Mikey Stewart calls out the Ibrox klan

The deaths recently of Billy McNeill and Stevie Chalmers made it clear what the whole football world thought of the immortals who triumphed at Lisbon on May 25^th 1967.

That achievement was, as the opposition manager Helenio Herrera conceded “a victory for sport”.

To this day it is celebrated as such across Planet Football.

Of course, the Ibrox clientele is not included in that generalisation because the match day experience there is not remotely concerned with the beautiful game.

When the klan song sheet is belted out the normal response from the Fitba Fourth estate is to follow follow   implicitly understood agreed protocols:

Deny

Deflect

Minimise

Mitigate.

In the immediate aftermath of the match yesterday Mikey Stewart reacted like a normal human being to the klan karaoke at Ibrox.

That which is cultural is not amenable to reason.

Therefore, there is little to be gained by trying to reason with the Ibrox klan.

They’ve have been socialised into a subculture that informs them that they are part of a Herrenvolk.

Of course, this nonsense is tragically at variance with the material circumstances of their existence.

However, that worldview tells them that the outgroup is to blame for the failure of their daily lives.

On the same day that the klan was joyfully indulging in their hatreds, real football people got it spot on when they honoured Billy McNeil.

The Basques get it.

As one of the most historically oppressed stateless nations within Europe, their natural affection for a club like Celtic is not surprising.

Sadly, the hatred of minorities being expressed at football matches is not confined to Ibrox.

It is something that occurs in several stadiums across Europe, especially with the rise of the far right in various counties.

The good folk at FARE are across the issue and regularly bear witness.

They have also been to Ibrox to witness Bears.

Their report on the match involving PSV Eindhoven at Ibrox in March 2011 led to the ban on their supporters travelling to Malmo the following August.

It took an outside agency to highlight this fascist performance art to the UEFA authorities and they took appropriate action.

No Scottish sports journalist played any part whatsoever.

However, your humble correspondent was across the story throughout that season and the coverage is still viewable on this site.

Indeed, anyone who experiences the klan in full voice will be almost certainly be struck by the non- response of the mainstream media in Glasgow towards the fascism of Ibrox.

That is why today a hat tip to Mr Stewart.

When those in power are not fit for purpose then the Fourth estate must hold them to account.

In any other country what happens regularly at Ibrox would be seen through the prism of the far right.

The favourite anthem lauds the memory of a street gang that was formed and led by a self-declared fascist and member of the KKK.

It is fair to say that the mindset that authorised Billy Fullerton in the 1920s is still extant anytime Sevco take to the field.

That is where journalists have to step up.

Consider then this award-winning stuff from Michael Gannon of the Daily Record in December 2015 was a response to a rendition of “The Billy Boys” at Ibrox in a match against Hibernian.

Would this have been the response had the target of this hatred been Jews?

Of course, the cultural carcinogens of Ibrox have a wider resonance in Fair Caledonia.

The night before the match at Ibrox the good folk from Call It Out staged a silent peaceful protest outside of St Mary’s Catholic Church in Abercromby Street.

This is a political issue that will not go away. The attack on Canon Tom White was a turning point for many Catholics in Glasgow.

You can see some footage of the police presence at St Mary’s here.

Of course, it does not require any overreach to connect the Ibrox song sheet with anti-Catholic marches on the streets of Glasgow.

In other countries, football matches can be the venue to express a traditionally established anti-Semitism.

More recently hatred of adherents of the Islamic faith is also heard in football stadia from Poland to Italy.

In Scotland, it is the Catholic Irish who are othered and have been so for generations.

In the false equivalence game, the term “sectarianism” is used to hide the fact that it is a religious minority mainly comprised of people of Irish descent who are being targeted.

I know this might be challenging but the chaps on the sports desks have to learn some new words.

The main one to start with is “anti-Irish racism”.

For the avoidance of doubt, journalistic scrutiny of this far right tumour at Ibrox is not a panacea.

However, it is a sine qua non before it can be finally eradicated.

Mr Stewart has done the cause of decency some service.

Now, others in the press box need to take his lead although I’m not holding my breath.