By Tony Attwood
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has finally pulled the plug on Rangers, the club that previously owned shares in Woolwich Arsenal and Arsenal (until recently selling them to Mr Usmanov). The team that invited Arsenal to play at their centenary celebrations – a match at which incidentally, the club charged supporters 10p each to get in (and which Arsenal won).
It was always likely to be thus, since it was found that the money paid to Rangers under Craig Whyte’s tenure in terms of PAYE (deducted from salaries) and VAT (paid on entrance fees, shirts etc) was being used to keep the club afloat, rather than being handed over to Revenues and Customs.
An attempt at administration which would mean that everyone owed money would get just a few pennies for every pound they were owed, was never likely to be accepted not least because there was never a disclosure of a full list of the people behind the offer.
Indeed even if there had been a mood to accept such a tiny payout the fact is that lurking behind it is the Employee Benefit Trusts (now known in Scotland as “Rangers Tax Case” after the web site that exposed it) in which Rangers paid money to players, managers (G Souness was one such who (according to the recent BBC Scotland programme) appears to have received sudden windfall payments from the club with no tax paid – although the issue is still under investigation) without paying tax. The bill for that little escapade of not paying tax on salaries alone is said to be £75 million.
The people who are the losers are all citizens of the UK, because it means that a whole chunk of money that should have been paid in tax, and which could have been used to build a hospital wing or some other public venture, has gone into the pockets of already very rich men.
By liquidating the company HMRC now allows them to pursue the individuals who personally oversaw Rangers decline and who may have been guilty of criminal activity in defrauding public finance. In short, this means that anyone who can be found to be responsible for authorising illegal actions in the club can now be prosecuted. It is quite likely that a number of people who have lived quite a good life until now might end up in prison, and a number of people who received large chunks of tax-free money will be required to repay the tax due.
Rangers have assets, including Ibrox, but the details of those are unclear because now they have no membership of a football league and have to apply. The club will now presumably start by applying for a place in the Scottish Premier League and that application will be heard sometime in July. For New Rangers to be allowed into the SPL eight of the other 11 have to say yes.
Another approach would be for New Rangers to join the 3rd Division of the Scottish League, and the Scottish League might like this as they would then be able to negotiate a TV deal for the league.
The busiest people will be the lawyers however. When a company goes down those running the company are not held responsible for the losses, unless they acted in a reckless manner or illegally – for example trading when they knew they had no chance of paying what they were buying. And that is what a lot of people will now want to prove, in order to recover some of the public money (ie tax money) that has gone missing.
There is a big argument about what happens to the players who are left in Rangers, and whether the new club will take over the contracts of the old club. Indeed if the club went into the 3rd division would players want to stay, with lower salaries and without any trusts to funnel the money through? Further the club’s one year ban from Europe now goes up to three years so more ambitious players might not want to play there.
There is still the question of the legal case that Rangers took against the SFA in which they persuaded the court that the SFA could not ban them from buying new players for a year. The SFA appeals panel is looking at that again, and it could throw out Rangers, or ban them from the Cup or fine them. Whether such action would then apply to New Rangers is not clear to me – if you know about situations like this, let me know!
But if New Rangers get back into the Premier League Livingston are likely to sue the Scottish Football Association since they were demoted to the 3rd Division in Scotland in 2009 over insolvency rules. The SFA will need to show why it is making a difference between Rangers and Livingston other than just by saying “its Rangers”.
So why should any of this bother us?
Because so far in England we have seen clubs use the rules to go down and come back again at high speed. Accrington have been morphing in and out of existence since the very first days of the league. Leeds City were thrown out of the league and quickly came back as League United – so it goes on through the history of football in England.
Now lined up for treatment are Portsmouth and Birmingham City. And who knows what’s hanging about in other boardrooms especially now, as we showed yesterday, not many people want to buy clubs in England.
Remember, Rangers story was lurking around on websites for several years, but never once reported in the press until it finally exploded. A parallel might be this site’s endless investigation into referees. I said “might” be – it might not, because apart from the BBC getting interested in us, and the referees’ association shutting down their web site, we are still in the same position as “RangersTaxCase” was – gathering the information for those who want to see, and being ignored by those who don’t.
It is unlikely that Rangers is the only case of its kind, in my opinion. It happens in all countries – take the example Anne covered here of Neuchâtel Xamax Football Club which was ejected from the Swiss Super League and declared bankrupt on 26 January 2012. We can keep on saying “oh it wouldn’t happen to a big club here” but there are growing signs that it will.
OK that Swiss club is not a name you are likely to know – but this situation is everywhere, and the walls holding it all together are paper thin.
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I am a Rangers fan and have to say that the article is very factual with the current situation at Rangers.
If you are going to print something please get the facts right.
Rangers need 8 votes from 12.Rangers have still voting rights in the SPL AND THEY WILL VOTE YES FOR A NEWCO.
Wether this is right or wrong that is the rules.
So they only nee 7 from 11 to vote YES.
Hello, i am an AEK Athens fan and my club faces very similar problems with the Rangers we also got a 1 year ban from UEFA. Something must be done so the shareholders of our teams will be held responsible because in the end the only people that pay for their mistakes are the creditors and the clubs fans!
Excellent article Tony, can’t help thinking that expediency will win out in Rangers case (and that they’ll be allowed to stay in the SPL), but formal media outlets should be scouring the blogs and social media sites for other cause celebre.
Not being over knowledgeable about financial wizardry (and even less about Scottish football shenanigans, I am staggered over the fall from grace of Glasgow Rangers.
Here we have one of the two perennial football champions of
Scotland, seemingly rolling in money, prestige and attendances…..brought low.
If one had written a book about Rangers in this fashion, it would been ridiculed as wild fiction.
Those in the bowels of Ibrox who have caused this ruin of a great Club must be identified and held to account.
The real mourners are the fans of Rangers, home and abroad, who deserve our commiserations.
I agree with you, Tony, that when the mighty are fallen, who amongst us can be regarded as safe.
Cracking post and a very interesting read.
I feel for the Rangers fans, or Portsmouth fans etc etc. They really don’t deserve any of this.
Perhaps Rangers will come knocking at the door of the English league. That would cause a kerfuffel! But at the end of the the day the draw in the the Scottish league is both Rangers and Celtic. That isn’t to denigrate any of the other clubs but Rangers will be voted back in because the other clubs need them.
Decent article. As a Gers fan, we were led down the garden path by a couple of charlatans who owned our club, namely David Murray (who ran the EBTs through all of his Murray Group) and then the idiot who was Craig Whyte, who decided that it was a good idea to pay no tax at all. The “leadership” of these two idiots is what has got Rangers into their current predicament – showing that it’s hugely dangerous for great clubs to have a single owner.
