English football needs to learn the right lessons from the Rangers scandal.
I am delighted to see that there has been an online backlash against reports in the Daily Record yesterday quoting, among other people, Paul Lambert on how Manchester City, having reportedly been found guilty on more than 100 charges by the English Premier League, could face the same fate as Rangers.
This is being talked about south of the border as well, as though it were a legitimate comparison, at least in places like talkSPORT and other goon galleries.
Yesterday there was a rash of reporting in The Guardian on this very question. And you know which club’s name never came up? Rangers. And you know why it never came up? Because they know what apparently other people do not: there is nothing in the Rangers case to compare with this. Not the offences. Not the punishment. Nothing.
The people pushing the line that Manchester City could be relegated just as Rangers were are going to have to do better than that. They are going to have to produce the evidence that relegation is what actually happened up here. They are going to have to produce evidence that the first Ibrox club was punished by being relegated.
I wish them luck. Because the evidence for that is non-existent. It is a fictional version of events. It is not even close to what actually happened here.
I have been writing about this subject for years, and where I differ from some others who have written about it is that I believe Scottish football lives with two lies, not just one.
The first is the survival lie, which says Rangers somehow beat death and continues today. That is mind-bending enough on its own, but it is contradicted by so much of the available evidence that even a glance at what happened tells you what it is: a fiction spun to make supporters buy season tickets and feel good about their club.
It has not helped that club either.
As I have written repeatedly, in trying to be Rangers they suffer from perhaps the most profound identity crisis anywhere in football. I have called it by a hundred different names. Most recently I wrote about it in the context of Total Recall: a support holding two simultaneous versions of reality in its head. One says Rangers was a massive club and therefore we are a massive club. The other is the reality of Sevco.
I have compared it to Norman Bates in Psycho, trying to keep his dead mother alive by wearing her clothes, speaking in her voice and walking around the house pretending to be her. That did not do him any favours either, because an identity crisis like that never does.
But that is the survival lie and the complications it creates. The problem is that the survival lie does not stand up when you look at it.
How many times on Twitter, or elsewhere, have you seen those headlines from the time saying RIP Rangers, with coffins on the front pages and all the other imagery we remember? Celtic fans carrying coffins. Black flags at games. Footage of Ibrox supporters standing outside the stadium in tears because their club had gone. The famous Club 12, the five-way agreement and everything else connected with it.
So let us be clear: that lie cannot be sustained for five minutes on its own.
Scottish football therefore constructed a scaffold underneath it, and that scaffold is what I call the victim lie.
That one is an even bigger piece of fantasy, designed to explain why, if Rangers had not actually died, the club nevertheless started again at the bottom and had to claw its way back through the football structure.
As many of us have said over and over again, there is nothing in Scottish football’s disciplinary regime which allowed for a club to be relegated in the manner people now pretend happened. There was no disciplinary hearing at which Rangers were relegated. Had there been, there would almost certainly have been an immediate legal challenge from Ibrox which could have paralysed the game for years.
What we saw was a vote of the clubs. It was a vote on whether a Newco club would take Rangers’ place in the top flight.
Everyone who followed those events knows this.
So, it is plainly ridiculous to pretend it was something else. If someone can prove that Rangers were formally relegated as a disciplinary punishment, and show me where and when it happened, I will stop writing for this blog permanently.
When people talk about the “punishment” of having to start at the bottom, they are either lying or they do not know the facts and are talking absolute bullshit. Either way, it has no place in the discourse around Manchester City.
What is striking about much of the serious English media coverage is that they have not used the Ibrox example. They have found local examples which are much more relevant to the situation City might face.
And yes, relegation may be a possibility in that case.
But if it happens, it would be imposed by the governing body itself, in accordance with its rules and regulations. It would not be the result of a vote by the clubs deciding whether a new entity should be admitted to a particular league.
