Gers4Life 0 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 SPL - Rangers baffled by royal tribute Sat, 30 Apr 16:13:00 2011 Rangers could face FIFA action over a Royal Wedding tribute printed on the shirt of captain David Weir. The defender wore a shirt paying tribute to Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge during Saturday's 5-0 win away to Motherwell in the Scottish Premier League. The embroidered slogan said: 'Congratulations William & Catherine 29th April 2011.' The act is technically in breach of FIFA regulations, which prevent players from making religious, political or personal statements, and it is understood Weir was also unaware of the tribute until kick-off. Rangers manager Walter Smith also claimed he had no knowledge of the message, saying: "I didn't know it was there. Sorry, I can't enlighten you at all. It must have been the kit man." The traditionally Protestant club this week received a UEFA punishment for the singing of sectarian songs during a Europa League fixture against PSV Eindhoven earlier this season. They also came in for criticism for allowing the distribution of thousands of Union Flags at last weekend's match against Celtic. Matches between the Old Firm rivals this season have been marred by crowd trouble and confrontation between players and coaches from both sides. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebear54 0 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Tell me, is this a windup? Congratulations on your marriage - and it's sectarian? The loonies have truly taken over the funny farm! Time for HRH to put a word in for us! SPL - Rangers baffled by royal tributeSat, 30 Apr 16:13:00 2011 Rangers could face FIFA action over a Royal Wedding tribute printed on the shirt of captain David Weir. The defender wore a shirt paying tribute to Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge during Saturday's 5-0 win away to Motherwell in the Scottish Premier League. The embroidered slogan said: 'Congratulations William & Catherine 29th April 2011.' The act is technically in breach of FIFA regulations, which prevent players from making religious, political or personal statements, and it is understood Weir was also unaware of the tribute until kick-off. Rangers manager Walter Smith also claimed he had no knowledge of the message, saying: "I didn't know it was there. Sorry, I can't enlighten you at all. It must have been the kit man." The traditionally Protestant club this week received a UEFA punishment for the singing of sectarian songs during a Europa League fixture against PSV Eindhoven earlier this season. They also came in for criticism for allowing the distribution of thousands of Union Flags at last weekend's match against Celtic. Matches between the Old Firm rivals this season have been marred by crowd trouble and confrontation between players and coaches from both sides. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Tell me, is this a windup? There was an article on Newsnow earlier, but it's not the same one. Here it is - http://www.sportinglife.com/football/scottishpremier/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/11/04/30/SOCCER_Motherwell_Quotes.html Also, Andy pandy over at Scotzine released this one on the news wire an hour ago - "Rangers continue to bathe in Britishness or is it all a PR Stunt? April 30, 2011 by Andy M During Rangers 5-0 win against Motherwell at Fir Park today, Rangers skipper David Weir donned a specially embroidered commemorative shirt against Stuart McCall’s side, paying a special tribute to Prince William and Kate Middleton, who were married at Westminster Abbey yesterday. Weir’s Number 3 jersey was prepared by kit man Jimmy Bell, and read, ‘Congratulations William and Catherine, 29th April 2011′. However the message is technically in breach of FIFA regulations, which prevent players from making religious, political or personal statements. Manager Walter Smith claimed that he had no knowledge of his captain’s tribute to the Royal Wedding, while it was also reported that Weir was also unaware of the tribute until just before kick off. Smith said, “I didn’t know it was there. Sorry, I can’t enlighten you at all. It must have been the kit man.” Rangers were recently criticised by Matt Dickinson, Chief Sports Correspondent of The Times, over permission given to the Rangers Supporters Assembly to place a small Union Jack flag on every seat in the home end before the seventh and final Old Firm derby of the season. Dickinson stated, “I rang Rangers yesterday to ask why, exactly? The Union Jack is not an official symbol of Rangers FC. It is not part of the club badge, not on the shirt. It is not to be found on any page of the Rangers website. A shirty spokesman, dismissing the inquiry as a nonsense, said that it was the flag of his country and the British Isles. But there are dozens of British clubs and none of the others ever hand out Union Jacks.” Dickinson is right in the respect that no other club has dished out Union Jacks to their fans for a display – so why Rangers? He continued, “If Rangers wanted