Most of the Gers fans I know will take their medicine and move to Div 3 to start again. It should never have been this way however. Murray should have his Knighthood removed and Whyte should probably be institutionalised. You have no idea the anger that Rangers fans felt at the selling of the Arsenal shares. There were great links between our tow great clubs and Whyte decided, single-handedly, to sell what was a significant part of our history.
Sure, Rangers should be punished for what’s happened, but it’s only the fans and employees (who have nothing to do with what’s gone on in the past) who are really punished. I genuinely hope that HMRC go after Murray and Whyte. They deserve to feel the full wrath of the law.
I think what’s happened at Rangers could very easily happen to a number of other clubs around the world. Just look for any club, spending too much money, owned by one person…..
Good article Tony, and thought provoking.
If a mighty club like Rangers can fall there must be many others feeling very nervous today. I doubt, very much, that Rangers are an isolated case.
I am a Rangers fan and know, only too well, the pain that this whole sorry business has caused to a lot of innocent people. Creditors and supporters alike.
It is a pain I would wish on no football fan, or any club. So it is to be hoped that clubs, who are in danger, are allowed to heed “the message” and quietly, put their affairs in order. Without being subjected to a sweeping, formal investigation.
On a happier note, I well remember the Rangers v Arsenal Centenary game. The Gunners won 2-1. John Radford opened the scoring for Arsenal before a packed house of 90,000 plus. Alfie Conn equalised for the Gers, before John O’Neil hit a screamer into the roof of the net, in the last minute to give the Gunners victory.
There was always a strong bond between Rangers and Arsenal. I believe they played the longest running list of friendlies in history. Something like 84 years.
The Arsenal shares that Rangers held for so long (sold recently, by a reprehensible character who’s name I refuse to mention) were gifted to Rangers by the Gunners after Rangers had assisted Arsenal, many years ago,when they were in some financial trouble.
Don’t panic Tony, I’m not looking for payback here. You’d have to sell the Emirates to bail the Gers out of this one.
All the best,
Up the Gunners,
Bill
as a born and bred rangers fan at the age of 65 i feel that a part of family has died we will recover w.a.t.p ian
Just a couple of wee corrections which do not really change the substance of your article.
The EBT case is known as “The Big Tax Case” reflecting that Rangers was already found to have illegally operated a much smaller Share Options Scheme (The Wee Tax Case).
Also, knowledge of the Big Tax Case has been widespread for two or three years now. The web site rangerstaxcase was set up just over one year ago, and undoubtedly gave the story a push as the author has obviously had access to lots of sensitive information. However, it claims its main purpose was to counter the failure of the mainstream media to report on the case, or to correct much of the misinformation that was been released into the public domain subsequent to mainstream media having to acknowledge what was happening. Rangers have adopted an aggressive PR policy on this whole affair, assisted by Media House, a PR company headed up by an ex tabloid editor.
ROBERT 09:17
How will Rangers still have a vote in the SPL when by the end of this week, HMRC will be liquidating the club? If a company ceases to exist, then it would surely have no voting rights at all.
Even if they did, I doubt they would get the necessary required number of votes. Their recent visit to the Court of Session upset the SFA/EUFA/FIFA, and pretty much all other clubs in Scotland. I can honestly see certain high ranking people from Rangers (past and present) being detained to HM pleasure as a result of all this
Another reason why English clubs should care is that its fairly common knowledge that HMRC sees Rangers as a test case that could be applied to English clubs who have not used EBTs in the correct manner. It was the short term non payment of paye and vat as your article states that brought Rangers to liquidation but it was the £70m+ EBT tax bill that stopped anyone else jumping in to save them. Those numbers would hurt even a ‘big’ EPL team.
Most of what you are saying here is accurate and indeed it is widely thought that our case (Rangers) is indeed a “test” case to some degree to allow HMRC to go after the big fish in the EPL. However our big tax case has not come to a conclusion as yet, as we still await the verdict and unbeleivably has actually become a sideshow to what has happened to our great club in the last year. We were sold down the river by our majority shareholder Sir David Murray in conjunction with Llyods TSB (who put the screws on him) for £1, to a charlatan and trickster Craig Whyte, whom Murray and the bank knew did not have the where withall to support the club financially.He then used PAYE and VAT as cashflow, unbeknown to fellow directors and employees. HMRC have taken a tough stand and to be fair I can understand that, we have been at best, poorly run by individuals and that is where the problem lies. When an individual can act so reprehensively and walk away with carnage left behind it is the club, the employees, the fans (most importantly the fans) who have to suffer the consequences, not the individual who single handedly drove our great institution to the grave.
So all of you football fans out there no matter what club you support, be aware the Taxman has laid down a marker as of yesterday.
Tony,
I remember the good old days when this blog was just a little one in that big Arsenal blog world.
You then wrote articles about the finances of the clubs and how it all could go wrong.
I cannot remember you wrote about Rangers in those days (I do think you mentioned them on occasion in those days) but you named clubs in England that could be in danger or would come in danger like Birmingham (is also happening now).
In those days you warned us for the dangers when a club is being badly run by their owners. And I remember some people saying about the names you mentioned: they are too big to fall.
Well Rangers surely was not big enough to fall. One of the two big clubs in Scotland going down… who would have thought this?
Well you did (not specific Rangers as they are a bit of our primer interest circle).
So I have a bit of a double feeling:
I’m glad you finally proved you were right all that time.
But I feel sad for the fans of Rangers. They are the biggest victims in this case.
From my own experience on my own local club (which I mentioned in another comment just today before I wrote this comment) I know what it’s like to see you football club going bankrupt. It is very hard I can imagine for all the Rangers supporters.
My local club survived (the scale was not as big as Rangers of course) but only just. I hope that the Rangers supporters will find new pleasure with who ever will be the follow up club of Rangers. But I feel for you and wish you the best.
And once again people of clubs who are winning things now because of some owners and not relying on their own money: enjoy it while you can. You never know what the future will bring. It can bring you a lot of pleasure and you maybe will want to exchange the current trophies at some point in time.
Thanks to Rangers fans for joining us here. My apologies for errors in detail – I am sure you appreciate that while I keep up daily with Arsenal, as you do with your club, it is hard to get everything 100% when writing of someone else.
But I feel it is worth doing. Most club based blogs focus on their own club exclusively, which is part of what most clubs want – they don’t want to have fans looking at the inner workings of the club.
Arsenal fans have started to look at their own club of late, because of the Usmanov offer, and I think that is good. We should be aware of what is happening.
