Scott Sinclair is a magnificent footballer. To see him racially abused at Ibrox this weekend was astonishing, sickening, a throwback to the darkest days of football on this island. Once upon a time Mark Walters suffered that sort of abuse at Celtic Park and I don’t know a single person who is not still sick at the thought of it.
It was a different time, but that offers no alibi or excuse to those who did it. Ignorance is racism is bigotry is hate and there was never an era where that was not diabolical behaviour. There was never a time when it wasn’t evil.
Neil Lennon was a magnificent footballer. At Ibrox once he was the target of some of the worst abuse ever heard inside a football stadium. It led to his manager Martin O’Neill, a fellow Irishman, walking onto the pitch after a game, taking hold of Neil and walking him across to where the Celtic supporters were massed, to a rousing reception.
There was once a time when anti-Irish sentiment seeped from every pore of the Scottish body politic, but there was never an era where it was not diabolical behaviour. There was never a time when it wasn’t evil.
Catholics in Scotland suffered as much as the Irish. Anti-Catholic songs have poured from the stands at Ibrox for as long as I can remember. There have been lulls in the intensity of it, but never an outright halt to the practice. It got so bad that when Lennon suffered his historic day of non-stop abuse and Martin brought it up at a UEFA press conference that the European governing body investigated the club for it. The SFA called them “cultural songs” and sought to explain them away as if this was acceptable. The Scottish media called for investigations into Celtic.
There was a time when it was seen as normal in this country, but there was never an era where it was not diabolical behaviour. There was never a time when it wasn’t evil.
The far-right once considered Ibrox a happy recruiting ground. They still do, because the club has embraced so many causes close to their dark heart; militarism, unionism, Loyalism. The support is profoundly right-wing, more so than at any time I can remember, embracing a paranoid hatred of the political class based on perceived allegiances to the club’s myriad enemies. Where the far-right once based its hatred on the colour of a man’s skin, it is now most often to be found in an open anti-Muslim sentiment which is as dangerous and socially irresponsible as it is just plain wrong. You do not need to go far to see that it has crept into the Sevco fan base. Indeed, their “fan on the board” had to resign, within 36 hours of getting his seat, because of it and there is a large section of their support which thinks he ought not to have “bowed to pressure.”
There might be a time when this will be seen as the norm for this country – the Tory Party seems keen to embrace some elements of it – but there will never be an era where it will not be diabolical behaviour. There will never be a time when it is not evil.
I have seen Sevco fans make Nazi salutes; they call it something else but the image is appalling and sickening. Anti-semitism is not often associated with them – to their credit, by the way – but with their proximity to the far-right and certain aspects of Ulster Loyalism it is there alright, in some loose form, threatening to become something more.
It might have been the norm for large parts of the European continent for years beyond count, and the most hateful regime in the history of the world rose on the back of it, but there was never an era where it was not diabolical behaviour. There was never a time when it was not evil.
One of the characteristics of football fans is that all must have an Enemy, something to aspire to beat.
The defining characteristic of the Ibrox support is how deep its loathing goes, and how wide they cast the net. There cannot be another club in the game whose fans hate such a broad range of cultures and religions and peoples.
Celtic calls itself a broad church, in the sense that we are open to all. We welcome all colours, all creeds, all religions, all political persuasions. We try to make friends. We try to build relationships. We try to reach out and to embrace positivity.
Their support looks inward. If it reaches out at all it’s to strike a blow. Their entire philosophy is founded on hate. There is no one “out group” – they are equal opportunity haters on a scale I find hard to comprehend, and I’ve seen enough to know it won’t change.
I have friends who are Sevco fans. I cannot fathom how they can pledge allegiance to a club that is so skewed and filled with hate. I cannot fathom how they can pretend that it is something positive, when so many of their fellow followers wallow in the filth.
One guy on a forum the other night called out those fans who have twisted a Tiffany song into an anti-Catholic anthem. He pleaded for his fellow fans to speak out with him. He told them he is married to a Catholic. For that, and for the message itself, he found himself targeted by the hate mob.
I don’t know how he can ever set foot inside Ibrox again, but he says he will. I don’t know what goes through his head, or the head of any Catholic player or their manager Pedro Caixinha. He is surrounded by this stuff, and calls to put a Real Rangers Man on his coaching team was little more than an effort to infuse in that team all the warped ideas that flow out of the stands.
Mark Warburton found himself changed by the job, becoming less as a man than he was before.
I don’t think his career will ever recover from it.
I can blog about this night and day. I can write about this and hope for a change, but it has to start somewhere else, inside the club itself. They are on their knees right now, desperate for “investment” and the savvier of their supporters realise that this stuff is a plague on their house. Chris Graham tweeted on the subject just the other day; for all my issues with that guy, and his past behaviour, he knows that it has to happen if the club is to improve.
How long before the rest of them get it? What’s it going to take?
A new generation, maybe?
The club doesn’t have that kind of time.
When it dies, this is will be part of what killed it.