I just received this prompt reply from the Media & Public Relations people at UEFA:
Dear Phil,
The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) has announced the following decisions:
Match: UEFA Europa League first qualifying round second-leg match between Rangers FC and St Joseph’s FC (6:0), 18 July in Scotland
Charges against Rangers FC:
– Racist behaviour (sectarian chants) – Art. 14 of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations (DR)
Decision:
The Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body has decided to order a partial closure of the stadium during the next one (1) UEFA competition match in which Rangers FC play as the host club, for the racist behaviour of its supporters. Rangers FC shall, as a matter of urgency, inform UEFA of the sector(s) to be closed, which shall at least comprehend 3,000 seats. The Scottish club is ordered to display a banner with the wording “#EqualGame”, with the UEFA logo on it. The banner shall be displayed in the sector(s) to be closed.
Kind regards,
UEFA Media & Public Relations
UEFA
The emphasis in bold is UEFA’s and not mine.
I think that they might want the Sevco High Command to get the message.
Of course, dear reader if you excise the “racist behaviour of its supporters” from the Ibrox match day experience there isn’t hellish much left.
The entire kulchurral experience is built on anti-Irish racism and hatred of Catholics.
That is why the Ibrox experience is so appealing to Fascists in England.
The group identity around Rangers and then Sevco is about othering Irish Catholics in Scotland.
Consequently, the “Everyone Anyone” PR pish has no basis in reality.
Inclusivity isn’t what the klan want when they pay into the stadium that John Brown played for.
They need their misplaced sense of Herrenvolk exceptionalism to be fed by a toxic narrative that socialises people like Jason Campbell.
Of course, such a sanction for the klan’s racism at a domestic fixture would be unthinkable.
The recent events at Rugby Park would have seen a heavy sanction if it had been under the auspices of UEFA.
Another thing that doesn’t happen in Fair Caledonia is the professional courtesy shown to this journalist by UEFA.
Perhaps there is some unwritten rule about Uppity Fenians asking questions.
Especially if they are members of the NUJ.
That is true of the SFA and exclusivity champions like Mhairi Black MP.
This story has been picked up here in Ireland.
Therefore, there is probably little point in the Stenography Corps trying to deflect, minimise or mitigate on this one.
However, they have the usual high-Level protocols to follow on matters Ibrox.
Ever the optimist I am awaiting a strong statement from those intrepid folks at Show Racism The Red Card about the RACISM of Rangers fans.
I understand that there is a rather close relationship between the charity and some…ahem…
“Ibrox legends”.
No doubt the anti-racism crusaders will want to unpack what UEFA considered to be racist about the Ibrox songbook.
If they’re confused then I know a helpful Fenian in Donegal that they can ask.
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Joseph, the SFA will take no action whatsoever against The Tribute Act as a club, or indeed the knuckle-dragging Loyalist hordes who support them. Why would they, if you know what I mean..nudge, nudge, wink, wink, funny handshakes and all that jazz. HH
The first two words in the Huns new ‘inclusive’ campaign, are in themselves sectarian, as they refer to an oldie but goldie from the Ibrox hymn sheet. ‘Everywhere, anywhere, we will follow on. Dundee, Hamilton, FTP and the Vatican’ etc. You couldn’t make it up, could you?
I have the Scottish “news” on every evening – my face rarely reacts, for which I’m glad as it means the Botox is still working – UNTIL they announced that the huns were being disciplined by UEFA for their racist behaviour/sectarian chants! What the actual f**k! Nahhhh surely the Botox hasn’t reached my ears? Nahhhhh you can’t Botox ears but there’s noooooooo way the Scottish “meeja” would say anything against them….but they did! Now due to the shock of hearing that I have a face like a melted welly boot n I’m still trying to find my jaw and eyebrows, but as long as they’re taken to task I’ll happily embrace my “laughter lines.” Yes, I know! We’re all wondering “what in the name of the wee man” is gonna melt/disappear/fall off if the SFA takes them to task …..can’t wait to find out and as long as it’s not my fingers I’ll report back 🙂 HH
The Rangers statement as reported by the BBC actually uses the word “wrongdoing” but as before not in the context of harming others but only harming fellow supporters or the current club.