And yet, among so many fans there is the view that if someone were to buy Arsenal from Kronke, we would have billions to spend, rather than our being a Liverpool II, or a Birmingham, Portsmouth or Rangers.
Sadly, there are more to come, both in the UK and overseas, and they will keep coming until we all find a way to stop this.
While I fully agree that Craig Whyte should never have been allowed anywhere near the great marble staircase of Ibrox, I think the reason he had to use the tax money to run the business is because we were so sh*te and didn’t qualify for the Champions League, or even the Europa League. That failure has cost us dear. Had we qualified, the tax could have been paid and we’d not have gone into administration. As soon as we failed to qualify for Europe, we should have sold Jelavic & McGregor & then gone into administration. We’d still have been waiting for the outcome of the big tax case. Thats when the sh*t would have hit the fan and we’d probably still have ended up in administration and eventually liquidation.
WATP
John
Tony – the only way to stop this happening to anyone in the future is to make two pieces of legislation in the game more robust: FFP, to some degree, but more importanly the Fit & Proper test, which is an absolute shambles. My understanding is that it’s basically a credit and criminal record check…?
Hi Good article but just a few points of note..
The EBT case is still undecided with any claim being against the “OldCo”, the sanctions imposed by SFA won’t apply to “NewCo”. Old Rangers will still be trading so have the vote & need 8-4 in our favour. The main thing for us is now that the “company” timeline has been broken we still keep our history as far as the 54 titles etc, this depends on SPL & SFA voting on whether to allow our share to transfer from “OldCo” to “NewCo”.
Last thing on EBT, it was at one time almost common practice for a lot of clubs, infact it’s not too long ago Arsenal had their own “EBT tax Liability” issue for a lot more than RFC and who HMRC cut a deal with.
Anyway Murry & Whyte should both be jailed for their actions.
G’on the Gunners …
WATP !!!
As a cynical Rangers fan I will be astonished if any of those responsible for the club’s demise (chiefly David Murray)spend a single day in prison, but I hope Tony’s right and I’m wrong.
Rangers fans are the most arrogant fans in world football and I sincerely hope this sorry state of affairs takes the edge off their arrogance – but I doubt it. Not one word of regret, no remorse whatsoever, only threats made to anyone standing up to them. There even talking about heading off to England to play, as if the UEFA Cup final Manchester riots were all just a bad dream. Personally I would welcome such a move, Scottish football would recover and eventually flourish without them.
Jockey – every club has arrogant fans, and every club has fans that call other fans arrogant.
We’ve had debates here (for obvious reasons) about Tottenham vis a vis Arsenal, and that comment has been made. But we have proven that by removing generalisations like “Rangers fans are the most arrogant fans in world football” and instead trying to deal with the issues, we can shed light on issues for everyone’s benefit.
Look back to our article on Harry Redknapp a couple of weeks ago. A serious and open discussion between Arsenal and Tottenham fans without any bickering or name calling.
The fans of Rangers writing here today are not exhibiting that much arrogance. Yes Rangers undoubtedly have arrogant fans, and so does every other club, but why make the point when we are actually having a discussion that is (at least for some of us) illuminating.
Good article, but one thing you may find different from the English clubs under suspicion. RFC have not only been run for two decades by an absolute monster of a man, but we have an SFA who are corrupt and sectarian to the core.
The SFA have not uttered one word about their biggest member club going into liquidation and not offered any assistance to the club which has provided more Scotland players, than all the clubs put together. Ask yourself why that is?
Let’s not kid on any longer or pretend the dark hand of sectarianism is not at the forefront of many decisions taken against RFC.
The Rangers will survive, but like every other Gers fan, I will boycott all away fixtures. Let’s see how the Kilmarnock’s and Dun Utd’s survive when they don’t have our massive travelling support at least twice per year.
They had better be careful what they wish for.
Tony
Appreciate you taking the time to reply, I live in Scotland, have been following Partick Thistle for some 30 odd years, there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that rangers have the most arrogant (WE ARE THE PEOPLE) fans in world football, I’ve seen enough of them over the years and the common demoninator is arrogance.
They are now castigating the previous chairman David (for every fiver Celtic spend we will spend a tenner) Murray for driving them into insolvency, however the fans pushed Murray all the way to spend spend and spend again, regardless of where the money came from, no questions asked.
It’s all about opinions mate and I respect yours, however Spurs fans, Arsenal fans, not in the same league as Rangers when it comes to hard core arrogance.
jockey think youll find theres no one more arrogant than the celtic supporters who strut about thinking the whole world loves them and theres a little matter that i dont remember celtic saying sry for which destroyed kids lives into adult hood to their grave and kelly tried to cover up so really your talking utter rubbish
jockey i think you have a big bag of maris pipers on your shoulders never mind a chip
Good report, however the biggest reason of all as to why English football should bother is that the “Rangers tax case” tou refer to in which EBT’s were set up to top-up players salaries is widely acknowledged as being used by HMRC as a test case. It is widely known that many thousands of businesses are running similar schemes and it particuarly widespread in football – indeed one of the prominent names constantly being mentioned in the media is Arsenal. The reason that the judgement has not been passed is because considerations must be made of the widespread effect – if Rangers are guilty then where do they stop. Only last week Neil Lennon (Mr sporting integrity) was in court answering questions about his tax scam scheme. Companies such as vodafone settled out of court for a fraction of the estimated bill when HMRC went after them for the same scheme. So the wider football will be eagerly awaiting the judgement of this case if it goes in HMRC favour then I’m sure that Rangers will not be the last club to be hit with a bill that they cannot afford.
Grant – As you clearly say, HMRC must make a fair decision which will apply not only to Rangers, but can also be fairly applied across the board to every other club under basically the same circumstances. HMRC certainly won’t pay the slightest attention whatsoever to the “but we arra peepul” defence, or to any implied threats of Scottish football going under if Rangers are forced into bankruptcy.
HMRC will simply look at the BIG picture, which is that British taxpayers as a whole have been defrauded by Rangers for years. Many Rangers fans now appear perfectly willing to accept being defrauded, but not every British taxpayer is a Rangers fan.
And if you want a REAL test of fairness, don’t compare one independent individuals tax “scam” — which did not involve the club which employs him — to Rangers repeated transgressions over a number of years under two different owners. Instead, ask yourself “What would I consider fair, if it were Celtic instead of Rangers in this current situation?”
Jockey,
We all (every club) has it’s fare share of knuckle draggers & idiots and I don’t want this to turn into a tit for tat excersise, but as you say you follow The might Jags….
So what do you really know about fitba’ …..
WATP !!!!!
What would have to happen for new Rangers to have no claim on the titles and history of old Rangers?
