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https://twitter.com/bluesbrothers86/status/1165593915917053953?s=12

Another picture which I can’t upload has a banner stating “Their only crime was loyalty” with a couple of helpful ICF symbols..

Photo from today

2 hours ago, ranger_syntax said:

The acorn never falls far from the tree.

I couldn’t care less what religion the players are. However, is singing about the pope & the vatican a good way to motivate a team with more roman catholic players than protestants??

22 minutes ago, weebluedevil said:

That’s what they said in their statement - and yes although the club shouldn’t necessarily have to address the songbook with them personally - it might have made a difference if they had. (For the avoidance of any doubt whatsoever)

Clearly the UBs have been crossing a line the last couple of years. In theory the club “shouldn’t have to address the songbook” but anybody with ears knew the songbook did need addressed, so it should have been!! I doubt Dave King has a clue what the UBs are singing, as he only visits Scotland about 4 times a year. But he should have been kept informed! Has he been??

46 minutes ago, forlanssister said:

Hubris and arrogance that'll do the trick eh?

 

Don't be surprised if we reach the group stages to be playing behind closed doors.

Its a certainty if we get through, though we were probably well on the way in 2011. I have some sympathy with the UBs, although I agree with the club’s action. I think the club could & should have nipped this in the bud with the UBs a couple of years ago, when the UVF songs started to creep in to their repertoire. But maybe the board had other priorities. Maybe they rather stupidly thought this issue had gone away.  A lot of fans in other sections respond to whatever the UBs are singing, as they are basically the club’s authorised singing section. Also a fair point about the marketing & visuals. It does seem almost like the club encouraged this group to flourish just so they would have a scapegoat to be sacrificed & offered up if this scenario ever happened. A bit like how celtic use the green brigade.

However the club have now taken the correct action but should have been taken earlier to prevent this. The arrogant tone of the UB statement annoys me, but doesn’t surprise me. They seem like mostly daft and naive wee boys who take themselves too seriously. As we all were once!

1 hour ago, Bluedell said:

And none of us give a shit which really annoys them  ?

It annoys my old man.. 

“Whit’s that Connor Goldstein dain crossin himself, I thought he was Jewish” he said after the Kilmarnock game ?

We live in a world where you can self identify as a woman even if you have a ‘boaby’ so I don’t think that arguing the Irish can’t call themselves a race is going to work.

What would work is getting Ulster Scots recognised as a race. The reason FARE get away with letting celtic away with their songs is because they aren’t classed as racist, because Scottish protestant isn’t classed as a racial minority. Ulster Scots are a minority however (but not currently legally recognised) and it’s time the likes of the Orange Order realised this & start playing the game.

To sum up, the legal position is that you can’t be racist against the ‘majority’ its only racism if directed at a minority (same goes for homophobia, Islamophobia etc) so celtic songs are never going to be classed as racist until we are classed as a race. I don’t agree with it, but that is the game in the 21st century & these are the rules.

4 minutes ago, Bluedell said:

I heard one bad word but otherwise seemed OK. 

I won’t comment on the singing, but it seems like it is going to be a thing now that TV is going to show slow motion replays every time a Rangers player crosses himself. Which does highlight how ridiculous the whole thing is, I suppose..

That’s what you call grinding out a result. Tight game against a solid looking team who I reckon have a decent manager. However quality won the day - also St Mirren don’t have the quality players to take chances like the one they missed at the end..

Any songs not about football must be considered a problem.

Gradually over the years since administration the atmosphere at Ibrox has been getting back to 1980s levels. Of course by kicking us out the league they also removed any potential punishment for these songs, as we had nothing left for them to take. The 2015 League Cup semi final was a good example of this. However the club is now back to a level where we do have something to lose, yet this seems to have been kept quiet and taken most of us by surprise. There needs to be a major response by the club & fans, giving up songs yes but also fighting the injustice of collective punishment & highlighting when other clubs fans target our Ulster Scots community. We need a supporters AGM or something. Alternatively we just pull out of Uefa competition altogether and settle for finishing 2nd every season.

28 minutes ago, cooponthewing said:

Going back to the songs we can sing, let’s be honest, most of us cringe when we hear TBB or SR. There are still loads of others we CAN sing for eg; Derry’s walls, BMG, Every Saturday We Follow, Blue Sea of Ibrox and loads of other traditional songs that don’t contain FTP or F@nians etc. This is not difficult, it’s easy enough to do, and takes the initiative away from them

Not sure what SR is, but BMG - Build My Gallows was supposedly the song that got us done against PSV in 2011. Rangers fans were banned for one away game the following season.

If Billy Dodds is sticking up for us then we must be in trouble! I have no problem with orange strips, though I never bought the Hummel one myself or for my kids. The type of folk singing these songs would have been first in the queue to buy them though, let’s face reality. If we are going for zero tolerance, then we would stick to traditional Rangers colours - blue, white, red & black

Parma v Juventus - that isn’t the Bruno Alves who used to play for us tackling Ronaldo, is it??

Why post that article, which can be interpreted as nothing other than a Celtic journalist twisting the knife? Half of the fans singing these songs weren’t even born when this alleged policy was in operation. Our enemies are having a field day with this, there is nothing to be gained or learned from circulating this sort of material..