How is that going to encourage Everyone is welcome?
Welcome to Ibrox, we will not sing songs of hate against you because we will get clobbered by UEFA (and if SFA grow a set and adhere to UEFA rules they are bound by under their own articles,) by the SFA , so you wont hear a word of hate.
We welcome you and your money but not in our hearts. No change there.
No dubiety about the anti Irish sentiments at Dark Ibrox. Additionally they pretty much hate everything that breathes. Anything outside the rancid WASP species. Players from different ethnicity will invariably be lured to such an institution. Latin/black players will be aware of the puerile “We Urr Da Peepul” chant and its connotation. In full knowledge they’re not inclusive to this peculiar little ‘master race’. Of course, money must be the only incentive.
Phil, I posted this on STV FACEBOOK site re: the report on UEFA closing a section of the stadium re: racist behavior.
Anyway, my point, ultimately, was the irony of anti-Irish racism in Scotland.
It’s not widely understood that the tribe called the ‘Scots’ , who colonized what then became known as Scotland came from the kingdom of Dalriada ….which was in Ireland. So those that identify as Scots, are in fact Irish in origin. Hence to sing the famine song about going home….well we all need to be on the same boat as we all came from there; just in different epochs.
I bring this to your attention, if you have not though about this before, as an opportunity for a potential article on this down the line. You certainly have the platform to educate on and disseminate this forgotten fact. Which I think would help a certain demographic realize they are not indulging in attempted cultural oppression of a minority but in fact engaging in self hate.
#allscotsareirish
FACEBOOK POST TODAY BELOW—
The SFA and local media should be embarrassed at their permissiveness of this abuse. Both the old, and now the new, Rangers fan base have had this visceral hatred of the Irish.
Ironically, they seem to be oblivious of the fact that the ‘Scots’ all came from Ireland during unification of parts of Scotland and Ireland during the time of the Dalriadic Kingdom (Lord of the Isles) —-The Scots came from a kingdom in Ireland which was known as Dalriada. This kingdom corresponded roughly with the modern County Antrim. Look it up.
The ignorance of their own origins and the silliness of singing about asking folks to go home to a place where ‘all’ Scots came from is mind meltingly incredible.
That aside however, until they (news outlets) accurately report on this issue and stop downplaying it by calling it ‘a minority’ nothing will change.
Nothing to see here.
Hope the genesis of the Scots tribe was elucidating.
#thescotsareirish
Ireland in the Early Christian period (A.D. 400-1177) was made up of at least 120 chiefdoms, usually described in surviving documents as petty kingdoms, typically having about 700 warriors. One of these petty kingdoms was Dál Riata, which occupied a corner of County Antrim, the island’s northeasternmost part. Around A.D. 400, people from Dál Riata began to settle across the Irish Sea along the Scottish coast in County Argyll. Other Irish migrants were also establishing footholds along the coast farther south, as far as Wales and even Cornwall, but the migrants from Dál Riata were especially noteworthy because they were known to the Romans as “Scotti” and they would eventually give their Gaelic language and their name to all of what is now known as Scotland.
So far as we know, the only people already living in Scotland in A.D. 400 were the Picts, who were first mentioned by Roman writers in A.D. 297. This was in connection with an attack along Hadrian’s Wall, in which the Picts had the help of Irish (Scotti) allies, so connections across the Irish Sea must have already been strong. Roman sources predictably describe their Pictish adversaries as barbarians and mention their use of blue paint, which some historians later interpreted perhaps too literally (Mel Gibson and his friends show up in the film Braveheart slathered with gallons of it). More likely the Picts were heavily tattooed.