Trueblue I think you will find that the quickest way to stop any sort of reasonable debate taking place is to call your main rivals arrogant, en masse. As was said here earlier, every club has people associated with it with whom we might personally not wish to be associated, but your sort of response just does one thing: it stops conversation. And without conversation we are nothing.
Your comment says nothing about Celtic, nor about Rangers. It says everything about you.
Jockey – I think the worry that I and others have is that if we had a chairman who said “for every £5 they spend we’ll spend £10 then there are lots of Arsenal supporters who would say yees yes yes yes yes yes yes. Indeed this is the essence of the Usmanov bid I think (just my personal opinion) and is the problem that so many clubs face. The fans want this sort of chairmanship – and the number of us saying “no, this is too dangerous” is not that great.
That was the purpose of my Billionaire series http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/the-economics if you are interested.
Hi Jer
Per my previous post that lies with SPL & SFA If hey allow the share to transfer the the honour list
Will be intact. Say for instance SFA allow it but SPL don’t then we still lay claim to all the
Cup successes and every title up until 98 when the SPL was started.
Fingers x’d they both allow it then the can demote us to 3rd div’ as a punishment, that’ll do for me
WATP !!!
The author of the article needs to do his research – and get off his high horse.
There is no £75m shortfall to the public purse that Rangers didn’t pay. This is an amount that the tax man wanted for alleged tax evasion via EBTs which saved the club about £23m in tax – the rest is for penalties and interest.
Now everyone presumed EBTs were legal at the time and many clubs used them including Arsenal and Celtic. Those two are just lucky in that they only dabbled in them and when HMRC demanded the money the amount they had to pay was affordable and so they paid instead of going into dispute.
But hey, if you’re guilty, you’re guilty right?
The tax case is still not resolved and so it is not yet known if Rangers actually owe the money at all.
As for the hospital – since when is tax ringfenced like that? Perhaps the money would be used for nuclear missiles or MP’s expenses.
But if you want to blame someone for the lack of tax, why not blame HMRC. They could have recovered the tax – all they needed to do was ask for the original amount over an affordable time. Rangers would then have been able to pay and last year’s tax would also have been paid. The taxpayer would have been about £38m better off? Who’s guilty now?
The fact is that HMRC didn’t want the money, they wanted an example set which will have all clubs scared stiff of aggressive tax avoidance schemes for generations. That will save the tax payer billions – maybe those on high horses should be thanking Rangers for taking that fall eh?
Is there not also some guilt where clubs were allowed to have these EBTs in their tax returns for ten years before a demand was made? The clubs were only following HMRC rules using highly paid tax advisers. What went wrong there? Sounds like entrapment to me.
It’s easy to have a go at the sidelines but there are very few without sin to cast any stones. HMRC will now be gunning for a lot of other clubs who will be scrambling to find the money to prevent a similar scenario.
Stevie
Just out of interest.. What does WATP stand for?
We are the people !!!!!
Shard
WATP actually stands for…where are the padlocks….the sad thing is it took the taxman to get rid of this blight on scottish society and not the football ruling bodies.
Tony
What a refreshing, factual article (well as close to the facts as anyone outside of this farce is likely to get). I’m a Rangers fan, and for the record I believe that those in charge should have taken their medicine a long time ago. The previous owners are guilty of fraud and should be jailed. The club unfortunately has been tarred with their criminal brush, and the only way to rid ourselves of this is to start from the bottom and accept any punishment handed down.
Yes, the SFA are corrupt, weak, and utterly incompetent, and yes, FIFA have a brass neck sticking their noses in given the depth of criminal, self-serving activity within their own walls. The fact is however, our club is guilty of cheating. As always, the shareholders/fans will suffer and end up dipping into our pockets to fix this, which is why a fan-based ownership is the only way forward (a la Espagnol/Hamburg).
As far as the Celtic and ‘Partick Thistle’ (aye right, very good Jockey) fans are concerned, this goes way beyond the boundaries of your petty hatred. As you have read here, this is an open and honest discussion, based on Rangers, but addressing a far wider reaching football issue. Your ‘holier-than-thou’ chat is boring and unwelcome.
Thanks again Tony.
Rangers FC -a club who quite deliberately set themselves up as a focal point for anti-Irish racism and religious hatred.There was never any need to go that way.They could quite easily have emphasised their “Scottishness” in other ways,but they chose to go down the “Orange” way.Nowhere in England will you find a club who has emphasised the racial aspect in a footballing context.Then we have the referees- a VITAL part of Rangers success ! You people in England have no conception of the corruption involved in Scottish football,basically because the media (Sky News/BBC) haven’t told you about it !! This is how it goes-if Rangers are losing or drawing then the dodgy Rangers pen is minutes away and of course the menu consists of other delicious morsels-like the red card not given to a Rangers thug (I mean player),like the opposition penalty NOT GIVEN,like the VALID opposition goal disallowed.This has been happening on an assembly line basis for decades.Hence 54 titles etc.The recent financial SCAMMING etc was Rangers DESPERATE attempts to compete with Celtic in the last dozen years.A final perspective on the basic anti-Celtic attitude prevalent in Scotland can be summarised in that immortal Rangers/Orange epithet-fuckin Fenian bastards (meaning anyone who supports Celtic) and the Bank of Scotland who were willing to put Celtic out of business over a £6 million debt in 1994-the same Bank of Scotland who allowed Rangers an overdraft of £70 million-well after all they’re the Protestants ! Europe tells the vital story-when Rangers don’t have the benefit of the Refs Loyal-then the whole great SUCCESS story ENDS ABRUPTLY. Rangers-a scum club,with a scum support and a cynical,manipulative board.GOOD RIDDINS ! All because of racial hatred ! What a bunch of cretinous inadequates You know John Hartson had 6 Valid goals disallowed in OLd Firm games in his 5 years at Celtic and 16 Celtic fans have been murdered by Rangers fans in the last 10 years AFTER Old Firm games ! The two WORST-EVER riots in Scottish football occurred after Rangers defeats to Celtic in Cup Finals and the two WORST-EVER riots at Euro Finals occurred when Rangers were present.Some record ! I’ll be delighted when Celtic can leave and join the EPL (it’s coming).
Brixton Boy
When you say “You people in England have no conception of the corruption involved in Scottish football,basically because the media (Sky News/BBC) haven’t told you about it !!” I can only assume you have not taken any trouble to read what is on this site – and I find that rather frustrating. I have on occasion written a few pieces on Scottish club sites, but never before spending a little time looking at the site overall.
