James traynor piece in the record

[the gunslinger 3,366]

CHEATS OR CHEATED?

Beaks should give Gers fans break while probes and battles rumble on

ANALYSIS By James Traynor

 

 

Photo captions: ENDURING HISTORY The footballing feats of the likes of club legend John Greig, who was honoured with a statue outside Ibrox, will never be forgotten

NO more than a good John Greig clearance away from Hampden one of the world's oldest clubs lies dying. And no one on Hampden's sixth floor even bats an eyelid.

 

No one up there in the offices of the SFA and SPL said a word.

 

Rangers FC as we know them are dead. It's all over. They are about to shut down for ever but not a single person among the game's hierarchy was open for comment.

 

And that just about sums it up for Rangers, the club the rest of the Scottish game came to detest.

 

We are still waiting for the verdicts on EBT schemes and dual contracts but the fans of every other club have passed judgment. Rangers are guilty.

 

Of course they are. They're cheats and liars. Everybody knows that. They can't help themselves, it's in their DNA.

 

And of course they must be stripped of their titles, trophies and dignity. Oh, and don't forget those five stars above their badge, Get them torn off as well.

 

It's all madness rooted in jealousies and twisted logic. Rangers have a seriously bad lot but the majority of the people who support the club are decent.

 

Yet everywhere so many people are waiting to dance on this club's grave.

 

Well, they should get their pumps and tap shoes tied up because it won't be long now. Yesterday the CVA proposal put forward on behalf of Charles Green by administrators Duff and Phelps was rejected by HMRC.

 

They didn't even wait until tomorrow's creditors' meeting, although that will still go ahead.

 

But Rangers FC won't. They'll slip into liquidation within the next couple of weeks with a new company emerging but 140 years of history, triumph and tears, will have ended.

 

No matter how Charles Green attempts to dress it up, a newco equals a new club. When the CVA was thrown out Rangers as we know them died.

 

They were closed and a newco must start from scratch although their fans will insist the history will be boxed up with the strips and balls and carried into the future with the new club.

 

Technically that history belongs to something else, some other company but even though the governing bodies appear consumed by technicalities and protocol supporters have other priorities.

 

They strive for continuity and Rangers fans will never be separated from or denied their past.

 

The name might change slightly, there will be a new owner, new players and a new beginning. But somehow nothing will have changed for many of the people who buy the tickets.

 

HATRED They'll never forget and they'll remember yesterday, too. Even though they and everyone else knew the decision to accept or reject Green's CVA was 50-50 this was such a momentous day in the history of Scottish football.

 

Yet, unbelievably neither the SPL nor the SFA had anything to say as Rangers' death warrant was signed.

 

Maybe they were bored, or maybe even stupefied by the twists and turns, outlandish demands and hopes, claims and counter claims which started in May last year and then began clattering down relentlessly since February.

 

With the noise and the clamour it has been difficult to make sense of it, to keep track and to understand the hatred and lack of compassion. It is almost scary that so many fans cannot see how damaging Rangers' demise is to the game in general.

 

Whether you like them or not they are important. Along with Celtic they are the engine that drives our game.

 

But the dislike hasn't been confined to the cheap seats. Other directors and chairmen have also relished watching Rangers fail and then fall.

 

Yet they should have known better and despite the voices of reason saying be careful what you wish for those clubs who have sounded off about sporting integrity will now have to be true to their own word.

 

If they have been listening to their fans, as a number of them claim, then they won't allow a newco into the SPL.

 

But let's just see if, when the time comes to vote, enough of them keep their hands down when asked if they want a reformed Rangers back in.

 

And they'll have to do this quickly because fans will need to know which teams will be in which divisions before buying season tickets. The SPL and SFL will produce their fixtures on Monday and although Rangers will be found in the top-flight schedule it remains to be seen if they'll actually be playing there.

 

But can the SPL do without Rangers and their supporters? They may have been suggesting they can but it will not prosper without Rangers and this is what all the chairmen, despite their bravado, will have to consider.

 

It was easy, and also foolish, to be bold when Duff and Phelps suggested HMRC had hinted they might accept the CVA but now the moment of truth has arrived for these clubs. And what will force the issue? Pressure from fans or pressure from banks? Of course, they could let them back in while insisting the new club has to accept penalties for the behaviour of the old, especially if the SPL enquiry finds Rangers guilty of issuing players dual contracts with their EBTs.

 

Also, the SFA have still to work out what sanction to impose on the current Rangers who succeeded in getting a 12-month signing ban overturned in the Court of Session. The SFA will demand the new sanction be inherited by the newco but it seems to me more than a few on one side of this saga are in danger of becoming a little vindictive.

