'If you're guilty, shooting the messenger is not going to make you innocent

[ian1964 10,410]

By Tom English

RIGHT, who did it? Who ratted them out? Has Hoopy the Huddle Hound accounted for his whereabouts on the nights of 10 March and 17 March this year?

Has anybody combed the Philips Stadion in Eindhoven and Ibrox and found his paw prints anywhere near this controversy, has anybody established a link between Celtic's canine cheerleader and this organisation with a dramatically elevated profile, Football Against Racism In Europe (FARE)? Such an ironic name, really, given the supposed unfairness of what is happening to Rangers at the moment.

 

Two UEFA charges for sectarian chanting and both of them thanks to FARE's shadowy presence in Holland and Glasgow. This is the burning issue, is it? Who are the people landing Rangers in trouble? Who would sink so low as to orchestrate what Martin Bain calls a witch-hunt against the club?

 

Well, let's just go along with the Rangers take on things and call it a conspiracy. Let's say that FARE, and their leader, Piara Powar, were put up to it by Celtic supporters who are either (a) genuinely perturbed at the songs being sung by Rangers fans or (b) are gleeful about the songs and the opportunity they present to land their rivals in some serious bother.

 

Powar goes into work one morning and switches on his laptop and, suddenly, whoooosh! Hundreds of e-mails from "concerned citizens" of Glasgow asking them to investigate the truly awful behaviour of these people from across the city, this bigoted rabble that shame Scotland. They include newspaper articles and, just to be helpful, a collection of YouTube videos with a helpful lyrics guide just in case the words don't come over loud and clear on the links.

 

This, after all, is the raison d'etre of FARE. They want supporters to contact them if they feel they're being victimised or if they've witnessed behaviour that is racist, homophobic or sectarian. That is why they are here. So Powar listens, as he must. And he mobilises an observer to go to Eindhoven and Ibrox and report on what is being sung. And, lo, sectarian chanting is heard.

 

So, I guess you could call this a witch-hunt if you like. But then witch-hunts are commonplace between Old Firm fans. These people, clearly with too much time on their hands and too much hate in their bones, are inventive in the way they create trouble for each other and social media has it made all the easier. Wasn't it a witch-hunt that saw many people - could they have been Rangers people by any chance? - contacting Strathclyde Police a little while back stating categorically that they heard Neil Lennon using racist language against El-Hadji Diouf, when he did not.

 

And before that, wasn't it a witch-hunt - inspired by Celtic fans, perchance? - that had the inbox of Peter Kearney, the spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland, bursting with indignation about Hugh Dallas and a stupid e-mail that eventually cost him his job?

 

The tit-for-tat has been around for a long, long time. It's part of life in the Old Firm. And it's going to continue. Can you imagine Powar's inbox now? I'm guessing it's about to explode from all the e-mails from Rangers folk pointing out the things that Celtic fans sing and do, how their songbooks are bigoted, how they warrant investigation also.

 

Bain says this: "This now has all the hallmarks of a deliberate and targeted campaign against the club. What else are we to expected to believe when UEFA officials give us favourable reports at our matches only to indict us later on the evidence of an outside unaccountable body?"

 

Well, that's not strictly accurate. Since FARE receive a lot of funding from UEFA then they are answerable to them. Bain says that the official UEFA reports on both PSV games were favourable, but Geir Thorsteinsson of Iceland was UEFA's man in Holland and he made note of sectarian chanting on the night, so it can't have been all that favourable. William Campbell, the head of operations for the Irish Football Association in Belfast, was the UEFA delegate in Glasgow for the return leg of the PSV tie. He didn't mention sectarianism.

 

Rangers people are, understandably, getting exercised about who exactly is feeding FARE their information to begin with. It's not exactly the point, though. The point is that wherever they are getting it from - a spiteful fringe of the Celtic support or wherever else - the information is correct. It's not vicious gossip, it's the truth. There was sectarian singing. Not just in the ties with PSV, but also in earlier games. I reported on the home match with Sporting Lisbon. A line from my piece on the night: "The songs (early on at any rate) were not upbeat dreams of Europe but rather grim reminders of domestic strife. Chants about Celtic and fenians filled the Broomloan Road stand for a short while. What desperados are these? Sunday, clearly, was too long for them to wait to cut loose with such poison."

 

Sunday was the Old Firm derby. More singing. From both sides, no doubt, but Rangers have been under UEFA surveillance for years, they have been fined and they have been warned and the fact that they may now be banned should come as no surprise to anybody. Let's face it, it's been a long time coming, if it happens.

 

Bain talks about an orchestrated campaign. Well, there wouldn't be a campaign at all if there was nothing to campaign about, but there is. The vermin rump that sing these songs will not shut up. They are a desperate burden on their club and a weight on the shoulders of the majority of Rangers people who want nothing to do with that kind of chanting. The SPL won't act against them.

 

The wretched SFL have still said nothing after the epic bouts of Rangers sectarian chanting during their own Co-operative Insurance Cup final, so along come FARE and UEFA and maybe now something will be done. Maybe.

 

The Rangers chief executive says he is "astounded". He is talking about "alleged" sectarian singing. He is looking for "urgent meetings" with UEFA at the highest level. He is clearly suspicious about how these charges came to pass. Fine, you'd have to worry about FARE and how they might be manipulated by the cyber warriors hell-bent on landing "the other mob" in trouble. But the bottom line is this. Was there bigoted singing during the PSV tie? Was there bigoted singing during the Sporting Lisbon tie? Was there bigoted singing in other European ties this season. Yes, yes and yes again.

 

It might trouble Rangers people as to how FARE came to know about their chanting problem, but it's really quite irrelevant. If you're guilty then no matter how many times you shoot the messenger it's still not going to make you innocent.

 

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