One of the Ibrox fan forums has done something unexpected; they are running a thread which I think is entirely deranged on the surface of it … and yet it has stumbled onto a point with which I am in complete agreement. All Celtic fans would be. That must be the last thing those who have commented on it would ever expect.
Someone sent me a link to this tonight; the thread went up on Saturday, in the aftermath of our game; it is full of the expected moon-howling. That it has continued to draw comments for every day of this week so far is why I find it so amusing.
Entitled “Only (our club) can publicly address the compromised refs situation” the guy who opened the discussion is making the claim that refs in Scottish football are so clearly pro-Celtic that there is only one option; to bring in a neutral ref from somewhere else.
Before we get to that, you have to realise that these Peepul don’t think for one second that they are suggesting pretty much the same thing as we’ve been pushing all these years. To get a flavour of how deranged these folk are, check out this particular geezer’s point;
“The current PLC board at CFC needs to removed before Scottish football can heal. They are the ones who ensured we got triple relegated to the depths of Scottish football so they could hoover up the CL cash and consolidate their wealth. Now we are in a situation where their influence is so great that, even when they look like losing, their refereeing fraternity will pull out the stops to ensure their heroes remain on top.”
Anyone who believes that isn’t tethered to reality.
Some of our own fans think our board were complicit in the very fact that there’s a club called Rangers in the game here at all; I don’t believe that, as it was not in our power to prevent or assist that and there’s nothing we could have done to stop it even if we’d used every bit of influence and power and money we had.
But you’ll see there the twin constructs of the Victim and Survival lies both, and how difficult it is for any of them to separate one from the other. They need this stuff just to get through the day. The whole thread is pretty much just like it.
They are so deep in their own paranoia that it’s generally dazzling. They think that the officials at the weekend conspired to send us into the final; they genuinely believe that the whole of the SFA is a pro-Celtic cabal. You could not make that up. Ask them for evidence and they throw back at you utter nonsense … but, as I said, they have stumbled onto a valid point.
If they approached Celtic and asked our club if we’d agree to petitioning the SFA for a neutral official for the cup final, I am sure that we would get complete agreement. In fact, it is one area in which I can see our club and theirs being genuinely on the same page.
Over in the States, one of the biggest problems that has arisen are the hardcore elements in the Republican Party who don’t think they were sent to Washington to get stuff done but to prevent the Democrats and moderates in their own party from getting things done. They are such zealots that they will even oust Republican speakers who reach out across the aisle. But everyone who has spent any time in politics at all knows you have to find common ground, you have to work with other people, you have to build alliances to get change.
And I really don’t care how they got here or what their agenda is, and I don’t care what they think will come of neutral referees … if they seriously want it we should cast aside our differences and find a way to make it happen. They are crazy to think it benefits them, but I’m perfectly happy for them to find that stuff out the hard way.
This article will doubtless be dismissed over there as the work of a crank, or possibly someone taking the piss. They should check out all the previous times this blog has suggested the same thing. We are not kidding about this and never have been.
If they’re ready to start lobbying their club on it, I can only smile, give them the thumbs up and wish them well on it. The sooner officiating in this country is no longer run from this country the better.
I don’t believe that for a second, the Huns all know what refs are in their pockets as they all attend the same lodges and parties.
This has been public knowledge for decades and I find it hard to believe that someone from Glasgow who writes about football for a living isn’t fully aware of this because us older Tims have known about it since the 60s & 70s.
They were even crowing about it to all and sundry during the Murray years as it made them feel invincible.
Do they think the many ex-referees turning up on the ‘Sash-Bash’ and Boolin’ Club circuits to tell ribald anecdotes about disallowing Celtic goals and sending Lennon off are “converts”? Or is their belief that referees of that ilk should be the base line and anything deviating from that is therefore pro-Timmy? Genuinely Locked Ward stuff if they think there is any kind of pro-Sellick bias at Hampden.
I’ve been saying it all week, our forwards better have their shooting boots on in the coming weeks, because they’ll need to outscore combined efforts of linesmen and VAR as well as the opponents.
Im pretty sure that Sevco fans already tune into games knowing they are definitely gonna score one goal.
Can’t be many fan bases afforded that luxury.
They do believe it and we could probably get them to agree to a neutral ref but that’s the fans I’m talking about. The people in power over there would NEVER go for it. But, we could probably make their own fans pressure them to agree, could be telling.
Their idea of an appropriate ref from a ‘neutral country’ would be someone called Billy King from Norn Iron (what about ye? etc). If on the other hand the ref from a ‘neutral country’ was called something like Miguel Jesus Sanchez, the poor old benches of George Square might be getting left in a bit of a mess again……
Let’s remember that they were not relegated. They ceased to exist, The “rangers” were admitted as a new club with a new name and legal structure. They also skipped the queue to be readmitted ahead of more deserving real clubs.
‘Anyone who believes that isn’t tethered to reality.’
OR, and perhaps more likely? …
Anyone who believes that … is a Celtic Supporter at the wind-up! ???
Hahaha yeah that did cross my mind 🙂
Their more rabid fans on swallow swallow etc may wish neutral foreign refs. I am fairly confident their club would not.
It’d be a great laugh for the one game if it happened. Because once they had a neutral ref team jn a Glasgow Derby they’d soon crawl back to the SFA….
Yep – I’m all in For – For in refs !
Roonsa
I agree that if you “repeat the same lie, etc.” often enough, people will believe it. It`s
the sheep mentality. Even Celtic fans have it in an embarrassing abundance.
That is the reason Celtic fans should, but won`t (they`d rather just lament about it) keep calling them OLD FIRM SEVCO till it sticks to them like excrement.