I do not know whether sections of our media are simply lazy about this or whether there is genuine intellectual dishonesty involved. I suspect it is a bit of both. But aside from a few shock jocks and colossally ignorant people, this is not the prevailing view south of the border, where plenty of people understand perfectly well what happened in Scotland.
Those who continue to deny that reality do a gross disservice to anybody who wants to understand the Manchester City situation in its proper context. Scottish football does not provide that context because what happened here was fundamentally different.
All this ignorance does is confuse the issue.
We know, of course, that there are people in Scottish football who are entirely aware of what the truth is and continue to push the lie anyway. I have nothing but contempt for those people. The harm they continue to do to Scottish football is incalculable.
The idea that the entire football establishment in this country acted maliciously against a single club is a scandalous one to promote. So too is the suggestion that the Ibrox club suffered some extraordinary footballing punishment.
Let me be as clear as I can about this: in real terms, the old club suffered very little in the way of sporting sanctions imposed as punishment.
There were financial penalties, but the great supposed footballing sanction everyone talks about simply did not happen in the way they claim.
The new club started at the bottom, where new clubs start. That was a consequence of what had happened, not a disciplinary relegation.
And when it came to the historical record, they did not lose a single league title or trophy from the official record, which remains outrageous. Scottish football is perfectly happy not only to pretend this was a legitimate outcome but to allow the current club at Ibrox to claim those honours as its own.
There were no serious sporting sanctions which remotely matched the mythology now surrounding what happened. And if English football wants to take one lesson from this, it is that it cannot afford to create its own toxic mythology.
If Manchester City is ultimately found guilty, genuine footballing sanctions have to follow where the rules demand them. They have to be meaningful and they have to be clear.
That was Scottish football’s great failure.
It never properly punished anybody at Ibrox for what occurred. What they suffered were consequences, the consequences of their own actions, but football itself imposed remarkably little by way of meaningful sporting punishment.
That is what we are still living with today.
So if English football really wants a lesson from Scotland, here it is.
Do not do that.
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You will never , ever convince any rangers fans that their club isn’t the same one that went bankrupt. No matter what evidence you lay at their door, they’ll never accept it. I have intelligent rangers mates who flatly refuse to give into the fact ….if their masses adopt this attitude, then maybe that’s why the hacks go along with it, and why England won’t look to Scotland as guidance
I still can’t understand how (then) Rangers were forced to go out of business because of cheating their way to trophies, yet we’re not stripped of those trophies, and their chairman was not stripped of his knighthood. This has always been mind glowingly baffling to me.
The first thought that struck me when I heard that Man City had been found guilty was “maybe there is a god (of football) after all.”
The one current comparison is that both clubs cheated their way to success. Perhaps we’ll need to wait and see what Man City’s punishment is before any further comparisons can be made.
They didnt go out of business for cheating – they went out of business because they were insolvent. Craig Whyte used the season ticket money to repay the loans. SO the income for the year was all gone after a couple of months. Under company law, if you are insolvent (cant pay your debts when they fall due) you must stop trading immediately.
Really good article James, very well put across, factual and convincing, had a little chuckle at AI putting what looks like the millennium dome behind Ibrokes
Yep James, a stain on Scottish Football which will never go away. How the original club were allowed to keep those trophies won during the cheating years on their record, plus the new club being able to claim the trophies won by the Liquidated club as there own is a disgrace.
Lawell and Desmond have a lot to answer for in that regard, with these two men business came before principle, and that is why we as a club are in a state of disharmony, you can date the unrest back to 2012, and the way our Board buried their heads in the sand, refusing to confront the elephant in the room, regarding those trophies. The Celtic Board in 2012 decided that the interests of Celtic shareholders was more important than the interests of the supporters, and that attitude continues to this day. To make things worse, the Huns, with the help of the corrupt Scottish media, have played the victim card since then. When the the facts are, the rest of Scottish Football were the victims.
Wonderfully put micmac. The whole facade by the media has damaged their fans and the new club by denying them the right of a normal grieving process.