13 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

neither the Irish nor the Catholics are "a race", AFAIK

 

Irish is a legally defined race. I don’t know if you’re based in the UK, but if you fill in eg an application form for a job you will be asked to state your race, & Irish is one of the options. ****** is nowadays generally regarded as a derogatory term for the Irish, whether we like it or not. You might not class it as racism, but then again the people hating blacks, Asians and whatnot probably wouldn’t class words like ‘nigger’ and ‘paki’ as racist either.

The point about religion is more valid as you could justify criticising eg the Pope and the Vatican, however singing songs about burning chapels isn’t really part of a theological debate. That argument just won’t work in 2019.

I think I’ll give up Rangers twitter for a while. Apparently these charges are all - get this - Kilmarnock’s fault as some ex-Killie player works for Uefa and these charges are out of spite for us wrecking their disabled shelter the other week. Boycotting Rugby Park is the agreed way to deal with this, not banning the UBs who are the only reason we all go to Ibrox, apparently. Honestly it’s hard to defend these people when they can’t put together a coherent argument in the English language..

50 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

Question authority.  

 

The likes of Lawwell and Powar will be rubbing their hands, with glee, today.  And they won't ever stop coming after us.

I thought this at first, but it seems there has been a lot going on behind the scenes. ITK posters on FF (posting before this news was announced) say that FARE actually reported us 7 times last season, but the club persuaded Uefa not to charge us. Whether it was insufficient evidence or the club proving they had did all they could to prevent the singing I don’t know, nor do I know why these reports by FARE weren’t made public but maybe Uefa couldn’t be seen to condone sectarianism if they publicly found us not guilty (as they initially did in 2006). So it seems the club have known about & been fighting these charges for some time, but at the St Josephs game FARE finally obtained enough evidence to get us charged.

So the club are fighting these charges, & Uefa don’t find in favour of FARE every time. But it is all happening behind closed doors, apparently. Either way having the singing section led by a wee guy with a megaphone belting out TBB, songs about the UVF & Bobby Sands during European matches at Ibrox is clearly a bad idea. And if it happens again we will indeed be playing behind closed doors.

2 hours ago, DMAA said:

So what? It’s not Rangers’ job to deal with that and why would they when it’s over songs they’ve explicitly asked the fans to stop singing in the strongest terms for years and years and the “fans” ignore the clubs pleas

 

I really don’t think the club have been asking in the ‘strongest terms’ for this to stop, not the current board anyway. After the Steve Clarke incident they should have banned the UBs for a match. Giving their ringleader a megaphone & talking about moving other ST holders to accomodate their ‘safe standing’ area is not discouraging them!

However, where we were in 2011 is that TBB, FTP & songs about the vatican were no longer heard inside the stadium on European nights. We still got done by Uefa/FARE anyway for singing other loyalist songs. There is no way that we can avoid a stadium closure, and after that happens we will have to make Ibrox like most big teams European grounds where you don’t really hear actual singing. Eg at the Camp Nou, you get chants of Barca, Barca, maybe the official club song, players names, etc. Fans still cheer tackles and goals & scream for penalties and free kicks. The atmosphere is good, but not intimidating & its the same at all the super clubs in Europe. Tourist friendly. I prefer Ibrox the way it was, but this is the 21st century now & football isn’t what it used to be. Changing words in certain songs or ‘self policing’ won’t happen in reality, we either fight back or go full zero tolerance. Radical measures are needed, & I worry this board while well meaning just don’t have a handle on this issue.

To be honest Ibrox is possibly the only ground in European football where spontaneous singing still actually happens. All singing will have to be banned now. You don’t hear singing at grounds like Old Trafford, Arsenal & Chelsea but these teams still do OK.

1 hour ago, weebluedevil said:

Nonsense. I don’t need to list all Rangers songs that do not have sectarian or political bias do I? Maybe you just don’t know any. 

There is a habit of a lot of fans to add FTP or something to traditional Rangers songs. As for when Humza Yousef attended a match, I’m sure I read that on here, though oddly enough can’t find any google links to it now..

3 minutes ago, onevision said:

As fans it's going to be up to us to police and if or when any redition of tbb or other un-desirable dittys start up let's us on mass shout it down to show that us the silent majority are not going to sit back and let our club be damaged further.  

The bad news is that Uefa consider every song about Ulster as sectarian or political, so there are literally no songs left. It is not just about one song or 2 words, and who knows if proceedings are already happening with regards to the last 2 rounds. This is politically motivated and the only solution is for all fans to stop singing entirely. 

3 minutes ago, DMAA said:

You can’t be serious ??‍♂️

Not sure what you mean, but this sort of collective punishment is an affront to human rights. A decent lawyer would drive a coach & horses through it, but of course the club can’t be seen to condone this behaviour by fighting the verdict. It is like evicting an entire neighbourhood because there are a few drug dealers living in your street.

Not condoning sectarian behaviour, but this is very strange. Usually a fine is issued. If this happened against St Josephs, why wasn’t the case opened before now? Why no charges issued, verdict delivered & punishment meted out in due course? Why is there no right of appeal? It seems like a kangaroo court tbh, yet the club aren’t fighting it.. have they been looking for an excuse to close this section??

On another note, was this the night some bright spark invited Humza Yousaf to the game?? UEFA disregard complaints from members of the public, only complaints by officials or VIPs are taken seriously.

I haven’t bought a match on Rangers TV since we beat Elgin 6-2 back in division 3. It didn’t crash under the weight of demand that day either, despite Kevin Kyle starting..

What date was it Forfar knocked us out of the League Cup? That might put a 0-0 draw in Poland into perspective for some folk..