to give the team a show of support, why not simply hand out regular club flags and scarves? Why endorse a provocative symbol of tribalism, on the very day when both clubs were meant to be going out of their way to calm their fans?” Dickinson claimed that the Union Jack, “has been hijacked as a sign of lasting enmity, of division, entrenching the idea that one club, for now and evermore, will represent the Protestant sector of Glasgow and the other the Catholic. One club handing out Union Jacks cannot possibly take us any closer to the day, however far away it may be, when Rangers against Celtic becomes a “normal” sporting rivalry, defined by geography, not historical or religious baggage.” He finished his article with, “Rangers will insist that they do plenty [to weed out Sectarianism], but that has not been the impression given in the past 48 hours, on or off the record. They should pay more attention to their manager, the wise Walter Smith, who talked last week of how the sectarian problem had been tolerated for too long, and his relief that he was retiring. ‘To be quite honest with you, I’m quite glad to be getting out of it,’ Smith said, which was a terribly sad admission from a man steeped in Rangers since he was a lad. So that is one manager driven away and another who might have been killed. And a stupid club who think there is nothing odd, amid all this trouble, in handing out 40,000 Union Jacks.” So after bathing in the Britishness of 40,000 fans waving mini Union Jacks during their game against Celtic, kit man Jimmy Bell took the club’s Britishness to an all new high with his commemorative message to the newly weds. No other club or individual donned such a message on their kit so why Rangers? Will they do the same for the next Royal wedding between the Queen’s Grand daughter Zara Phillips and England rugby player Mike Tindall on July 30th? I doubt it very much. The whole mini flag waving and special tribute message reeks of the club trying to prove how British they are, and how much more they are than others. If they wanted to prove how British they are, maybe the club led by Sir David Murray, could have paid their BRITISH taxes, like everyone else does whether we see ourselves as British, Scottish, English, Welsh or Irish. Maybe then they could bleat on about how BRITISH they are, but currently the whole stunt just looks hypocritical. While the Quintessential British Club supporters are waving flags costing 20p each, and the kit man is embroidering just the one shirt, the club continues to fight against Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, who claim that the club owe around Ã?£25 million in back taxes – not including fines and interest that could be accrued also. Taxes that could have been used to pay for Flak Jackets and equipment for those soldiers they continue to peddle out onto the centre circle at Ibrox to celebrate and worship. Ã?£25 million could have bought 500,000 flak jackets [body armour] or paid towards a couple of those fancy armoured personnel carriers, rather than player’s bank accounts. But hey the soldiers get a free ticket to a game that makes up for it all right? I doubt that any action will be taken against David Weir or Rangers over the embroidered shirt, however given that Tamir Cohen was booked for taking his top off to reveal a tribute to his father Avi Cohen, who died in December after a motorcycle accident, after scoring the winner against Arsenal. Mike Jones the referee who booked Cohen reportedly apologised to player after the match, but by the letter of the law he was correct to do so, a law that many including myself think is idiotic. By the letter of the law, and without any official permission to do so from the SPL or the SFA, the continued ‘Britishness’ publicity stunt should be punished accordingly. Whether it is the club, David Weir or Jimmy Bell the kit man punished for it. Otherwise ALL messages printed on kit, t-shirts by Scottish clubs and players should not be punished accordingly. Or was it the last desperate act of Martin Bain and Rangers to try to dodge paying the tax bill? Maybe I could get my shirt embroidered also, it would save me paying Council Tax this year." 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 In other words - it's basically just the yahoos trying to cause more trouble. FIFA reported on the game and didn't mention the message on Weir's shirt - http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/clubfootball/news/newsid=1426990.html?cid=rssfeed&att= 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 This FF article on it is funny SFA respond to criticism of Royal message on RFC strip 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebear54 0 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 In other words - it's basically just the yahoos trying to cause more trouble. FIFA reported on the game and didn't mention the message on Weir's shirt - http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/clubfootball/news/newsid=1426990.html?cid=rssfeed&att= And these are the same jolly chappies who think it's fine to constantly refer to us as Huns on their websites? Not a bit of a moral dilemma there? No? