A large number of Sevco fans, including many high profile supporter reps, have started, at last, to speak out over sectarian chanting amongst the support, by branding the anti-Catholic Tiffany reprise as “disgusting and embarrassing.”
A lot of people have said they’re doing this out of necessity; I’ve pointed out many times on this site that these kind of sentiments are one of the reasons the club never moves forward. But in point of fact, the why is less important than that the fact this is finally being challenged, and by the only people who were ever in a position to do it; the Sevco fans themselves.
I don’t care why this is being done, and no-one else should either. It’s a clear-cut necessity, and anything that removes these hateful songs from the grounds of Scottish football should be applauded and supported. It would be all too easy to take a wholly cynical view here and let that stop of us all from moving on.
I don’t envy the people behind these efforts; the more they speak up the more they will draw the wrath of that section of the fan-base which is incapable of moving forward and which dwells on so many of the forums. Some of the organised groups – like Vanguard Bears – might even put these guys on their next ludicrous “enemies list”; they ought to wear that like a badge of honour. If you are pissing off those eejits you are doing something right.
The songs and chants that have been pouring out of the stands at Ibrox lately have been completely embarrassing. One defence of the nut-case element which I have read on some of the forums is that “this is not the right time to be turning on our own.” Wrong. This is exactly the right time, and the mindless bigots amongst that support are not “their own” and never have been; these people are a scar on the face of their club, a cancer on football here as a whole.
Sevco faces challenges on so many fronts right now that it’s difficult to know where anyone wanting to put it right should start, but in my view this would be a perfect place to begin, because once that element is purged from their fan-base – if it ever is – they can start to reach out and build bridges with the rest of the game again.
Some of them don’t want that; I think their nutcase element would genuinely rather see this club die like the first one than join the rest of the civilised world. As long as they are miles behind us on the pitch the “cultural” side is all they have to cling onto. It is backward, 17th century claptrap and they don’t understand it half as well as they think they do – funded by the Pope as much of it was – but they are pretty much beyond reach at this point anyway.
I hope the guys who are trying to remove this from the stands succeed. Action like this is long overdue. The Union Bears and other fan organisations need to come together and speak with one voice on it, and if that means losing members then so be it.
The club ought to back them up on it. Without that there’s simply no point, and if it costs them season ticket sales then that’s a price they should be perfectly willing to pay.
The fan organisations, and the club, are better off without them.