The notion that people who read this site only know things that the media have told us is so outrageous as to be insulting. Please do us the courtesy of looking at any of these
Untold Corruption …
Untold Economics …
Untold Media …
Untold Referees …
There are links on the home page of this site. And then come back and tell us that we don’t know about things because the media hasn’t told us. In the meanwhile I really do have to anoint you as an oik
http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/untold-oiks
WATP… NOW STANDS FOR ‘WE AINT TAX PAYERS’ LOL
@jer
The old club is gone, any titles which are left after the investigation into RFC(IA) fielding improperly registered players will die with the old club.
W.A.T.P ??? What does that stand for…. We Are Tax-Payers !!
BrixtonBhoy
Religious Hatred ? Racism ? Scum fans ???
Do everyone a favour and re-read your post. Full of hatred, conspiricy theories, and poisonous bile. As per earlier post, we all have halfwits, inbred knuckle draggers in our fanbase we can all do without, but take a step back and look a the bigger picture, this could be then end for ALL of scottish fotball as we know it. EPL will NEVER accept Celtic straight from SPL.
There might be some good come out of all this if we start from 3rd Div’ we will be bringing experience and much needed finance to the lower leagues while the top league implodes, and it also give us the chance to rid ourselves of the bigot brigade, something both Celtic and ourselves really need to address.
As a life long fan of Rangers Football Club and a long time admirer of Arsenal I find the post by Brixtonbhoy offensive and toxic, This rabid inbred hatred stems from inferiority having lived in the shadow of Rangers for so long. Rangers Football Club were formed by 4 young boys, purely for their love of football, Sectarianism was introduced into Scottish Football in 1888 when a football club was formed to benefit and service one section of the community who were of a particular religion. Celtic were not formed by charity workers, History tells us that they were formed by wealthy Irish Businessmen.
RANGERS as a club (the establishment)Have lost the moral high ground & about time you apologised to your people.
A very good piece and nice to read without any bias shown which unfortnately is not the case up here. For those who don’t understand. The majority of Rangers will accept the punishment for liquidation and start again in the 3rd Division, especially now because of the comments from chairmen and supporters of other SPL clubs, let them see how they cope without SKY money and Rangers fans money. When everybody refers to the big tax case, this has not been settled yet and now won’t affect Rangers now they’re a Newco. The reason we’re in this mess is because one man decided he wasn’t going to pay any tax and mortgaged 4 seasons of ticket money to buy the club. But remember this Rangers were here before we were and will be here once we’ve gone. WATP!
Can I also add that Brixtonbhoy has been banned off several forums for his hate filled bigotry and sectarianism. He really is an odd sort. Best of luck the blog and good luck to The Gunners
Tony an excellent article.
Many of my mates are both Celtic and Rangers men, and we been drinking buddies over more than four decades.
In all our times together I have never heard a single bigoted comment, plenty of jokes for sure, but all given and taken in good humour. Sadly today there seems to be a breed of internet idiot/moron who is dedicated to bringing Scottish football into disrepute
For me I wish all Rangers fans the best, no TRUE football man would wish anything else.
The point has been well made David Murray and Whyte are the guilty men, I blame the latter more than the former, in fact believe that some kind of deal could have been done with HRMC but for the blatant actions of Whyte.
Scottish footnball needs both of the Old Firm, Oh! as for the “new section” of Jags supporters out there I have to laugh. As a season ticket holder at Firhill for more than 30years if every individual who commented on Rangers current predicament claiming impartiality as a Jags supporter ….Man O Man! Firhill would be having a full house every couple of wks…..
My sincere thanks for your moderation of the site.
The people being the Rangers Tax Case blog really should not be taken at face value either, These people devote their entire lives to trying to destroy Rangers. One is a disgraced solicitor who swindled the relatives of ex Miners out of hundreds of thousands of pounds, The rest are regular posters on a sectarian webpage called Celtic Minded, These people are not normal people and their support of Celtic is mainly based on their hatred and obsession with Rangers. That inferiority complex that feeds their unhealthy hatred of Rangers is scary. The leaks and information they received from HMRC also suggests that there had like minded people in positions of power within HMRC.
WATP = we avoid tax paying . Trust True blue to bring up Child abuse on a football website if he only knew his history and looked up Kincora Boys home belfast that is a scandal . As for John Hartson he had to have his Twitter account suspended with all the wish you would die Messages from so called rangers fans . I am glad this is happening to Scotlands Shame as a Guy says the history of Rangers was they cheated by Fielding players with 2 contracts one For the SFA and his own one. Illegal. Cheating . best players win leagues and also Rangers could not afford these if they followed the rules like every one else . Lastly also heard some rEFS AND jOURNALIST HAVE APPERAED ON rANGERS ebt SIT BACK AND WAIT RTHE REAL STORY HAS STILL TO COM LOL
yes again the loss in public finances these monies for services of which would have been welcomed. That the old & infirm in the harsh times of present are needed, SADLY ARE FORGOTTEN.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFx5PORkc6w
The calibre of Celtic fans at The Emirates.
the word cheat has been branded about from day one of the big tax case however the only thing rangers are guilty of right now is not paying paye why are we being branded cheats for wining our titles fairly when we played the same number of games as the rest of the spl and more counting european and cup games the name allan sutton springs to mind when he said dunfermline lay down to rangers in the 6-1 game when it was his good friend and colleague mr thompson who missed the penalty that would have won the rotten mob the title of that particular year but of course rangers are branded cheats because of mismanagement at the top level
4 Boys had a Dream,
Part of your comment re the Rangers Tax Case blog sounded awfully like a (so called) Arsenal one called Le Grove.
May I highlight that brixtonbhoy is well known around the forums and twitter as an extreme bigot and terrorist sympathiser.
On the subject of the article, very well written Tony, it’s always nice to hear someone outside of the cauldrons opinion but as we speak this comments section is about to be invaded by some poisonous sectarianism and conspiracy theories by brixtonbhoy and his pals.
Off topic but I hear rumours that Redknapp has left the building!
Good riddance Rangers they deserve all they get for defrauding the tax man. As a Celtic supporter this will give us the perfect opportunity to join the EPL.
Give us two or three seasons and we will be in the top three every year after.
I would ask some people to take a chill pill…
And would like to thank the majority who joined in a good debate.