 

GUILTY Of course Rangers are guilty of shaming the game and they accept they have to be punished. But how many more times must they be kicked? Despite the baying mob and their crazy notion that Rangers should be shunned because they are cheats the fact is this club and these fans have themselves been cheated. If there is anything in their DNA make up that's irrational or wrong it is their love of their club and this game.

 

Get over the mock outrage and come down from the moral high ground.

 

Few fans of any club have any right to be up there in any case but now, as Scottish football arrives at a crossroads let's try to think straight. How about cutting Rangers some slack and doing the game a turn at the same time?

[GovanAllan 0]

Apart from the history bit not a bad article from the fat fud.

[amms 0]

Fair play.

[andy steel 0]

The number of times I've written a post only to find Traynor has pretty much said it for me in the last few weeks has been amazing.

[26th of foot 5,833]

I am told that Traynor is genuinely surprised by the triumphalistic reaction of many of his peers. I don't know why, he has shared hotel rooms, offices, press boxes, restaurants, ..................... etc with most of the usual suspects for decades.

 

Anyways, at least he has attempted to identify and highlight the innocent party during this lamentable piece of theatre, the Rangers support. There is a lesson in the stark reality of our isolation. The governing bodies do not care for our sensitivities. Politicians have not taken on our concerns. The cultural/artistic community have not sought to portray our plight.

 

The days of 'no one likes us, we don't care' must end. We must build a raft of supportive opinion on our own terms.

 

Seriously, who is the Councillor for Ibrox? How about the MEP? Have they said anything? Have they been approached reference 250 jobs? Here is the reality, the Rangers support is an enormous constituency without representation.

[der Berliner 3,246]

As I said before, the press and some sports people have climbed to moral high grounds on the basis that one man did not pay our taxes and thus "we brought the game into disrepute" in the most shameful way possible. Much like "match fixing".

 

This stance is utterly ridiculous from start to finish, IF compared to other incidents. Ask those who jump at us like there is no tomorrow where their morale high grounds were when we won the title at the Scumhut in 1999, with players and the referee - a SFA official - was struck and bloodied by the Hooped Hordes. When the pitch was invaded to stop that game, our players hailed with all sorts of stuff and abuse when fleeing down the tunnel? BRINGING THE GAME INTO DISREPUTE? Not a word.

 

Their coach, for these last three seasons, has a plain playing field to nigh anything what he says and does pre, during and after a match. Their players and coaches openly and in full view of camera and police having a go at our players (Bartley/Edu/Diouf).

 

Not a whisper about BRINGING THE GAME INTO DISREPUTE. They get some silly fines and a ban or two, but there it ends.

 

If anything, Green and Co. should make sure that all the newsmongers who revelled in our demise will not allowed back into Ibrox unless they pay for it like every other customer.

Edited June 13, 2012 by der Berliner

[Blue Moon 1,113]

Taylor sums up largely how I have felt over the last few months. I have always considered myself to be a tolerant person but the shock I have felt at the naked venom being spat in our direction, and the endless talk of punishment after punishment has tested my tolerance to the limits and beyond. He is absolutely bag on - I will never forget this. We have been complacent in the past and lost the moral high ground a long time before this all broke when virtually all of Scotland outside Rangers supporters were convinced that we are the problem, that we are the bigots, that we are the louts that have shamed Scottish football and now we are the cheats etc etc. It is time to fight our corner, metaphorically of course. We do need to get our message across and we need to defend our club more than ever. We need a leader, we need a spokesperson and we need someone who is going to scrutinise every word that is spoken or written about us, an articulate PR man who will say "here is the Rangers viewpoint, this is the Rangers way".

[der Berliner 3,246]

Again, we should not forget about Traynor either. He's a sports reporter who wants to sell his stories. Anyone on here will vividly remember the utter rubbish that sprang from other articles of his.

[TheWeeBlueDevil 0]

The bit about "Rangers as we know it died" really pissed me off .. Maybe somebody should point out the fact that Rangers football club is 140 years old , the company that died is 113 years old .

 

Apart from that a good article.

Edited June 13, 2012 by TheWeeBlueDevil

[Guest Xander1873]

The bit about "Rangers as we know it died" really pissed me off .. Maybe somebody should point out the fact that Rangers football club is 140 years old , the company that died is 113 years old .

 

Apart from that a good article.

 

Until the SFA , Uefa or Fifa clarify the situation and state that the club continues and the business dies but the history belongs to the club, then this will be the party line taken when talking about the newco Rangers.