Ibrox loyal? Not to Scotland

It is ironic that our opponents so often criticise Celtic supporters for their lack of loyalty to Scotland. Granted, we know that this is nothing more than a manifestation of bigotry, finding any excuse to attack people who celebrate Irish heritage.

However, it is clear that the Scottish media will never make such claims against Rangers despite all evidence showing that Scotland’s interests have never been high on the Ibrox agenda.

The last Walter Smith era was notable for the number of “injuries” suffered by Rangers players prior to Scotland matches, most of which seemed to clear up in time for the players to perform in domestic or European club duty.

Today, miraculous misfortunes have befallen Barry Ferguson, Lee McCulloch, Christian Dailly and Allan McGregor, forcing them to withdraw from the Scotland squad to play Croatia. Only Kris Boyd remains, suggesting that either he is not valued at Ibrox or that a strain or virus is imminent.

Of course, the loyalty of Walter Smith and Ally McCoist was never questioned when they abandoned their national team at a crucial stage of a European Championship qualifying campaign so we can expect the latest withdrawals to pass without comment.

In fairness, this is a game played by many clubs at some stage, though rarely with such brazenness as shown by Rangers. However, there is an intrinsic dishonesty in the manner of these withdrawals and a hypocrisy in the press treatment of the issue, (which effectively wrecks George Burley’s first match).

We are well used to certain Rangers fans asking: “Where in Ireland is Glasgow?” It now seems that Ibrox isn’t even part of Scotland.