Self-awareness and the Sevco High Command

Since this site first started in 2008, one of the main functions has been to hold up a mirror to those associated with the Rangers brand.

The first issue that I tackled here was when the Famine Song appeared in the repertoire of the Ibrox klanbase.

That ditty was created because their favoured anthem The Billy Boys had been banned by UEFA in 2006.

Instead of singing about players like Jim Baxter or their current heroes the klan needed some cultural product to espouse their hatred of Scotland’s multi-generational Irish community.

Back then it was necessary to put in the journalistic hard yards to get the Fourth estate in fair Caledonia to recognise that what they were hearing at Ibrox was anti-Irish racism.

Your humble correspondent did this because it was abundantly clear that the local media either lacked the collective cognitive bandwidth or the cojones to call out this racism.

This headline from the BBC indicates that there is still much to do.

You can read the report here.

The following sentence suggests that the headline is, at best, misleading.

“A video on social media showed a group being escorted by police through Glasgow city centre while chanting an anti-Irish song referencing the famine.”

A visitor to Fair Caledonia would be surprised to learn that said song had been declared racist at the highest court in Scotland as far back as 2009.

Still, the “sectarian” misnomer persists when the Ibrox klanbase are indulging in anti-Irish racism.

In the time that I have been writing about this subject, I cannot remember either of the Ibrox clubs issuing a statement condemning the Famine Song and stating that anti-Irish racism has no place at Ibrox.

This blind spot to their customers’ preferred flavour of ethnic hatred comes into stark relief when one of their own players is targeted by racists.

The fact that the Red Star Belgrade supporters indulged in this is shameful but not surprising.

Like the chaps at Ibrox, they have previous for racist abuse.

It is ironic that the target was Conor Goldson.

The defender has had his own issues with the Ibrox klanbase when he took a knee.

That is why it is the featured image in this piece.

His plea to the club support to “let’s try again” should have been a cue for someone in the Blue Room to look into that mirror that I had been holding up for more than a decade.

Of course, the story of the racist abuse directed against Conor Goldson should be an open goal for any functioning Fourth Estate.

Sadly, they prefer to look away and keep cordial relations with the Sevco High Command and the Ibrox klanbase.

It should not be the task of a journalist in another country to point that out.