When I was a young boy my mother told me: ‘it is bad to hate someone’. I always thought these were wise words. Still do by the way
Hi tony
that was a well put argument, im just sorry that after some well put debate it slid into obnoxious bile laden vitriol, believe me when i say to you that some of my dearest friends and family support celtic and I have had nothing but support from them,not all rangers supporters are the vile bigots that I get regularly called by certain people in north london and not all celtic supporters are either. As you say we all have a minority of neanderthal fans, its just unfortunate that these are the people who gain the most attention from media outlets. The vast majority of sane suporters on both sides of the old firm are decent hard working people who have a common love of football and their teams.good luck to the gooners xx fi
2 contracts is cheating paying off Referees is cheating not Paying taxes to Fund Better caliber of players that is cheating . The guy pasting from you tube we all could do that . Look at Manchester UEFA Cup Final . When Stein Won the European Cup it was aid we did it playing football beautiful inventive attacking football . Rangers anti football Messi quote . Anyway Im away to finish off my Jelly and Ice Cream . And a bit of Liquidation cake lol
Dear me ! The Rangeratti find my comments toxic and offensive ! Fantastic ! Everything I mentioned was a FACT ! Yes 16 Celtic fans have been murdered after Old Firm games compared to 3 Rangers fans in the same time period ! Yes Barcelona and Manchester happened.Yes the worst riots at Old Firm Cup Finals have occurred after Rangers defeats to Celtic.Yes you Rangers supporters honour the memory of a Glasgow Orange.Fascist thug called Billy Fullerton who enjoyed slashing Celtic fans with a razor.All Facts ! All Facts ! All Facts ! Sorry-you are a nasty bunch.Your embarassing record in Europe is also a FACT.This is nothing to do with hatred but everything to do with STANDARDS-of behaviour and honest sporting competiton. Rangers lost 0-1 WHO MISSED THE RANGERS PEN ???
You could not make it up.
Before the cemetery opened, a nine-foot deep underground wall was meant to divide consecrated and non-consecrated
ground and separate the Catholic and Protestant sections of the new graveyard.
http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/citycemetery/history.asp
Hatred even in death.
@John
Sorry to tell you this, but Celtic will never be in the EPL, your supporters are a disgrace, you can keep your tri-colors and republican views firmly in Scotland.
Personally, like many other English Brits, I would like to see and would welcome the New Rangers, if anyone, to enter the English Leagues and leave the SPL to diminish and die, you laugh at what has happened at Rangers, but ask yourselves how long Celtic will survive playing ICT, Hearts, Hibs and the Dons?? the last laugh will be with the New Gers!
@Tony, good article. The lesson for all clubs whether English, Scottish or European etc is to operate on a sustainable financial basis.
It is quite right that those who have put Rangers in this position should be subject to prosecution. However, I believe for the SPL to be viable as a media spectacle a Rangers club (new or old) is needed. Without Rangers (or equally Celtic) will future TV rights be major earners for all clubs in the SPL?
John you are deluding youself if you even think the EPL would accept you in. Their Football Association have already stated there is no place in English Football for any team from Scotland as we have our own Association.
Take off your green specs for once, most of England will not aceept you anyway for your fans constant support of the IRA (yes you sing about them at every game home and away – and not just the away fans as your club claims)
On the point of this topic though – quite ironic as were Arsenal not only a number of years ago in mega debt to HMRC and paid it off to them at a fraction of the claim (and you call us cheats).
Remember Arsenal go back your history it was Rangers fans who helped save your own club by attending the friendlies to raise much needed revenue for you
Excellent article Tony. Tuppence worth time. Rangers Tax Case did not expose any conspiracy – the HMRC were onto Rangers about EBTs which are at an appeal but most think we will lose that. RTC kept up the news about it and were evidently privy to some confidential material with a pos HMRC leak. Media were not reporting it. The HMRC have probably done the best by Rangers as they say liquidation of a company allows the club to go forward and continue as a football club. What made a CVA arrangement unacceptable to HMRC was Craig W’s action simply not to pay tax and PAYE when he came to power and the chance to pursue and pos prosecute Sir David Murray(SDM) and others. The thing is this is a tale of the banking system failure. HBOS consistently and without question repeatedly gave SDM numerous loans to finance his company and Rangers.
Brixtonbhoy has made some ghastly suggestions and I am not sure where he gets his “death score” figures which are frankly grotesque and macabre point scoring. This is what we have to deal with, and both side have them.
One quick point about the Souness EBT, it should be known that his ‘loan’ was paid out TEN YEARS after he left the club & it came around the time that Tugay was sold from Rangers to Blackburn (when Souness was the boss).
If Scottish football is about to collapse because teams wont have the money Rangers CLAIM they provide then every club relegated from the SPL would have gone out of business, how many have? As was pointed out teams must learn to live within their means & if they don’t they deserve to go the wall & allow others who can take their place.
Rather than re-hash the same tired arguments and the endlessly repetitive sectarian bile, why don’t BOTH sides of the Glasgow divide just ask themselves “What punishment would be FAIR and appropriate if it was Celtic who were in the position that Rangers are currently in?”…..Then apply THAT punishment to Rangers….I guess that makes far too much sense though, particularly when the neanderthal knuckledraggers as always, prefer spewing bile rather than solving the problem.
I would kindly ask that not all Celtic fans be tarred with the same brush as those who abused members of the armed forces at the Emirates. We’re not all like that and in my opinion they are an embarrassment to the club and themselves. I have served my country for 20 years and I’ll do it another 20 whilst loving Celtic. The talk of who did what and where is a pointless exercise and has NO place in football and you tend to find that most who make the most noise about it weren’t even born when it happened.
Very good article though I would point out that Rangers only need 7 clubs onside as they get a vote, believe it or not!!
Tony
An excellent article, an opinion outside the goldfish bowl which is Glasgow is always welome. I would not wish on my worst enemy that which has transpired at our club over the last few years. An egotistical owner – Sir David Murray – ran our clubs debt to crippling proportions. Once he tired of his plaything he sold it to Whyte who now appears to be little more than a con man. He sold our future (Projected season ticket sales) He sold our heritage (Cherished Arsenal Shares) and our prized assets (Jelavic) for a fraction of their true worth. 140 years of paying taxes and suporting Scottish & British football has been undone by Whyte’s 9 month rule of carnage.
The Big tax case result has yet to deliver its verdict – though like other Rangers fans on here Im not confident as to the outcome. That ruling of course will have wider implications for all of British football. That said we are charged with misus of EBT’s not merely their use so it may well be that other clubs have administered their use in a proper fashion. But I doubt we have heard the last of this…and I doubt we will be the only club on the HMRC radar.
Fancy gloating that only 3 of theirs have been murdered compared to 16 of ours!!!
