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Shame On Those Inside And Outside Ibrox For Their Silence Or Excuses Over Thursday Night.

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Let me open this up with yet another broadside against our media, which has behaved disgracefully since Thursday in seeking, first, to apportion blame to “Scottish football fans” as a whole for what happened at Ibrox – where one particular Scottish club plays – and has spent the days since denying they are the real culprits and trying to dance around the real issue.

And they weren’t the only ones.

I read an astonishing series of comments today from Supporters Direct’s spokesman Paul Goodwin, who I actually have a lot of time for, where he seemed to be blaming the police and excusing the Sevco supporters as well. His assertion that the police were “blindsided” by the tie, but also that Croatian fans are known for this kind of behaviour is not supported by a single piece of evidence, and it should not be used to exonerate Scotland’s Shame.

“On the surface, it is a small country and a relatively unknown team without a reputation for this kind of thing,” he said, stating a fact. But he then veered into make-believe land. “But as soon as you mention the likes of Croatia, in the past there has been issues with their fans, which police would be aware of.”

That sort of sweeping generalisation is shocking.

If fans from this country had gone abroad, found themselves involved in trouble, if two of them had been stabbed and someone representing fans from the home nation made such a broad sweeping statement about Scotland and Scottish supporters every one of us – Goodwin and his organisation included – would have been in uproar over it.

One set of fans here do have well known “issues”, albeit in a different guise; guess which one it is?

Want me to list the cities they’ve fought in?

Want me to cite the numerous incidents involving them?

I only need to say one word – Manchester – to end the argument at a stroke, but it wasn’t that long ago they were, in the garments of Sevco, rioting in our own National Stadium.

That, too, of course, was blamed on somebody else.

I have news for Goodwin and everyone else seeking to find exculpatory evidence to somehow brush this aside; it was two of the Croats who ended up in the hospital here with stab wounds. It was not “innocent” Sevco supporters who ended up in the A&E.

The footage shows black-clad figures battling with one another; we’re supposed to believe somehow that it’s mostly the Croat fans we’re watching, and to ignore the fact that there’s a well-known supporters group at Ibrox that actively promotes violence and dresses in similar garb, and I’ll never cease using their picture to highlight it.

Their forums buzz with talk about “women and children” being attacked, but in our social media age there is not one piece of footage or eyewitness testimony to confirm that such a thing even took place.

What there is – what we do have – is footage of thugs battling one another.

And since we know who the two teams were it’s safe to say that some of those thugs were Sevco fans.

Yet that is the truth that dare not speak its name in our media.

We’re supposed to forget that there was an incident just last week involve their fans … they are the common denominator in both incidents, but someone else is to blame for them both?

Really?

Is that the party line is it?

Contemptible, that’s what it is.

Honestly, I have read some absolute bullshit over this and not just on the Sevco fan forums where they had originally identified the stab victims as their own fans as they sought to excuse those appalling scenes and create yet another victim myth for themselves.

Nothing is ever their fault, nothing is ever down to them.

It’s all “provoked” or it’s all blown out of proportion by people who don’t like them very much.

How deep in denial are they over this one?

As Phil revealed this morning, in a piece that quite simply took your breath away – you can read it here – Mark Dingwall, the purveyor of the sewer that is Follow Follow actually emailed the hospital that treated the Croatian fans apparently in the full expectation that they would discuss confidential patient details with him, in order to ascertain what sort of weapon was used in the stabbings … as if the use of broken bottles or sharp sticks somehow made this less disgraceful.

Whilst you ponder that, ponder this; he then put that email on a public forum as if this grotesque act, tied up in a twisted effort at attempted justification, was something virtuous and not the sort of the thing that makes your skin scrawl.

Dingwall, of course, is built in with the bricks over there.

A frequent guest in the director’s box and the go-to-guy for numerous media outlets, he still enjoys all the privileges that accrue to all the other Friends of The Man … the one in South Africa with multiple criminal convictions. Also in that select club is Chris Graham, who some even claim collects a wage from the club and who’s own mouthpiece, The Rangers Standard, attempted to suggest that FARE, a UEFA accredited organisation, was in Ibrox on Thursday looking for something negative to report back.

And that’s what I meant the other day when I wrote that this goes all the way to the top, to the club itself, which loves a statement when they can fling blame around like confetti but has been strangely, and notably, silent on this issue … for now, anyway, but doubtless there will be a stream of invective should UEFA actually charge them for this.

One national newspaper put Gerrard on the front page, saying he had “slammed” the perpetrators.

Actually, he mouthed a handful of empty platitudes and said he hoped “that no-one was hurt.”

Apart from the stabbing victims, I presume, who he either didn’t know about or thought didn’t merit a mention.

Of course, not one word has been uttered by those inside Hampden; we expect that now.

UEFA needs to step in where others won’t.

The news that this is even a possibility is, of course, being spun as more proof that the Unseen Hand has been hard at work; once again, a reality check.

The Unseen Hand was not the one holding a blade or a bottle and doing the stabbing here, that was a Sevco hand.

At this point, you just have to hope UEFA acts and that they do so robustly, making it clear they hold the club accountable.

That’s important, especially as a mere 800 Celtic fans will have to make the perilous journey to Ibrox later this year, because of a decision the Sevco chairman took for purely selfish reasons, as a PR boon and a sop to their worst elements, a decision which now clearly endangers the safety of our supporters.

There is an element of their support which is capable of anything.

It seems to me that a lot of our media believes not saying that will somehow lessen the potential for serious harm being done.

It’s only by the grace of God we’re not talking about dead Croatian fans this weekend and if that had happened then, yes, it would have been a problem for all of us as we grappled with the awful question as to how the reputation of the whole game here could hope to recover from that.

And all this because one club – one club and its media apologists – has spent six years building the Victim Lie to shocking proportions, and helped to nurture a sense of grievance amongst its own fans which has swelled to such monumental dimensions that it now threatens public safety.

Until that is faced, head on, that club will remain a clear and present danger to the rest of Scottish football. And tonight nobody in any position of responsibility here at home wants to say that out loud. Once again, we’re looking to Europe.

Shame on everyone making excuses and hiding behind them over this.

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