der Berliner

Had hoped we get Mphela instead of Beattie at the time ... alas, we got Jela!

Well, it sounds different when you read this over at Teamtalk. It could well be that the police is afraid to catch something if they have to deal with TLB in person ...

There's the current press folk who fall over one another to spill their bile. And then there are the sane people, who can behave and think like every other normal people in the world, no matter whom they support or what faith they belong to:

THE assertion by James MacMillan (Letters, 21 April) that the bombs sent to Neil Lennon and others by some deranged criminal are symptomatic of "anti-Catholic" bias is only the latest in a long line of similar preposterous claims by Mr MacMillan.

The nonsense that goes on around Scotland's two biggest football clubs is not representative of Scottish society. Contemporary Scotland has many problems but my experience tells me that bias against Catholics is not one of them. I was born and raised

a Catholic. Like around half the people from my background in Scotland, I am married to a person who is not a catholic.

 

In 34 years of working in Scotland I have never encountered a single instance of religious or sectarian prejudice directed at me in a professional or, indeed, personal context. The only examples I can recall of people being discriminated against are teachers who are not Catholic being refused promotion in Catholic schools.

 

There are many Catholics in prominent positions in Scottish public life. More importantly, few people care whether a particular politician, lawyer, businessman, or composer is Catholic, Protestant or an atheist. The Catholic Church is hardly marginalised.

 

As Allan Massie has pointed out, a visitor from abroad surveying the Scottish media would be likely to identify Cardinal Keith O'Brien rather than the Church of Scotland Moderator as the leader of Scottish Christians.

 

Finally, as a (lukewarm) Celtic supporter let me offer a word of sympathy to poor old Rangers, targets of Mr MacMillan's bile. In the past 20 years Rangers FC have moved far from the sectarianism which once characterised them. Indeed, I am fairly sure that in at least one game in the past decade Rangers fielded more Catholic players than did Celtic.

 

Rangers fans do sing some unpleasant songs just as many Celtic fans are happy to hymn the IRA. While Rangers fans are surely wrong to sing a song exhorting Celtic fans to "go home", that song might just be a reaction to those Celtic supporters who (three and four generations in Scotland as Mr MacMillan has it) continue to assert an Irish identity and to carry the flag of a foreign country rather than the Saltire wherever they go.

 

Peter Wood

 

Morningside Drive

Scotsman

Ach well, I'll bribe the ref to give us a penalty while they are applauding ...

You've missed my point. IF the words could be changed by everyone attending then why can it not be sang. As i said if other fans can sing it with non banned / illegal (Im unsure what is still illegal) words then why cant we.

 

Dont get me wrong I couldnt imagine 43000 managing to change words but IF it was changed then by all means sing it.

The point is that we (and only we) have been charged and had the song banned from our repertoire, first by UEFA, now by the club et al. No matter what the rest do or how we twist the words. I would assume that UEFA and the relevant institutions in Scotland will keep a close look at us, but won't charge us if we air the "Edu" version. Everything else will be reported and persecuted. It obviously hurts when the Tims belt out their "HaHa" version, but it makes a defeat handed to them all the more sweeter.

This war is not won by singing TBB or FTP in spite of the rules. This war is won when Timothy faces the same repercussions as we do for their songs of hate and pro-terrorists. To win - or rather succeed in - this war, you have to challenge those who imposed the ban (not Rangers, but UEFA) and tell them what our songs are about (which I did in a long letter to UEFA regarding the PSV games). And second to report Celtic when next they have a game under UEFA jurisdiction for their offensive and vile chanting. They sowed the wind, so they will have to cope with the storm. ONCE they start playing in Europe again ...

There are a few things which need to be done:

- ask the police and steward high-ups to make sure no offensive stuff makes it way into Ibrox on their side of the stadium

- make sure there are enough people about with digicam pointed at them, recording their behaviour, antics, shouting, and all ... wouldn't it be grand* if they win the game and then get points chopped off because of their "fans" antics?

- clap their "support" into oblivion

- keep out TBB and FTP for this time, as the scrutiny will be upon us (and only us) for the better part of half a year (i.e. till the next OF game at the scumhut)

*No, not really, but you get the point!

There's no guarantee that we would qualify for the CL next season if we win the league.

Unless I am mistaken, the Champion still drops into the group stage, while we do not have the runners-up going into the qualifiers. Or have the champions dropped into the qualifiers while the runners-up drop out alltogether? A touch harsh ... then again, not unlike the favouritism of UEFA with regard to the big nations of European footie.

Of course, Whyte could easily retain the "20m" initial debt from Lloyds, at the still valid payback rate of 1m per annum. It is important that the daily monetary dealings are removed from their grasp, since as long as Rangers is tied to MIH in one way or another, we well be squeezed dry. I for one would have no problems if the long-term deal remains in place and Whyte, Murray et al use the cash (or part of it) to invest into the squad for the time being. If we manage to snatch the title, next season's CL income would guarantee the debt could be decreased further while there still would be cash for investments.

