2 Birds with one stone

[D'Artagnan 173]

It's been a remarkable weekend. We had Stewart Regan giving an interview for Scotland on Sunday and Graham Spiers hosting a radio show. The former during the course of that interview comments “Charles has made his point but I would ask the question as to why there is a desire to leave “ the latter during his radio show suggested the Rangers support are suffering from a persecution complex.

 

Let me kill both of these birds with one stone and deal with both the question and the accusation.

 

Many years ago I studied at the Church of Scotland's St Colms College in Edinburgh. During that time I learned one of life's most valuable lessons – to understand where people are coming from you have to walk about in their shoes for a bit. So what do see when you don the shoes of the average Rangers supporter ?

 

You certainly see a support with a persecution complex and a desire to leave Scottish football. Forever. So let me present some of the reasons for both.

 

Lets start with our governing football bodies, who rather than await the process of justice, pre-determine the outcome of a tax tribunal and deal with our club from the perception we are guilty. Who draw up plans to punish our club based on a pre-determination of guilt. Who impose punishments on our club, which have already been deemed unlawful by a Scottish Law Lord.

 

And despite being cleared of any wrongdoing by that tribunal, those governing bodies are still treating Rangers with contempt. The new league construction model sees Rangers remain in the bottom tier despite the ever increasing likelihood of earning promotion. Yet when Stranraer faced a similar situation several years ago, it was deemed to be unfair and they were granted the promotion they had earned. So why are Rangers being treated in a different manner ?

 

But it was not only the Scottish football authorities who jumped to a conclusion of guilt. The Scottish media and the Scottish footballing public also jumped on that particular bandwagon. The real problem is that this particular bandwagon appears to be still rolling.

 

“Cheats” ,“financial doping” were terms which were, and continue to be overused, but perhaps the icing on the cake was comparing our club's tax avoidance strategy to the corruption and bribery which disgraced both French and Italian football. The truth is it's never been about sporting integrity, its about an unbridled hatred of Rangers Football Club with the indication being such hatred is not going to go away anytime soon.

 

One only has too look at the response to Jim Traynor's “Gentleman be careful” comments. Mocked, goaded and challenged. Given that our club has been subjected to a witch hunt which should shame Scotland in the last 12 months, with such flames of hatred being fanned by the lies of a blog and a documentary, (which they saw fit to honour with awards) is it any small surprise our football club would make moves to prevent such a repetition ? Or is this club not allowed to defend itself from blatant lies ?

 

Perhaps one the greatest ironies about this article is that the individual who made the persecution complex comment was exposed as a liar recently on national television, denying he had attributed certain words to describe Rangers use of EBT's, when in the public domain, screenshots from his twitter account, serve to confirm that Graham Spiers claims of innocence were false. In essence his conduct and the subsequent lack of accountability for it, from the individual concerned and Scottish media in general, strengthens that persecution complex.

 

So Mr Regan and Mr Spiers, I hope this answers your questions and accusations. I hope the time spent wearing my shoes granted you an understanding of the feelings of the Rangers support and, for your own personal contributions to such feelings - a sense of shame.

 

But I doubt it will.

Edited January 13, 2013 by D'Artagnan

[The Real PapaBear 0]

As ever, D'artagnan, a tour de force in elegant penmanship, only slightly less sharp than the sword you put Spiers to.

Je vous tire mon chapeau.