Rangers and Celtic Deserve Better

Reluctant Hero · Rangers and Celtic Deserve Better

According to Judas, oh sorry I mean Walter Smith, Rangers and Celtic deserve a lot better than what they are getting in Scotland. I personally couldn't agree more, so take your "big" clubs and your phoney sectarianism and get tae ****.

But oh no, they want to leave a second string side to compete in domestic competitions. Well I think they have got to decide. Is Scotland good enough for them or not? It's all or nothing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/7799072.stm

azzuri

Well they are welcome to f**k off. These 2 businesses are leeches on Scottish society, and feed off and foster hatred.

Oh, Merry Christmas! Very Happy

agentmancuso

FTOF.

Merry Christmas to everybody else. Even Airdurie. PDT_Aliboronz_24

azzuri

FTOF indeed. I'm thinking on getting that printed up on a t-shirt, who here would buy one from a bulk buy?! Very Happy

agentmancuso

They used to sell those t-shirts outside Firhill - generally with a picture of the recycling man chucking OF badges into a giant bin, and 'Keep Glasgow Tidy' on it. Haven't seen them recently though.

Cymro

Think he probably suggested leaving a second team in the SPL as a means of trying to ensure support from the average support of the Old Firm who would also oppose such a move. The only chance they have of leaving the SPL is if an European Super League is formed, it may well happen one day but I can see a hell of a lot of other clubs higher up on the list saddly for them.

parkhead_rfb

azzuri

No, I'm afraid there isn't a demand for those.

I'm sure you could get a batch of "I'm so bitter and frustrated in life that I blame everyone else for my team's supporters behaviour", they'd sell well amongst celtic fans,

OR

If you're so hell bent on talking about individual events, how about you get a "I'm the celtic fan who punched a pregnant woman at Rugby Park in 2003" T-shirt printed up and give it to the cretin that did so.

It seems in your time away you've only become even more bitter and angry about life in general, displaying the now-boring "POOR ME" trait that seems to exist heavily amongst OF supporters, despite your team's obvious success on the pitch.

Smile, it won't hurt! Very Happy

Rinty

I also was a victim of that at Rugby Park and, funnily enough, one time when with a pregnant woman.

My mate was seven months pregnant when we had to get stewards to escort us out of the stand and go elsewhere under attack from Killie fans spitting and calling us 'paddy b***ards', it was horrible. 3 of the 7 people I was with were Killie fans.

The next time we were in the main stand hoping it was safer for neutrals and mixed groups. But that time after celtic scored we were subjected to a barage from a middle aged woman who told us to 'f**k off home to tha paddy fields'. She was probably thinking of tattie fields Smile

That time others joined in when we ansered back and the steward threatened to eject us if we didnt shut up. We did shut up but the killie fans, by this time ten of them joining in, continued while the steward smiled at phrases like "youre not wlecome here ya papish b***ards.'

In my experience Rugby Park is the single most hostile place for celtic fans outside of Ibrox. Its s shocking atmosphere of racism every time we play there. It is a small minority whodo this but there is no opposiion from the other killie fans, mostly they watch and laugh.

azzuri

In the last 15 years I've been attending Killie vs. OF matches at RP, I've heard very few if any incidents of the sort you talk about Rinty. I'm in no way calling you a liar, but I've simply not seen these sorts of incidents. It is in no interest of mine whatsoever to deny such incidents, however you must have been extremely unlucky to come across such disgusting Kilmarnock-supporting individuals in your time at Rugby Park. However, to say that RP is more hostile to Celtic fans in general than anywhere outside Ibrox, is quite frankly complete rubbish. I say this as a Kilmarnock fan who would be willing to stand up and shout down anyone who started spouting such ridiculous views within our stadium.

Killie fans (myself included) often feel threatened by OF fans in the home stands. There is simply no need for it now, especially since the OF don't even buy their full away allocation anymore. Maybe certain Celtic fans are now afraid of certain sections of their own support due to past actions at RP?

We are often outnumbered in our own ground and this leads both the police and stewards to take no action whatsoever against the perpetrators switching ends. A friend of mine was thrown out of RP for shouting at a steward because the steward wouldn't remove a man wearing a Celtic strip who spat on him. We get absolutely no protection whatsoever, and the stewards and police don't do their jobs properly.