That’s a disgrace,and absolutely nothing to be remotely proud of.
forgive me for not to bright
what about book keeping , every penny in and out should be accounted for , and if not why not , what where the auditors doing , it does not seem like it was very good job , or they should have spotted discrepances.
why if it was illegal for this foreign so called slush fund did tax man not act a lott sooner , ie 5 or 6 years ago
who will ticketus go after for there money , graig white as he as far as new he personaly pledged for it
Jimmy G: I couldn’t agree more with you. Not to mention the bullets, bombs and death threats Neil Lennon has received. Also the stupid Hearts fan who attacked him on the sidelines at away to them. My bro in law is a Rangers fan and I take the side of Celtic (my grandparents followed them) he hates it. Anyway the 2 chants, statements that seem to come out of his and many others I have met, are about child molesting they always sing the BJK song, so it shows how low they stoop to insult anyone aligned with Celtic. I know that every club has them, but I am not one of them (I follow Arsenal) so why do I get told ‘I condone pedophilia’ cos I prefer Celtic. The UEFA cup that they lost to Porto (divers!) CELTIC FANS were given an award for the best behaved fans, 80,000 went to Lisbon and NOT ONE ARREST! How many arrested at Manc?
Anyway, the age old argument about who is better, Celtic or Rangers has just been decided, it is CELTIC that are the better club – proof is in the pudding!
GIRFUY Rangers!
Scott: I dont think he is proud of it, he is just stating a fact that they are so far more angry and pissed of at the world. I remember one Old Firm they won adn Celtic fans were murdered for wearing colours!
No one is proud of it, stop assuming he said he was…
Celtic operate in a country where they are the minority and only the fans like the club. They sing WATP cos they are a majority, but to think that Celtic have become the club they are while working in a country that never liked them, kudos to them. Plenty of poor areas if you have been and the Irish/catholic community were treated so badly over the years. Rangers had an anti catholic transfer policy only stopped with the signing of Mo Johnson, which they still didn’t like and Kit man wouldn’t do his kit out of protest at a Catholic playing for them!!!
Within poor areas you will get bad people for both clubs thats obvious but the fact that Celtic fans are really starting to smarten up and do everything they can to not be aligned along side Old Firm lines, that says a lot for them and even more about the Rangers..
if and when all this mess , not off the fans doing , i hope that all GLASGOW RANGERS fans stay away from all away grounds inc the pigery ,
that way we will see if they can survive whithout the sons of william ,
god bless the gers
Willie Collum giving Rangers 3 pens in one game (most dodgy) on TWO occasions in 12 months is a FACT. Euan Norris gave Rangers 5 pens in 3 games is a FACT ! Not a conspiracy theory-a FACT. You Rangers people are totally UNABLE to see the corrupt refereeing that has underwritten so many of your “triumphs”.Calum Murray’s performance in Rangers 3-2 “win” at Ibrox at the end of last season was a total diabolical disgrace.Red card for Cha-ludicrous,Red for Wanyama-ludicrous-he won the ball without touching his opponent.Rangers 2nd goal OFF-SIDE.That’s three massive decisions AGAINST Celtic (the usual).In the 1980s when Rangers were rubbish Scottish Football FLOURISHED-two Euro finals for Aberdeen and Dundee Utd.Just watch crowds go up at the provincial clubs as their chances of winning things increase.Rangers demise is a GREAT day for Scottish Football and a tragic one for Scotland’s REFEREES.Still up to your knees in Fenian Blood ?
I’ve noticed that there are two types of Hoops fans – there are the ones that can see the referee bias in the SPL… and there are those that also support Manchester United and claim it all evens out.
😉
Dogface, that covers about 90% of celtic fans then.
A bit like the English press who claim that refs are fair in the Premiership but then claim they are biased against England when things don’t go for England in internationals.
JFYI to any one who listens to people like Brixtonbhoy – the FACT is that in the history of Scottish Football, Rangers have had more players sent off than Celtic and Celtic have been awarded more penalties. This does not suggest that there is any bias towards Celtic but does suggest the perceived bias against Celtic is delusional. There also seems to be an argument on who has had more fans murdered – says it all!
Makes one wonder what the red card count would look like if you didn’t have the refs in your pocket? What those stats don’t reveal is how many red cards and penalties they should have gotten as opposed to those they did receive. And JFYI, Brixtonbhoy didn’t allege an anti Celtic bias, he alleged a pro Rangers one. A subtle (if your an idiot) difference.
@all rangers fans here,
I spotted a little write up on your new messiah, Mr Charles Green that seems to suggest he is cut from the same cloth as Mr. Whyte, he was involved in some stock exchange shenanigans that somehow disappeared £230 million of investors’ hard earned.
I am sure if you had a choice, you might look more rigorously but hey he has connections all over the Arab world, and hey Qatar airways might be first on the list for naming rights to Ibrox.
hey.
Decent article.
As a Celtic fan I think it’s disgraceful that the media in Scotland haven’t properly investigated the goings on and rangers and left the average fan completely in the dark, feeding them titbits of good news and pr spin so they would continue to buy papers. There were excellent Celtic bloggers out there, but you can hardly expect rangers fans to listen to those.
Celtic fans enjoying rangers demise is normal in any rivalry just as arsenal would enjoy spurs demise. I find it quite funny that EPA fans continually throw sectarianism at Celtic and rangers, yet ignore their own behaviour, eg hissing at spurs fans due to the Jewish connections, or the many fascist factions in EPL, or indeed the racism that ensued this year between fans about a player comments in a utd liverpool game……all of this, and the remaining idiots clinging on to sectarianism should be scorned, not muckraking and finger pointing
I cannot see the EPL inviting in any scots side, they don’t need us. Money is ruining football, the recent bt deal makes it worse, arsenal fans paying over a grand for a season ticket is just dreadful and where does the money go, to overpaid players who can’t take a tackle or decision going against them
Rant over
In reply to ‘CockneyStu’. You reject the notion of Celtic joining the EPL because of links to Ireland and a republican state. That makes you a bigot makes it easy to understand why you would prefer Rangers in what ever form they take. For this is a club that has intolerance, of not just Catholisim but any religion which is not protestant, ingrained on it. Although they have tried to change this ethos (mainly due to scrutiny from a global media) they have had prominent board members and senior staff caught on numerous occasions engaging in extreme sectarian behavior. They are a club that retain strong links with the Orange order – an organisation that can only be matched in intolerance by the Klu Klux Klan. The fact that sectarianism is not a colour issue seems to make it ‘acceptable’ in this day and age for this organisation and club to celebrate the brutal massacre of Catholics nearly 400 years ago. This is a club which has brought nothing but shame on Scotland (for the reasons highlighted) and who’s fans continue to do so every time an opportunity presents – Manchester is the prime example but you only need to look at behaviour at many away games in Europe (not that they’ll get that chance for a long, long time!!) to see how low down the evolution line these brainless thugs are! Celtic go throughout Europe (and will continue to do so) making friends and forming bonds throughout the world. We took over 100,000 fans to Seville and only 1 arrest. Truly the greatest fans on earth! That is why we will continue to flourish in the spl regardless of rangers. Furthermore teams in the EPL don’t want Celtic to join because due to the massive fan base and stature of the club we would receive huge investment, stocks would go through the roof, sign the best players and monopolise the EPL. NO Englishman could bare the thought of a Scottish club being the best in England and that’s the real barrier to us joining the EPL. As for rangers joining the EPL they won’t even get into the SPL! GOOD RADIANCE TO BIGOTED RUBBISH!
elkieno
Sorry to burst your bubble and rain on your parade but there were not 80,000 Celtic fans in Seville, That’s just nonsense. Spanish authorities place the figurs closer to 50,000.
