It is a sense of relief that footie fans everywhere will recognise.
Your team is losing, and the time is ebbing away.
Suddenly you equalise!
That is a cue for the fans to reach into the club’s repertoire for a rousing chorus.
Moreover, it is usually the signature song that defines the supporters:
You’ll Never Walk Alone, Sunshine on Leith, The Northern Lights.
Yesterday Sevco were losing the match by a single goal at Tannadice, and the home side had parked the bus.
Then Joe Aribo smashed in Calvin Bassey’s cut back.
It was a fine goal.
The relieved response of the travelling fans was to sing about a fascist street gang that was led by a white supremacist.
I’m sure that both these black African players, Aribo is a Nigerian international and Bassey has pledged himself to the same country, are not aware of the significance of The Billy Boys.
However, the visiting press pack cannot ignore what the Sevco fans are belting out.
As the players take a knee, the Ibrox klanbase dream about being up to theirs in You Know What.
Even that gesture has caused some angst amongst the klan.
So much so that the Sevco captain had to reach out to them last year.
The song that greeted Joe Aribo’s fine strike was a reminder, if one was needed, that the Sevco matchday experience is still a safe space for racists.
Dear reader, imagine, if you will, that Chelsea fans had a regular ditty about that chap Oswald Mosley.
Let’s say that the song in question (there isn’t one) lauds the memory of the Black Shirts who attacked the Jewish community in Cable Street.
Would the FA be silent on this matter?
Would the EPL merely shrug and get on with their corporate day?
I highly doubt that.
One of the reasons for that is that the Footie Fourth Estate in London would hold them to account.
See the problem in Fair Caledonia?
I’m sure that you do.
Now, for the historical record, the eponymous founder of the Billy Boys gang was a big mate of Mosely.
The Sevco High Command are fortunate that the spineless ensemble of the Stenography Corps is mainly silent on the fact that tens of thousands of their fans are openly racist.
Even when the hacks are forced to write anything, they muddy the waters with the imprecise term “sectarianism”.
As my favourite goalie once observed:
“To name things wrongly is to add to the misfortune of the world.”
As with most things in the human condition Albert Camus was correct.
What drove Billy Fullerton and his razor-wielding thugs was anti-Irish racism.
That is alive anytime the Rainjurzz take to the field.
Silence on this the racism of the Ibrox klanbase is not without societal cost.
There was a teachable moment last May when, for a few hours, the control of George Square was in the hands of Sevco’s valued customers.
In the immediate aftermath, I noted that’s self-reflection in the Fitba Fourth estate was almost non-existent.
Therefore, it is only fair to point out this admirable admission by Andrew Smith.
His piece in the Scotsman (May 17th) after the George Square riot by the klan is worth your time.
Here is the crucial passage:
Yet what has been missing from such condemnatory commentary – with Police Scotland equally unequivocal in calling out the carnage – is self reflection. That is required because all parts of civil society, our highest authorities and, in no small part, we in the media have all been enablers in allowing a corrosive sense of entitlement to be brewed with a cocktail of anti-Catholic/anti-Irish bigotry. The concoction percolates into a mindset that now twice inside three months – just ponder that, twice! – has resulted in Glasgow city centre disturbances that have been despicable in scale and nature.
Sadly, this piece is noteworthy because it is so rare.
Instead, yesterday the post-match reportage was about penalties not given to the visiting side.
Something that the Ibrox klanbase expect for Sevco even when it isn’t a nailed on spot-kick!
The fact that five thousand visiting fans sang a song that UEFA banned in 2006 for being racist wasn’t the headline in Scotland IS the media story.
It is almost as if that rendition of The Billy Boys didn’t happen, but it did, and it was clearly audible on 76 minutes after Joe Aribo had scored.
Now the “tiny minority” defence doesn’t work either.
I have spoken to two people who were at the match, both in a professional capacity.
They were quite clear that when the Aribo scored it was ALL of the two sides of Tannadice that had been allotted to the visitors that were belting out The Billy Boys.
I suspect that the anguish of the Fitba Fourth Estate was exacerbated by the late winner at Parkhead
Ian John Lawlor is a fine keeper but he’s obviously not a devotee of the classics as he didn’t heed the ancient warning.
Although I’ve seen a few rocking horses upfront for the Hoops these past fifty-odd years, yesterday wasn’t one of them.
To paraphrase what the Prophet Laocoon famously told King Priam:
Beware of Greeks bearing down on goal!
Of course, the real Trojan Horse on Planet Fitba is at Ibrox.
It has been extant since the days of Billy Fullerton, a pro-union militia in waiting.
That is the face in the featured image of this piece.
A self-identifying fascist who contacted the KKK in the States for permission to form a chapter of the Klan in Glasgow.