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,409 Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 By Tom English There was a surreal episode at Fir Park yesterday. Davie Weir took the field with a message of goodwill to the happy royal couple embroidered on the front of his jersey. "Congratulations William and Catherine," it said, with Friday's date underneath. On the face of it, it was nothing more than a nice, if slightly unusual, gesture from the Rangers captain, but it is believed that the SPL delegate, Alan Dick, is going ADVERTISEMENT to mention it in his official report on the game. Technically speaking, for the jobsworths among us, Weir was in contravention of Law Four of the Fifa regulations which deems that players are not allowed to have any statements of a political, religious or personal slant on their shirts. Only the terminally daft would want the SFA to get exercised over this, but it will be mentioned in Dick's report none the less. It is believed that Dick is not exactly up in arms over the breach of the rules and it's hardly going to cause too much bother at Hampden either. It was, if anything, a humorous affair, culminating with a photo-shopped picture of William and Kate, bedecked in blue, sitting in the Fir Park stand yesterday. A honeymoon in Motherwell. Who'd have thought it? Walter Smith hadn't a clue that Weir had anything written on his jersey. The Rangers manager was utterly bemused when it was mentioned to him later. "He had what on his shirt?" he asked. "Who? Davie? Just Davie? Not the rest of them? This is the first I heard of it." It appears that the message was not Weir's idea either. "I don't know anything about it," said Smith, deadpan. "It must have been the kitman's idea." The long-standing bag-carrier, Jimmy Bell, is the man in question. As one Rangers source said last night: "It'll be Jimmy looking for a CBE." We await the SFA's response. http://sport.scotsman.com/football/Rangers-captain-breaks-rules-in.6760548.jp 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Seems to gathering speed. Also reported by Fraser Mackie in the Daily Hail - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1382321/Rangers-David-Weir-face-inquiry-displaying-Royal-tribute-shirt.html? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 And another article from the not-so-secret RFC hater at Scotzine put out within the past half hour - "David Weir could face SFA inquiry over Royal tribute on shirt May 1, 2011 by Andy M As we mentioned in our article ‘Rangers continue to bathe in Britishness or is it all a PR Stunt’, during Rangers 5-0 win against Motherwell at Fir Park today, Rangers skipper David Weir donned a specially embroidered commemorative shirt against Stuart McCall’s side, paying a special tribute to Prince William and Kate Middleton, who were married at Westminster Abbey on Friday. Weir’s Number 3 jersey was prepared by kit man Jimmy Bell, and read, ‘Congratulations William and Catherine, 29th April 2011′. The message is technically in breach of FIFA regulations, which prevent players from making religious, political or personal statements. Manager Walter Smith claimed that he had no knowledge of his captain’s tribute to the Royal Wedding, while it was also reported that Weir was also unaware of the tribute until just before kick off. Smith said, “I didn’t know it was there. Sorry, I can’t enlighten you at all. It must have been the kit man.” However it seems that Former Motherwell secretary Alan Dick, who was the Scottish Premier League’s match delegate, spoke to Weir about the issue after the game and the incident will be mentioned in his report to the governing body. It has also been reported that Weir was not involved in planning the gesture and learned of the work done to his jersey on Saturday morning. Which would mean it was highly unlikely any official clearance was received for the player to make the statement. The Poppy Remembrance on the shirts, Celtic’s National Famine Day memorial embroidered badge, Celtic’s Japanese lettering instead of English names and Celtic wearing the Number 7 in honour of Jimmy Johnstone were similar incidents to the Weir, one however in each of those cases, official clearance was given. So while it is a trivial matter, David Weir could see himself hauled in front of the SFA for breaching the rules of the game, for what the Rangers kit man did, allegedly without Weir’s knowledge, and punished accordingly. If Weir is given a retrospective yellow card, it would take him over the points threshold meaning, he could be ruled out for the final game of the season at Rugby Park on the 15th May. A game that would see the end of Weir’s career as a Rangers player." 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bigbob Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 what a joke this country has become thank god i dont live there anymore 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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