Jelly and Ice Cream (by Markybhoy)

Jelly and Ice Cream
An Editorial by Markybhoy


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POOR R*NGERS.

You may be wondering, 'what does he mean by poor Rangers?' Does he mean.......

Rangers are poor financially? or... He feels sorry for Rangers?

Well, we all know that Rangers are in a perilous situation financially. So let's take a look at the second question. Should I feel some sympathy for what Rangers are going through right now?

In order to decide, there were a few questions that I needed to ask myself.

Would Rangers liquidation irreparably damage Scottish Football?

The answer to this question is quite simply - no. I believe it is a totally false premise to say that Scottish Football would collapse because of the demise of one club. Even if that club is as big as Rangers.

First of all, if there was no Rangers anymore, there would be an awful lot of football fans out there without a team to support. Are all these thousands of Rangers fans just going to give up following football? I very much doubt it.

It may take them a while to lick their wounds and come to terms with their club dying but I'm sure a great many of them would eventually look for another team to follow. Clubs like Kilmarnock, Hearts, St. Mirren etc would be more than happy to pick up the custom of some of these 'homeless' Rangers supporters. We could see other SPL clubs attendances actually receiving a boost through the demise of Rangers.

Would our TV deal get smaller? Almost certainly. But the TV deal that the SPL has is pretty small potatoes anyway. Clubs would have to get creative and find other ways to survive. And I'm sure they would.

One possible option for SPL clubs would be to reduce ticket prices and actually try to fill their stadiums again instead of living a hand to mouth existence fuelled by a paltry annual handout from Sky. This is only one idea, I'm sure there are many others that could be looked at.

Rangers going to the wall would not be the death knell for Scottish Football.

Would I miss the Old Firm games?

This is the only reason I would not like to see the end of Rangers. I, like all Celtic fans, absolutely adore the Old Firm games. I look forward to them immensely. No other fixture in the world can make me feel the euphoric highs or the stomach churning lows that I feel when watching these matches. Life would be a little bit duller without these matches for sure.

But then, I have to be honest and say this.............. If missing out on a few Old Firm games each season is the price for ridding Scottish Football of the rancid bile that we so often hear emanating from the Rangers support then that is a price I am willing to pay.

No more derby days - the price to pay?
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Should I feel sorry for people who are so anti-Irish?

One of the great things about being a Celtic supporter is the Scottish/Irish dual identity of the club. This manifests itself in many forms. The greatest of all these forms for me is when you get to meet Celtic fans from across the water. For me personally, it is a really wonderful experience to stand in Bairds Bar before or after a match and hear so many Irish voices around you. I have yet to meet a single one who was unfriendly and I find that they have a slightly different outlook on life to some of the Scottish Celtic fans I know. Meeting them is almost a cultural experience. I like the way that Celtic brings Scots and Irish closer together.

So then, why should I feel sympathy for a club who's supporters so openly hate everything Irish? When I hear the Rangers support singing songs about the potato famine and the UVF it makes me angry. Very angry. Their mocking of the deaths of around 1 million Irish people is sub-human and it makes it a lot harder, almost impossible in fact, for me to feel any compassion for them.

Should I sympathize with a club that has been/is anti-Catholic?

This unsavoury side to Rangers is possibly the thing that makes me hate them the most. Hate is a very strong word to use, but in this context it is absolutely fitting. When I hear the Rangers fans singing songs about 'No Pope of Rome', singing 'Glasgow Celtic paedophiles' and calling us 'Taigs' then there is only one word for what I feel inside me. I feel pure, unadulterated hatred for them. I know that's not very Christian, and that may be ironic considering we're touching on the subject of Catholicism here, but that is how I feel.

And let us never forget, it is not just the Rangers fans that indulge in this. For many a long year the club itself indulged itself in these anti-Catholic sentiments too. Their sectarian signing policy of the past is well documented and will never be forgotten by this Celtic fan. The fact that one of this country's most famous clubs would openly refuse to sign a player for no other reason than that he was a Catholic is the dirtiest stain on the history of Scottish Football. Given that Rangers have for so long been the 'establishment' club in Scotland, it is also a dirty stain on the history of this country.

I have not yet reached the point where I can forgive it.

Bill Struth, whose guidance saw Rangers adopt their sectarian policies
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Should I feel sorry for people who mock child abuse?

I have never known a group of people to be so obsessed with child abuse as Rangers supporters. Mention Celtic to them and within no time the ugly subject of paedophilia will raise it's head. It's almost as though they can't help themselves.

Everybody knows that child abuse is an abhorrent thing. Nobody in their right mind could, or would, say otherwise. The people who indulge in it either need punished or need help(that's a discussion for another thread). But what the Rangers fans do with the subject of child abuse, troubles me almost as much as the crime itself.

They demean the subject by using it as a points scoring tool in a football rivalry. To me that is utterly despicable. The Rangers fans that persistently go on about this subject do not care for the children who were abused. Don't ever be fooled into thinking that they do. All they are doing is raising the subject to imply that Celtic fans and Catholics are all complicit in it. It's beneath contempt.

The way the Rangers fans have also tried to drag Jock Stein's name through the mud by linking him to child abuse is also utterly appalling.

So should I feel sympathy for the kind of people who mock a very serious subject in this sick, bitter, twisted way? I think not. I just hope none of their children are ever unfortunate enough to be abused. I am sure they would not treat the subject so frivolously if that were to happen.

Should I feel sorry for a club that tried to kill my club off?

Some might say that, since Celtic very nearly went out of existence in the 1990's, we should feel some sympathy for what Rangers are now going through. Yes some might say that, but I don't.

You see, I am old enough to remember the early/mid 1990's when Celtic were at death's door. And I do not recall any sympathy being handed out towards Celtic by Rangers fans. On the contrary, they wanted our club to die. Well........karma is a * as they say.

David Murray tried to bury us when we were down. Rangers were so far on top of Celtic at that time and they just kept piling on the misery. They wanted to kill us off once and for all. Well guess what, that's exactly what I hope we do to them now. They tried to finish us off so I think it's only fair that we should return the favour. Or at least sit back and have a * good laugh while the taxman does the job for us.

Isn't the irony of the club who sing so proudly about the Crown, being killed off by the Crown, just delicious? You really couldn't make it up.


So my fellow Tims, taking all things into consideration, I have decided that I feel absolutely no sympathy for Rangers Football Club, or their fans, whatsoever. Quite the contrary in fact. I am absolutely reveling in their misery. I hope there will be plenty more of it to come.

I can sum up my feelings in three small words............

Die Rangers. Die.

The End is near for Scotland's Shame




Markybhoy
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