BEARGER 1,829 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 This is getting 85% support in a poll on FF. Just saying. Hullo Hullo We are the Rangers boys Hullo Hullo You'll know us by our noise We'll sing The Sash and Derry's Walls Surrender or you'lll die For we are the Glasgow Rangers Boys 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexscottislegend 2,064 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Gordon Waddell: Notion of clubs helping cops with their enquiries into sectarian singing is laughable GORDON believes there has to be clear guidelines on what’s criminal and what’s not, and clear and real consequences for offenders' actions. HAPPY New Year, everyone. Here’s to a rip-roaring 1691… Sorry… we’re in 20what? Who knew, eh? Anyone who thought we’d left the cesspool of sectarianism behind has sadly been forced to review their optimism settings after the Rangers-Hibs game. Sure, we’ve had cloth-eared people trying to play it down, saying it never happened and we were duped into hearing what we were apparently desperate to hear. We’ve had social media’s always-offended cranking it up at every turn. And yes, there are guys in the media who refuse to write about it because they don’t see the point. They’re either culturally inured to it or they don’t think it’ll ever change. Likewise others get lathered up at the first opportunity and who missed it when we actually had to start talking about football, God forbid. The truth, as ever, lies somewhere in the middle. And it lies with the people who can separate right from wrong. Who don’t need to be personally offended by something to understand that it is offensive. The problem, as ever, is what you do about it. When no-one knows what the actual crime is, how is it possible to establish the punishment? When Rangers re-appeared on the bottom rung three and a half year ago I wrote that they had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reinvent the club from the ground up. To change their culture on the park and leave behind the baggage off the field. For three years we watched as they failed miserably with the first aspect – and the closer they get to a top-flight return, it seems the supporters are struggling with the second. At least the club didn’t indulge the embarrassing denials made by some fans after the sectarian chanting at Ibrox on Monday. They acknowledged it happened and issued a statement on the subject. And at least they didn’t indulge in the wearisome whataboutery and arguments of equivalence offered by some fans. The ones whose immediate response to their own misdemeanours is to say ‘Aye ok, but what about thaym? What about the IRA chants?’ If you’re living in a dump, pointing out that someone else is living in an equally squalid dump isn’t going to make your place any better. It’ll still be a dump. But let’s call their statement what it is, eh? A box-ticking exercise. The black and white they have to produce to say they’re doing all they can to avoid being held accountable for their fans’ actions. Zero tolerance? Check. Co-operate with police and authorities? Check. Disappointed with a small minority? Check. Club proud of its anti-sectarian initiatives? Check. And it’s hard to blame them. Because without strict liability, what more are they required to do? The notion of them helping police enquiries is laughable. Identifying the tens of thousands heaping sectarian abuse on Alan Stubbs and have them all up at the sheriff court on Monday morning? The club may have tried hard to educate their fans that in the 21st century it is unacceptable. But until there are clear guidelines on what’s criminal and what’s not, and clear and real consequences for their actions, they’re weeweeing in the wind. The Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill four years ago was such a botch job it created freedom-of-speech martyrs out of the very people they were supposed to be trying to rid the game of. It was a mish-mash of catch-all phrases that ended up catching nothing. Likewise the football authorities are powerless because their own members have chosen to make them powerless. It’s more then two years now since the SFA tried to introduce strict liability for the clubs to accept responsibility for their supporters. They needed 75 per cent of their 93 clubs to vote for it. They got five per cent. Still, even if they’d got it through, you’d then have to be prepared to wield your authority properly. Ask Peter Lawwell about the Catch 22 of strict liability. Celtic have had six fines from UEFA in three years for unacceptable fan behaviour. The problem is the punishments are trifling, a few grand in fines, and the fans end up not giving a monkey’s. The club can afford it, right? Small price to pay for a bit of pyro and a sing song. Until there are serious consequences, until fans are threatened with not seeing the games they supposedly live to see, how do you make them realise what they’re doing MUST stop? Likewise at Rangers. Education and appeals clearly only go so far. They ate the carrot for a while, but even donkeys get fed up with carrots. So does it need the stick? If it does who wields it? And how much power do they have? We may be in 2016 – just – but there’s still work to be done. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/gordon-waddell-notion-clubs-helping-7107873 I usually have a lot of time for Waddell. He is not always against us, in fact he opposed the docking of titles but here he seems to be suggesting ground closures if I read between the lines correctly. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy steel 0 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 (edited) The difference between the club taking action & Gordon Waddell's j'accuse-by-numbers in an earlier post is that the club is working hard to educate everyone who comes into contact with the club to move forward. But it also has to deal with people whose ideas were set in stone 20, 30, 40 years ago, and that's a damn sight harder. So while it's easy for someone who doesn't have to do any actual work beyond dog-whistle articles, it's a much harder slog for the club itself. And that slog isn't helped by a Manichean world view from the media, where things are either acceptable or not acceptable and there's never an evolution from one to the other over time. As a well known hand-wringer I take no lectures from anyone on the subject of how some Bears behave when they are representing our club, but simplistic nonsense won't help either. I guess if your audience is simple that's how you write, but tbh I would rather not write at all if that was my choice. Edited January 3, 2016 by andy steel 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinstein 294 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 just sing........ la, la.....etc. at the offending line. Then finish the song with the famous add on....la ! la ! la ! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aweebluesoandso 290 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 The F word to Celtic. Why? because there is no finer sound in football than the Billy Boys ringing round a full Ibrox. ****** blood, take that out and change it to, "up to our kness in titles and cups" 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveC 150 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 (edited) I usually have a lot of time for Waddell. He is not always against us, in fact he opposed the docking of titles but here he seems to be suggesting ground closures if I read between the lines correctly. As we were criminally thrown into the bottom division and forced to accept an illegal transfer ban he wrote of us as a moaning bunch and described us (as we lay near death) as "a club you'd never tire of punching in the face".) Ergo, I do not have said 'time for him'. Edited January 3, 2016 by SteveC 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 (edited) How about: We're up to our ears in Timmy lies No surrender till we die For we are the Rangers Billy boys That has an anti Celtic sentiment allied with no surrender, it's hard to be offended by it in a sectarian or racist way while hardly being soft, it rhymes better, it's true instead of being bullshit, and it turns it into a Rangers song instead of a razor gang song. Edited January 3, 2016 by calscot 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexscottislegend 2,064 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 As we were criminally thrown into the bottom division and forced to accept an illegal transfer ban he wrote of us as a moaning bunch and described us (as we lay near death) as "a club you'd never tire of punching in the face".) Ergo, I do not have said 'time for him'. I'm sure he's been equally dismissive of the Tim fraternity too. A Falkirk supporter, he subscribes to the 'plague on both your houses' view. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinstein 294 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 How about: We're up to our ears in Timmy lies No surrender till we die For we are the Rangers Billy boys That has an anti Celtic sentiment allied with no surrender, it's hard to be offended by it in a sectarian or racist way while hardly being soft, it rhymes better, it's true instead of being bullshit, and it turns it into a Rangers song instead of a razor gang song. aye but it's "the Brig'ton Billy Boys".... can't change that in my view 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
boabie 230 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 This is getting 85% support in a poll on FF.Just saying. Hullo Hullo We are the Rangers boys Hullo Hullo You'll know us by our noise We'll sing The Sash and Derry's Walls Surrender or you'lll die For we are the Glasgow Rangers Boys Nope Bear. Nobody is allowed to die. The usual suspects would still take offence at that line. If we sang "we'll give you a kiss" they'd still be offended. The fact is, they want Rangers dead and no amount of appeasing is going to satisfy them. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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