Black Lives Matter unless you’re a Rangers fan
Right wing Rangers supporters turn on their players for showing BLM support
Earlier this year, Rangers Football Club launched a new and timely initiative called ‘Everyone Anyone’ following on from racist abuse emanating from their supporters during a number of Europa League games against St.Joseph’s and Legia Warsaw.
The racist abuse resulted in partial stadium closures and fines imposed on the Scottish Premiership club by Europe’s football governing body UEFA. Following the second charge, the club issued a statement saying that they would not take any tickets for their clash with Young Boys of Berne — fearful that any further racist abuse from their fan base would result in a full stadium closure.
Due to the racist misconduct of their fan base, the club — pre-empting further UEFA charges — launched their ‘Everyone Anyone’ campaign and promoted within the Scottish media that anyone found to be spewing racist or sectarian abuse would be sent to rehab to change their ways.
Despite numerous instances thereafter of racist and sectarian abuse in the terracing from Rangers fans, no one has yet to be sent to ‘Rangers rehab’ — in what can only be described as a massive con job by the club.
Thursday’s pre-season friendly with Lyon was the first game played by Rangers publicly since the murder of George Floyd by American police officers and the worldwide support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and just like their Celtic counterparts in the early tie against Nice, Rangers players took the knee to show support for the movement and for those oppressed and treated differently due to their skin colour.
Shamefully a sizeable majority of Rangers fans online foamed at the mouth like rabid dogs over their players showing support for the BLM movement. Taking to their forums and social media pages, Rangers fans raged:
The comments above are just the tip of the iceberg, and while all Rangers fans are tarred with the racist brush of those above and many others — not all supported such comments and publicly called their racist Rangers fans out for what they are.
Thursday’s game wasn’t the first time that the racist Rangers horde had turned on the Black Lives Matter movement. Several weeks ago, fans turned on anti-racism campaigner Richard MacDonald — who was one of those fronting the Everyone Anyone campaign — after speaking to thousands of protestors at Glasgow Green.
MacDonald, said: “I was born in 1968 and right now I Can’t Breathe. I can’t breathe with emotion here today to see so much support, it’s unbelievable. Rangers as an institution has to change and I’m there to help it change.”
Sadly the fall out from MacDonald’s factual commentary saw the anti-racism campaigner back track on his speech at the Black Lives Matter rally — while a section of his fellow Rangers supporters subsequently guarded statues of slave traders — with the Ibrox PR machine kicking into operation with MacDonald issuing a backtracking statement via twitter.
MacDonald claimed: “In response to an interjection from the crowd which referenced Rangers FC, I responded with a phrase which with hindsight, I would have reacted to differently.
“I should have said ‘society has to change’ and we can all do better and given recent events in America, I am sure any fair-minded individual would agree.
“I know some fellow supporters believed I was being critical of Rangers. Again, that was not my intention and I was actually trying to communicate my support of the club’s highly positive EA campaign.”
Sadly for anyone looking to hold Rangers and their fans accountable for misconduct — be it racist, sectarian, or even just on football matters, their rabid right wing fan base targets those they see as the ‘enemy of the people’. They use anything at their disposal — from weaponising the suffering of child abuse victims for their own sick agenda, to firing off sectarian and racist abuse, to digging up the personal details of those perpetrating ‘anti-Rangers’ commentary which leads to abuse and threats being made to silence them.
Rangers claim that the club is open to everyone and that they are a 21st century club for 21st century people. Yet there fan base is stuck in 1960 ‘Bermuda Triangle’ and subsequently appointed a senior member of the Orange Order — an overtly anti-Catholic organisation — and ex-DUP councillor - a loyalist right wing political party that is against same sex marriage and anti-LGBT rights — as their new head of Communications. A man with no journalism or media qualifications.
But according to Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson, their new head of Communications shares the club’s ‘vision, passion and enthusiasm’.
A confused and embarrassment of a club and fan base indeed.
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