James’ Norman Bates analogy illustrates this well, but also illustrates how difficult it is to articulate the scale of what thousands of people living a lie must be like compared to one person, fictional or otherwise.
Ironically it initially appeared that justice had been done, but that was cruelly and evilly twisted into an injustice by the media and their fanbase followed like the biggest flock of sheep ever seen.
It’s not just scottish football though. UEFA and FIFA have transferred all the old trophies to the new business as has practically every mainstream football media outlet in the world. Wikipedia etc also credit the current Ibrox outfit with the old trophies.
I dont think its something we should worry about.
Regarding Man City, they have definately broke the rules but the rules are wrong. They try to keep a closed shop where the historical successful clubs are given an unfair advantage only because they come from big cities or have bigger fan bases. Its a quirk of fate that Liverpool rather than Everton are the world class club in Liverpool.
It’s keep the rich rich and keep the poor poor. Nowhere moreso than Scotland is this evident , where only us or a team from Ibrox can ever win the league and it doesnt do us any favours.
The only league on the planet where being 2 points clear at the top is a disaster and folk are calling for the managers head!
One thing that is totally out of order, is the number of so-called Celtic sites that refer to the present Ibrox club as Rangers. I mean, WTAF? These sites, and their owners, are part of the problem, and they should be called out at every opportunity.
As for the actions of Desmond and Lawwell in 2012? They certainly did not bury their heads in the sand. Both these fifth-columnists actively collaborated in the corruption within Scottish football, to ensure that a new Ibrox club arose. Shame on them.
Hail Hail.
James there’s another important point here too, the new iteration of the Ibrox club were shoehorned into the bottom league at the expense of other clubs who had been trying to get into the league pyramid system for years and were denied so why were they so special? We were also told that football in Scotland would die without Rangers in it and as it took them four years to get back to the top flight (two attempts to get out of the championship) the game still survived there liquidation. That again shows the arrogance and entitlement of a support who believe they are the game in Scotland. They’re not even the biggest team in Glasgow and we’re the biggest and most successful side in the land despite them adding trophies from the dead club to the three the new entity has won in their short lifespan. Impostors and fakes always get found out and although we know they’re not the same club and that they didn’t survive, deep down so do they whether they admit it or not. The Celtic board are definitely complicit in covering up a lot the evidence against them and the fact that nobody from their club or the SFA and SPFL, who also helped cover up illegal goings on that some of them were guilty of, didn’t end up in prison with hefty sentences is a travesty. It shames the games authorities, the police and the judiciary system in this country. It seems to me that supporters were targeted by the OBFA regulations where some ended up with criminal records for trumped up charges but those who were involved in alleged fraud and corruption are not only walking free amongst us but are still in positions of authority within the game, in policing and the judiciary to this day.
I agree with a most of that Torky, but we have been floundering since the great extinction event. Yes we have won an unprecedented amount of domestic trophies, but the fans no longer appreciate them and we have received club & scottish record defeats in europe home and away in the last 15 years.
When the Ibrox entity was absent from the top tier our attendances went through the floor…many only returning when the tribute act got into the premier league.
Of course the back to back quadruple trebles we won starting with an invincible season just as Sevco entered the scene had nothing to do with our attendances increasing in those years, it was purely the entrance of the cosplayers in blue that enticed Celtic fans back in greater numbers. Nothing to do with Rogers in charge. Nothing to do with form like going on a 69 match unbeaten run, a new British record (breaking our own previous record run), or another NIAR achieved.
Nope it was just the sight of those blue/orange shirts and the severe challenge they posed from the get-go that had us back! Of course that would be your take.
The reality is our average home attendances without Scotland’s shame sharing the same league as us was 2nd in Britain only to Man Utd. And thats through the floor?
47k, 47k, 45k, 45k those 4 hun-free seasons is twice the average attendance when I started going to watch Celtic and the OG Huns were in the league with us every season. They’re not much lower than 2010 or 2011 seasons. Or even the glorious 2012 party year that averaged 51k as we bid the DOBs cheerio.
