger than a coin but one of them claimed to have been hit by a bottle.

Sad, pathetic, unfortunate but forgotten. No, not quite. Rapid complain and UEFA do their normal twists and turns before deciding the match must be played again. A neutral venue, Old Trafford, is chosen.

Celtic have chances but Rapid take the game 1-0. That was the football. A hard one to take for sure but just another game really. Well, not quite. Celtic’s supporters behaved so badly that night – at least two Rapid players attacked, the team bus belted with bottles – that Celtic’s next European game was held behind closed doors.

Squalid, shameful etc, etc. But long gone now.

Aha. Not quite it would appear.

Rapid released a special red away shirt to pay tribute to the strip they wore that night so keen are they to celebrate a win on a night when 22 men were sent out to play football in a bearpit of violence – an atmosphere that was not intense or intimidating but actually threatening and ugly.

Former Celtic players, including current coach Peter Grant, hit back talking of their hurt and anger at being “cheated” out of the game. Frank McGarvey actually seems to be in need of counselling such is the extent to which he still seems haunted by the manner of the defeat.

Such has been the ferocity of dormant anger being stirred up that Celtic have actually stepped back from their original stance – marketing the game as 25 Years On – to appeal for calm lest any over zealous supporters lose the plot.

It’s been a strange build up to be sure. The press have, of course, loved it. It’s all left Tony Mowbray keen to concentrate on the game but few people that keen to let him. Stephen McManus has spoken of being embarrassed at the build up – an admission that Peter Grant should probably have a long hard think about.

Anyway a game there most certainly is. And one Celtic could really do with winning after the Hapoel Tel-Aviv second half horror show.

After knocking out Aston Villa in qualifying and the putting three past Hamburg in their first group game Vienna would look to be favourites. Mowbray needs a reaction from his players to the roasting he gave them after their below par win over St Mirren. He’ll hope that and home advantage is enough.

But everything we’ve seen from Scottish teams in Europe this season points to it being a long night for Celtic. Our technical deficiences, and Celtic have played enough poor football this season to be lumped into the same SPL grouping, have been glaringly obvious. It’s those failings that lead Mowbray into the displays of frustration he showed last Saturday.

So a Rapid Vienna win? Possibly. Celtic are dangerous because they have the potential to confound us all, to come together and play some excellent football. Maybe they’ll do that tonight, maybe not.

They’ll miss McGeady and if he is proved unfit then they’ll need to refocus some of their attack because I doubt Mowbray will want to play Pat McCourt at this level just now. Big players like Scott Brown will need to raise their games and shake off the lethargy that had them huffing and puffing in Paisley.

This isn’t mission impossible for Celtic. It’s just that right now they don’t seem to be able to sustain enough form to make it mission very likely either.

Still it’s only a game. And let’s hope everyone remembers that and uses tonight to bury the lingering resentment of 25 years ago. Even in football life is simply too short.

**The game is on Five tonight. So if you're on Freeview and you've not retuned yet it might be best to leave it until after the final whistle.