That is why, lower case, the Ibrox clientele are accurately referred to as the “klan”.
This leaflet was recently handed out at the stadium John Brown used to play for.
That reality should be concentrating civil society in Scotland.
It really should…
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Sadly, I’m not sure if the FA would respond to anti semitic chants from Chelsea fans. I hope they would but I fear they wouldn’t……in his recent excellent polemic David Baddiel highlights the hierarchy of racism and after Sunday’s “blindspot” by the authorities the evidence is clear in 21st Century Sturgeon’s Scotland…..Catholics don’t count either>
Hi Phil, was just looking on companies House. I see the rangers International Football Club have issued another £4.3m worth of shares. This is roughly what they have been issuing each month for the last few months.
Does this mean that they are running at a monthly deficit of £4.3m ?
The Billy Boys song is rightly condemned but isn’t the We Are The People phrase just as troubling? Are Aberdeen or Dundee fans not people? We can assume The People consider themselves special and entitled to be treated differently to others.
Nothing changes… but there is a simple way to force accountability, and to immediately stop the singing of that banned song.
When CFC next play at Ibrox and that song is sung, then our team simply walks off the park.
Return to the park after making a complaint to the referee – and inform him that if that banned song is repeated, the team will walk off again.
That will force the SFA & SPL to do something.
And I’d guess we’d only need to walk off the pitch at one game.
Aye, the SFA & SPFL would just award a 3-0 to sevco. You know it and so do I
Sevco are trading under the falsehood that they are Rangers, claiming titles, cache and anything else they can. They are making money by fraud and yet the company liquidating the real Rangers stand by and watch them when in actual fact any money earned using this name should go to help pay off the debts of the original club.
Not enough opprobrium is visited upon the head of one Charles Vert safely ensconced in his Chateau for leaving us with this abomination.
The fascists at Ibrox dont react to being shamed in the way normal civil humans do, they wear it with pride. Like the far right all across these islands all they have is intimidation and violence. They trample all over civic norms then claim victimhood when called out on their bigotry.
Scotland’s finest have been investigating a series of similar events at such random places as….Larkhall…Cumnock….Slamannan…Newarthill…Stonehouse and Stranraer.
At approx. 4:45 pm yesterday…TV sets and Laptops were hurled from windows in the aforementioned towns …out onto gardens and streets.
Police are convinced there is a link …although they admit to being perplexed as to why.
I know a big Greek guy who could tell them.
The second city of the Empire’ eh? I mean wow!!
Outdated language alongside horrific racist views, spreading disinformation and much more besides.
Unfortunately for All they have prepared the ground for this incarnation when they go boom.
A compliant sfa saw to that.
Were Celtic away on leave when that happened? No chance, they let it happen, probably more.
We should have buried once and forever when the chance arose. For I doubt it’ll ever arise again.
They’re here now and forever, and that’s what really sickens me, Our club let them manipulate everything, laws are made for other clubs, the klub at ibrox has its own programs.
Sorry Phil, I simply couldn’t resist that PMGBism,
Have you noticed the ‘computer generated’ run-in fixtures list Phil?
James Forrest has an article on it.
A good piece. What does not get a mention is the goal scoring Jo Aribo blessing himself in thanksgiving for scoring the goal, a normal and unnoticed reaction by many players who value the personal gesture in such a moment. It was almost as if on cue that the choral horde then started their rendition of anthemic bile. It may be a coincidence as it does not take much for conditioned angry dogs to start barking. They may not even have noticed the onfield sign of the cross.
They will have noticed Aribo blessing himself but because he scored a much needed equaliser they will have turned a blind eye, but only in the meantime. When Aribo gets himself a better club than the Klub or has a drop in form, he will be subjected to the same vitriol that other players black players were attacked with. Remember the spear-chucker incident?
It’s maybe time to we contacted the BBC to ask why we are subjected to a racist choir being transmitted into our homes when we just want to watch a game of football. HH
I listened to the BBC Sportsound commentary of the DU v Sevco game yesterday…. There was no minority singing their anthem of hate. It was thousands and sounded like every one of their travelling klanners must have been contributing.
Instead of condemning it… the BBC pundits (Derek Ferguson and K McIntyre) praised the Rainjurzz support for their fine voice and in responding to their teams goal. They e en had to raise their voices to do so so we’re clearly aware what was being sung.
If ever there was a reason for a Celtic supporter NOT to pay a TV licence fee then this was it.
It is also why the klan-free situation at the recent derby game – and of Sevcos making – should be the way forward. Never allow them in again to sing their songs of hate at those welcoming them as guests.
If only other clubs had a better homecsupport and could forego the lure of the blue pound.