As for European records only one club in Glasgow holds the worst ever Champions League run in the competition’s history, so woeful it’s unlikely ever to be broken by anyone worse.
The tribute act entering our league just made it easier to win. Feck we hadn’t won a treble since 2001. We couldn’t win one in the 4 years the league was zombie-free. Then hey presto as soon as they made the hard jump up from the Championship at the 2nd ask we win 4 of them in a row. How did their appearance increase average attendances at Celtic Park? By making the league easier to win? Giving us so many demolition derbies we became disappointed with anything less than a 3-0 victory? The fun and banter their jovial fans brought to each game? Or was it maybe f-all to do with them and all about the Celtic?
At least you seem to be happy with Celtics achievements G. Fhloyd unlike most.
As I remember it the neds were going after the team bus just a few weeks after Lenny secured the quad treble, maybe you were there?..his 2nd treble in a row….6 months after the 9iar. Stop airbrushing history. 47k is not a true figure. You are counting 1000s of season ticket holders who didnt turn up for some games FOI request 36,000 v Ross County. If you were there you would know.
Packed to the rafters every time for the cosplayers same as last week….like it or not.
Not sure about your 2nd only to Man U. story either. Last season we were behind Man U., Spurs, Arsenal, West Ham maybe Liverpool and Man City too and we had far higher crowds than a
Embrace the facts!
Average attendance at Celtic Park by season after the death of the OG Huns while Poundland imposters Sevco worked their way up the SPL leagues they had and have no business taking part in:
2012/2013 – 46,917
2013/2014 – 47,079
2014/2015 – 44,585
2015/2016 – 44,965
F-all to do with season ticket holder numbers – these are official average attendances for Celtic’s home league matches only. What did I say, 47k – 47k – 45k – 45k? Your point – I’m a liar and neds and Lenny and team buses and a match against Ross County, blah blah blah. lol ok hun, whatever helps you cope. But here’s more facts that don’t care how much your lil hun heart hurts…
2009/2010 – 45,582
2010/2011 – 49,090
2011/2012 – 50,904 (Rot in hell, OG Hun FC party season!)
What did I say about those years? Let’s copypasta it: “not much lower than 2010 or 2011 seasons. Or even the glorious 2012 party year that averaged 51k as we bid the DOBs cheerio.”
I don’t mind that you’re unsure about the Celts’ average home attendance for the years I quoted being 2nd in Britain only to Man Utd. It’s totally normal for peepul like you going through an identity crisis to doubt yourself, reality and lash out at those who aren’t unsure, don’t spout any old drivel to upset you but just state facts which I can tell still really upset you – but they are what they are and as you said, embrace them! Or keep living the lie hun, IDGAF. I’m done schooling you for today. : )
Tiocfaidh ar la!
Hey G, chill the fuck out dude!
You got so much hate in you. We are all on the same side m8.
You really need to lose that hate though buddy. Remember 1930s Germany. I dont often agree with Gary Lineker, not sure about you bro.
Peace brother…its only a game ffs!
“Mr Mojorisin”:
Don’t imagine that you are fooling everyone. Sad stuff.
It’s there on public record TC. Just facts I dont get the discourse about this.
A FOI request was put in.
G obviously wasn’t at any games in this period like many others. I was, were you? G put up the official average 46,917 for 12/13
I have no argument with that. That includes all STs sold. Ive just checked the official attendance for Ross county home in 12/13 was 49,428. That includes ST holders that didnt turn up. The actual attendance at that game was 28,931 as the actual people who walked through the turnstiles
On average games were 36% down so close to 30,000 instead of G’s Inflated wikipedia figures.
Every game against the Ibrox entity….the place is packed to the rafters. Call it car crash mentality what ever you like… we are clambering for these tickets.
The interest level dropped considerably after the extinction event.
England will not have this problem after Man Citys demise. The league will be strong and competitive without them. Nobody knows who is going to win it!