Got a gut feeling that the police, now in full "anti-sectarian swing", will keep a close watch at each and everyone and since we are the first to entertain such "special" attention, the outcry about each and every vile stuff uttered by this moron or that while paint is in darker than bad colours again. And the next game at the scumhut is months away.

As for the game itself, I do hope that we win (not least given our performance at Tannadice), but if they do, I doubt that the season will be over. They still have three away games at Killie, ICT and Hearts to squeeze in and I would hope that they will drop points here and there.

All this could easily end up like the Salem witch trials ... with a lot of people not knowing what has hit them.

Why can't these people not act together and buying the club off SDM / Lloyds and invest their money together? One thing is for sure: they will hardly "make" any money out of Rangers (or any other football club for that matter).

Essentially they say that the funding for the squad leaves something to be desired and that in the wake of this, another director (I hazard a guess: Dave King) has put forward a plan to put 25m into the club itself, rather than Murray's or Lloyds' accounts. Then again, he also says that they are still awaiting more details from Whyte, so one never knows.

One would wish that the Bears (me included) had cooler heads ...

Given the critical stage of the season we're at and the seemingly critical state of the financial health of our club, the way this has all panned out makes it very difficult to think the individuals involved have anything but their own self-interest at heart.

 

Pretty depressing tbh.

That said, has anyone who's directly involved actually said something official? I still have some niggling feeling that this sensationalist reporting has been done to derail us as much as the team for this rather crucial week. And I am not exactly that paranoid ...

They should simply have done it behind closed doors, much like the take-overs in the EPL et al happened. I've been around for the better part of 30 years and never ever have I seen such a "saga". Then again, one should not forget the influence of the media here. It is sure blown out of all proportions by the "close attention" by certain quarters.

Boughie hasn't been at his best for most part of the season, TBH. Good enough for us and the SPL no doubt, but we've seen him a better standard consistently before. Not saying that I want him to move, of course.

EHD & Gaddafi ... well, to each his own. We shouldn't start judging him on such remarks though, as long as we are nose-lead by the news to believe what we hear (remember all those weapons of mass destruction in Iraq) and are governed by people who happily sell weapons to e.g. Saudi Arabia, where people live under a regime to which that of Gaddafi looks like utter freedom.

Well, maybe he's more a McCoist than a Smith signing, but you wonder whether we keep him if we never see him play in earnest. Very strange this.

I'd assume no-one in the commitee is involved in any Plan B himself. I'd also assume that Dave King is the only other player in town and may want some more time to get his house in order. Of him - I think - we know that he has the money. In any case, I do assume that even if Whyte does not do his take-over now, it does not change anything for the immediate future of the club (till this summer that is). So any horror scenarios painted by press and rumour-mongers should receive a decent amount of flak.

Well David Leggat has people whispering into his ear about Plan Bs and also talks some sense with regard to the committee's actions. They, ahead of all other parties involved, will surely have Rangers at heart when evaluating the deal.

FF's Shug just had his informers texting this ...

Originally Posted by Southside_Shug View Post

"Committee at Ibrox have concerns as backers have dissapeared/never existed and leaving Whyte on his own, they are looking for assurances that he has the clout to fund other essentials that will cost a lot of cash. This could still happen soon, it's up in the air. The board are looking to safeguard against a possible loose cannon or not depending on what Whyte puts in front of them "

Well, well ...

Re the tax issue, if Whyte was ready to buy, I would assume the tax issue has been covered and in any case, wouldn't this be more something the owner/culprit rather than the board has to address?

(Wouldn't we be surprised if the deal just happens and Whyte and Co- look at the newspapers today and ask themselves: "What is this rubbish all about?")

Dunno whether there's an actual split or anything to this "rumour" at all. We're facing a tough week and someone's got to do something about it, it seems.

Obviously, in nigh any takeover I witnessed neither involvee has shown his/her cards opoenly until all was done and dusted, so why would it be different here. As some FFer said, probably a maximum of 6 people will know what is going on and these people are hardly likely to give anything away.

I just hope that this "wrangle" does not take any concentration away from tonight's and Sunday's game, for whatever happens with the club as such will only affect the management and players from the end of May onwards.

(Just imagine: we sneak a win at Tannadice, tell the press on Wednesday that Whyte's the new owner, Killie snatch a couple of points of them and we sneak another win on Sunday! That's x-mas and birthday come early!)

Maybe we call it milestones rather than deadlines from now on?

Does Celtic buy Scottish these days? Their line-up these days equals that of Arsenal and Chelsea in terms of home country players. Not to mention that their squad is twice if not thrice as large as ours. Well, we have to wait and see. Anyone knows whether he's out of contract in the summer?

Heck, I see a few hundred refresh buttons get murdered tomorrow, while people doublecheck PLUS every other minute.