The Picts lived mainly in eastern Scotland, north of modern Edinburgh. We know their homeland both from the distributions of Pictish place-names (which typically begin with “Pett” or “Pit”) and the distribution of Pictish symbol stones, which were Pictish equivalents of a medieval coat of arms, each typically bearing the crest of a petty king and that of his father. The rugged west coast was only lightly occupied by Picts or some other Celtic-speaking people. Settlers from Dál Riata apparently established themselves along the west coast without much opposition. By A.D. 490 the population of Scotti was large enough that the head of the little kingdom moved the family seat across from Ireland. The Scotti alternately cooperated with and fought against the Picts for the next few centuries until the two were unified into a single kingdom under Cináed (Kenneth) mac Ailp’n in A.D. 844. After that the Pictish language disappeared, along with the symbol stones and other archaeological traits that had distinguished them from the Scotti.
What the Scottish case and others like it tells us is that migrations by relatively small dominant societies are much more common in human history than many archaeologists have been willing to admit (much less assume), particularly in North America. Typically, the signatures of it have been explained away too easily as evolutionary change in place. There are so many good examples of change associated with the migration of whole societies or dominant subsets of them, that any major change over time that can be observed archaeologically is likely to have involved migration in one of its many forms, however minor. We should be assuming population movement as a first principle rather than denying it.
[map]
Take your Pict
From A.D. 400 to 1000 , northern Great Britain saw the withdrawal of Roman forces, arrival of the Scotti from northeastern Ireland, disappearance of the Picts, formation of a united kingdom of Scotland, and colonization by the Norse.
Click here for animated map.
A.D. 400. Settlers from the Irish petty kingdom of Dál Riata were beginning to establishing themselves in what would later be called Scotland. Picts were well established north of other Celtic speakers except perhaps on the west coast and in the Hebrides.
A.D. 500. Departure of Roman legions in A.D. 407 left Britain to Picts, other Celtic speakers, and growing numbers of Irish settlers. Enough Scotti were in place by A.D. 490 to allow them to move the seat of Dál Riata from across the Irish Sea.
A.D. 600. Colum Cille left Ireland and established a monastery on Iona in 563. From this time on expansion of the Irish Scotti was assisted in part by the spread of Christianity.
A.D. 700. As the Scottish presence in Britain grew, so did that of the Angles and Saxons, many the descendants of Roman mercenaries. Angle settlements expanded south and east of Scottish territory.
A.D. 800. As both Angle and Scottish communities grew, small Norse settlements began to appear in the islands of Orkney and the Outer Hebrides.
A.D. 900. Competition from the Norse and Angles probably contributed to the unification of Scots and Picts into a single kingdom in 844. Pictish language and culture disappeared. Norse raids forced the abandonment of Iona by 878.
A.D. 1000. By 1,000 years ago the Picts were a memory and the united kingdom of Scotland was caught between Germanic Norse and Angle settlers.
A very predictable reaction from their fan base to the UEFA order.
Not a single denial of the charge levied against them but instead questions of who is responsible for reporting them!
We would expect nothing else.
Maxwell will be sleeping in the Hampden bunker for the next few nights hoping that the issue just goes away.
Of course it’s highly unlikely that anyone in the Scottish media is going to ask him why the SFA has not taken similar action to UEFA on racist/sectarian singing every week in every ground in Scotland where the Ibrox club plays.
Yes, and they must be furious that they can’t call UEFA ‘Rangers haters’, or somehow drag Celtic into their self-inflicted – and costly – pathetic behaviour.
With any luck Big Mike will just kill the embarrassing club / company / thingy.
Bob, but they are. Don’t you know that UEFA is stuffed with Fenians and Lawwell is pulling the strings?
Given that this disciplinary case has only just come to public attention via UEFA announcing the outcome, what odds that there are still other cases against Sevco in the pipeline in relation to subsequent European matches? I guess it may depend on whether the songs weren’t sung at those fixtures (I know, I know…); or whether the match delegate included them in his or her report…
Hi Phil
Tomorrow’s’ Headline if you ask me perfect for a wee bit of copy and paste . But will we be informed? Anyhoo knowing what usually happens it’s only going to get them stirred up and spending more money (fans that is) having to replace and repair various things that will be chucked oot the windae so a wee boost to the Economy.. As their logo says “Everywhere Anywhere Everyone Anyone so look out and stay safe .
HAIL HAIL