From Unity and Defiance to Bigotry and Bile
It was supposed to be a day for the Rangers support the unite behind a common goal to show their support for Rangers Football Club in their worst ever week in the 140-year history of the Ibrox club. However that show of defiance and unity soon turned to bigotry and hate-filled bile as the Rangers support belted out the banned songs and chants.
The atmosphere started off in the manner that it should have ended, with the fans singing their latest anthem Penny Arcade, showing their support to Ally McCoist and the club itself. They even belted out Derry Walls and another one of their themes, No Surrender.
Sadly as the game went on and matters on the field turned against the Ibrox side, the majority of Rangers fans surrendered to their previous hate-filled repertoire which had been missing for much of the season.
Soon enough they belted out ‘fenian b*stards’, abusing referee Iain Brines with a ‘whose the fenian in the black chant’. Then followed those up with singing the banned Billy Boys song with their ‘up to our knees in fenian blood’ lines which breach the SPL’s acceptable conduct charter, and a song that landed the Ibrox side in bother with UEFA.
For some supporting Rangers is all about the football, sadly for others it’s a way to peddle their hate-filled bile onto the rest of Scottish football who detest it.
With the club already in a financial mess, will the Scottish Premier League further add to the Ibrox side’s problems by punishing the club for the repertoire of bile peddled by those loyal Rangers fans on Saturday afternoon?
As the implementation of the Offensive Behaviour Bill nears, the SPL must decide whether to come out of the traps and play hard ball or continue to excuse the behaviour of fans breaching the governing body’s own rules, with the reason that the club have done all they could to get rid of such individuals and songs.
Kilmarnock may have ruined the party on the field, but the Rangers fans ruined their own party with the bile peddled from the stands once more.
Published on Scotzine - February 19, 2012