When you get thousands of people supporting the same team, you are of course going to get quite a few cretinous individuals (as we have with Killie, and Hearts/Hibs/Aberdeen/M'well), however in my experience (and I'm sure all non-OF fans would agree), the proportion seems to be a lot higher amongst particularly the old firm away fans. It's no coincidence that the only criminal damage caused at the new RP has happened twice, both times by rioting Celtic fans. In what circumstances you might ask? Had the team been relegated? Lost even? No, Celtic won either 4 or 5 nil IIRC, and their fans went nuts and caused hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage.

To dismiss this behaviour is simply blinkered because of the team you support.

The previous post came about because parkhead_rfb had to 'retaliate'. He couldn't let a post go which had shown agreement between 2 non-OF fans who dislike his beloved club.

The phrase 'people in glass houses' comes to mind. A hatred of a particular organisation does not necessarily equal hatred of individuals, though he seems to make this link and can't seem to understand a hatred of the 'Old Firm'. And if Old Firm fans can't take slurs against their beloved clubs' fans, then they shouldn't dish them out. It's complete playground nonsense. Everybody knows that when you get 6,000 people in one group, some of them will be racists/bigots/complete bampots, but that does not make me so, and neither have I levelled accusations against any individuals on this site.

Kilmarnock have some disgraceful individuals as 'fans', Celtic and Rangers, however, proportionally, have a lot more.

agentmancuso

Rinty

I cdont know if the old firm have proprtionally more, they have more numerically but the % of thugs in a teans support is probably the same in most teams.

With respect azzuri, you are a Killie fan and are less likely to notice it.

I have been going to Rugby Park for over 30 years, my first celtic game was at Rugby Park and when I was younger and lived in Galston I supported Celtic but went to more Killie games.

Ayrshire as a county has more than its share of bigots and it shouldnt bersurprising the some of them are Killie fans and possibly some of them only go when killie are playing celtic.

But, as I said, for Celtic fans, Killie is probably the worst place to visit because of the open hostility from fans (apart from Ibrox), even worse than tynecastle.

William_Cleland

Celtic supporters at away games still have a marked tendency to vocally support the provisional IRA in order to provoke and offend the home support. It is far from surprising that some people would snap after having to listen to disgusting behaviour like that. Has it ever crossed your mind that at least some of these "bigots" you refer to might actually have lost close friends or relatives to the actions of that despicable terrorist organisation? How can you bear to be standing next to these low lifes when they start belting out songs like that? Do you point out the culprits to the Police and stewards when you hear it happening? If not, why not?

Rinty

parkhead_rfb

azzuri

jamesieboy

It's the antipathy towards Scotland that i can't stand, and that comes from certain elements within both sets of OF fans.

And Aiden McGeady, James McCarthy (Hamilton) and Jim O'Brien (Motherwell) is absolutely bizarre and a dreadful insult to the country where you were brought up.

The question is - was it really their decision? Or were they under heavy pressure from others?

Going through life with this chip on the shoulder and 'wallowing in victim status' is just pathetic.

Rinty

I cant stand the anti[pathy to Scotland either, mainly because it is so unreasonable and stupid.

But I dont see where that links with the idea of a victime mentality. Or from there to the international career of footballers.

McGeady's case is well know, he couldnt play for scotland at youth level and played for Ireland, when he became available for selection for Scotland after leaving shool, he was already part of the Ireland set-up and his former youth manager was the international manager. There may be other reasons for his decision, but he was in a position already and not choosing one country or another from scratch.

I dont know about Mccarthy's situation and Obrien has no chance of a Scotland call-up so I dont know if he had the choice or not. The other one at Motherwell is former Rangers player Brian McLean who opted for NI over Scotland and then, through some technicality, cant play for either any more.

If I was a footballer who hadnt been called up for Scotland and annother country came knocking, I would go for it, who wouldnt want to play at that level. Owen Coyle and Tommy Coyne didnt have choices, they were never getting asked to play for Scotland anyway.

I don't have a choice as all of grandparents were born in Scotland. But I have a friend whose kid was with rangers and faced the same restrictions as mcGeady did at Celtic, i.e. he wasnt allowed to play for his school team and therefore didnt qualify for international selection. He was a very good young player and ahead of most at his age group and his dad told me, that if they had a foreign granny they would be signing up. He went on to play for Scotland at an older age group.

I think Celtic and possibly Dundee United were first to stop players turning out for their school and rangers started doing it later. cant be sure that the clubs still do it. But the SFA still leave U-16 international football to the 'schools FA', other countries dont.

jamesieboy

I actually quite like all the fans of Scottish teams, because really, they're all quite nice and, when it comes down to it, support the Bonnie scotland and are all part of the tartan army.

But Cowdenbeath? I can't stand these barstewards.