As for the no arrests in Seville, I think you will once again be proven wrong, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3042885.stm
There were several arrests for shop lifting, drunkeness, wrecking of hotel rooms and a particularly nasty one were a Celtic fan stabbed another Celtic fan. The myth perpetrated by Celtic fans that they are whiter than white really is vomit enducing, Every club has its share of morons and Celtic are no different.
Lets not also forget that Celtic fans have received more football banning orders than any other Scottish Club. Infact just this week 3 of them received lengthy jail sentences. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18456410
In recennt years one Celtic fan was sentenced to 4 years in a Spanish prison for slashing an innocent Spaniard
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/07/16/celtic-thug-jailed-by-spanish-court-for-barcelona-attacks-to-be-sent-back-to-glasgow-86908-20645435/
There were over 20,000 Rangers fans in Barcelona in 2007-08 and no arrests, Celtic manage to take under 4,000
elkieno
Sorry to burst your bubble once again but I cannot sit back and watch you post absolute nonsense,
Maurice Johnstone was not the 1st Roman Catholic to play for Rangers. Rangers had RC players before Celtic were even formed and continued to have them throughout their history.
Archie Kyle
Willie “Doc” Kivlichan (Who, like Johnston, was an Ex-Celtic player)
Colin Mainds
Tom Murray
Pat Lafferty
Johnny Jackson
James Tutty
Tom Dunbar (Brother of Michael Dunbar who became a Celtic director)
Joe Donnachie
Hugh O’Neill
Constantine McGhie
Don Kichenbrand
Laurie Blyth
John Spencer
McCallum
Brown
Wylie
John Clare
Johnny Kennedy
Charles McCafferty (Never made a first team appearance)
Daniel Divers
Chris Houston
John Manners
Bob Cleary
George (or Gorg) Banciewicz
Eddie Devenney
Terry Sloan
Brian Grubb
Edward Devlin
Andy Casey
Tom Cassidy
Bob “Dancer” Dunn
Peter Mone
“Starry” McLachlan,
Rangers were formed by 4 young lads purely for their love of the game, Celtic were formed by Wealthy Irish Roman Catholic football, They were formed as a RC club and They intoduced sectarianism into Scottish football.
In recent years Rangers have had many RC players who were adored by the support, Albertz, Amouroso, Neil McCann, Gattuso, Novo and many others.
The blatant revisionism by Celtic fans is vomit enducing, Their need to be loved by the world and their willingness to play the victim card is nauseating
brixtonbhoy
June 14, 2012 at 10:07 am
Don’t let facts get in the way of your vile sectarian rants, The penalties awarded to Rangers were clear cut penalties, What you also failed to mention was that in the same season Celtic received a record amount of penalties ever awarded to any British team in the one season.
Revisionism really is a core subject amongst the Celtic Minded
Chuck E Arlaw
June 14, 2012 at 2:54 pm
I see it did not take long for the IRA supporting section of the Celtic support to arrive. The username is an IRA slogan.
This is what we have to deal with in Scotland, The anti British racism amongst the Celtic support is despicable.
I see we also have a Serviceman who supports Celtic, I wonder how he feels when he sees every British Club pay respect to the Armed Forces except Celtic?
How does he feel when Celtic fans disrespect the minutes silence on rememberance day ?
How does he feel when Celtic fans attack and abuse poppy sellers at away games? Celtic do not allow poppy Scotland to sell poppies at Parkhead.
No serviceman in uniform is allowed access to Parkhead on match days. This is the calibre of this vile club
joxxter
June 15, 2012 at 12:38 am
Bwhahahahaha Now it’s 100,000, The Seville calculator just keeps producing greater results, Revisionism really is a Celtic thing.
As for your comments re sectarianism, Allow me to educate you.
Rangers Football club were formed in 1872 by 4 young men, Religion was never an issue. RC players were involved since our inception. We played our first games on Glasgow Green and our support would have comprised of mostly Irish RCs as this are was mainly populated by irish immigrants. Rangers played charity games in Ireland and all over the UK for Catholic charities, including one to fund an RC school in Edinburgh.
In 1888 Celtic were formed by wealthy Irish Businessmen who built a stadium for Celtic before they had even played a competitive game, They formed the club for RCs and used the religion card to gain support, During the first few decades of Celtic’s existance they somehow managed to exclude the native Protestant population and only employed RC who at that time made up less than 10% of the population, Now that is blatant sectarianism.
Some historians believe pinions in Scotland turned against the Irish Immigrants in the 1920s after the Rotten Row riots where Militant Irish Republicans killed a Police officer whilst trying to free an IRA terrorist who was being taken to court,
It always surprises me why so many Celtic fans infest forums and topics relating to Rangers, Their obsession really is unhealthy
How many Celtic fans have been arrested and charged now for racially abusing Kyle Bartley on twitter ?
[IMG]http://i46.tinypic.com/2gsrjfc.png[/IMG]
It Saddens me that the mention of Celtic or Rangers in any forum ultimately descends into name calling and bitching by both sets of fans.
It is for this reason that I am delighted that they will probably never be allowed to enter the EPL. We as football supporters are all passionate in our love for our clubs, and love of the game. The Celtic/Ranger extremist is characterised by has hatred for the enemy, not his love for the game.
It is probably why they are where they are in world terms, a destructive hatred is eating away at the core of the game in Scotland, it is like a cancer, they know not when to stop, and will eventually be stopped y the cancer itself. Then what, where then do they turn to hate!
On the subject matter
A great article by Tony Atwood , insightful and balanced, well done to those that commented intelligently and rationally. To the others, this forum is not for you!
it just goes to prove what wee ( god people ) have been saying all along . that no one likes us but we dont care.
they had all better mind what goes around comes around.
all glasgow rangers fans stand tall and proud ,
because they will never surrender
god bless