Rangers Owner Craig Whyte Meets With Bigoted Vanguard Bears Group

[Ergatrude 0]

The article headline says it all.

 

Rangers owner Craig Whyte in May commented on the issue of sectarianism, saying: "I think there has been a lot of work done in recent years by the club to stamp out sectarian singing and we have to follow through on that. I understand that there is a problem but we all have to share responsibility and that includes other agencies like the police and the judicial system."

 

 

Despite his comments when he took over the club, Mr Whyte is now fraternising with a group of Rangers fans whose sole aim is peddling their hate-filled bigotry and sectarianism on Scottish Football.

Media House guru Jack Irvine in July also stated: “Respectable Rangers supporters – and that is the vast majority – condemn bigotry and sectarianism but we will not be the whipping boys for society’s failings. For too long, Rangers have taken it in the neck. Now it’s a new owner, new management, new rules.

 

“Craig wants a more robust challenge to ill-informed critics. He does not intend for Rangers to be pushed around.”

 

At this moment in time the only person who is ill-informed has been Mr. Whyte and he really does need to rethink who his PR team and advisers are given this fraternisation with a group who not only make death threats and threats of violence to people they hate, but also target their fellow Rangers fans.

 

The Vanguard Bears reportedly met with Mr Whyte on Tuesday night, with three members of the site attending, just four days before the Rangers group turn out for a third time to protest outside the Pacific Quay headquarters of BBC Scotland, over what they believed was a constant attack on the club and the Rangers supporters in an unbalanced manner.

 

Now why would Mr Whyte take time out of his busy schedule to discuss issues with a group that called on Rangers fans to start singing the Billy Boys once again – a song that ultimately proved costly for Rangers as they were hammered by UEFA both in fines and seeing their fans banned from the away game against Malmo due to sectarian singing in their two Europa League games versus PSV Eindhoven last season.

 

The line of questioning from the three Vanguard Bears representatives were nothing new and in fact had been answered before by Craig Whyte in the mainstream media bar one or two. In fact the whole episode looks more like a CBBC Newsround interview conducted by 8 year olds asking their hero to answer some questions, rather than a fan group asking their club chairman hard-hitting questions to get to the nitty-gritty of the issues involving the club and the state it is in financially.

 

Craig Whyte really does need to re-think who he associates with and to announce that a mainstream journalist in Graham Speirs is on a yellow card, is quite frankly unprofessional from a man who is supposed to have decades of experience in business, dealing with all sorts of characters.

 

Mr Whyte was posed the question: “What is your position on Graham Spiers?”

 

He answered: “I decided when I took over the club, that while I would address media imbalance, I would start with a clean slate, and expect the same in return. After seeing Mr Spiers’ involvement in the BBC Documentary, we were considering whether to withdraw all press privileges, but decided against it, as we were of the view that his influence and readership is not significant enough to trouble us. That said, when we took that decision we only considered “The Times’” reach in Scotland, not their reach in England and beyond. [Following discussion with Jim Hannah] It is too late to reverse that decision. If Mr Spiers appears on our radar again for the wrong reasons, we will take a more holistic view. In football terms he’s on a retrospective yellow card.

 

Yes, Mr Whyte has every right to defend himself, the club that he owns and the fan base. But to actually enter into discussions with a group who had a history bringing shame on the club and the majority of decent Rangers fans in general is nigh on impossible to defend. And in fact it is a PR opportunity that has seen Mr Whyte shoot himself in the foot.

 

Scotzine

Edited November 3, 2011 by Super_Ally

[Super_Ally 0]

Deleted the hyperlink to stop the bigot getting hits but everyone will still know the source.

[ian1964 10,416]

Who actualy cares what that bigoted reptile says?,another twisted BHEAST commenting on Rangers FC.

[Ergatrude 0]

Deleted the hyperlink to stop the bigot getting hits but everyone will still know the source.

 

Sorry mate I never thought about that.

[Bluedell 5,329]

Andy Muirhead's got a cheek calling anyone else a bigot.

[Ergatrude 0]

Who actualy cares what that bigoted reptile says?,another twisted BHEAST commenting on Rangers FC.

 

Just the fact that they added "bigoted" into the headline annoyed me.

[ian1964 10,416]

Just the fact that they added "bigoted" into the headline annoyed me.

 

I wasn't having a go at you mate.

[Guest Dutchy]

And Nacho Novo never had a death threat in all his time with Rangers, not any other club mind you, just when he became a Rangers player.

 

Bit of a plonker, eh?

[Ergatrude 0]

I know mate, I would generally have just ignored this sort of article. But with all the politics within the SPL at the moment it really got me pissed off.

[Zappa 0]

Deleted the hyperlink to stop the bigot getting hits but everyone will still know the source.

 

Nice one S_A!

 

No hyperlinks (URLs) to Celtic websites please folks!