Scanning social media to cobble together online posts as some sort of news story is both the epitome of lazy journalism and typical of the modern media.
However, a Google search led me to stumble onto the FollowFollow (FF) discussion of the Union Bears flyer inciting sectarian violence.
(Confession: Yes, I occasionally used to log in to laugh at the delusional expectations or disproportionate reaction to disappointments. It was a guilty pleasure that I weaned myself off.)
For those who don't know FF, it was once the staunchest of all opinion-formers for Rangers fans and the Scottish mainstream media.
Now that “former” is more accurately applied to the club that once played out of Ibrox – and other forms of social media reign supreme – the old site run by Mark Dingwall (a sort of Jim Traynor with reduced charm) has seen its influence wane.
However, FF would still be considered a hotbed of the most extreme reactionary Ibrox-related opinion to be found on social media.
So responses to the Union Bears flyer on its forum have been interesting.
Yes, many are echoing their post on Friday claiming victimisation with a defiant “No surrender”.
Some are even blaming this “Taig website” for publishing the story on Wednesday.
But numerous others have declared the flyer a massive own goal that will finally end cooperation between The Rangers FC and the fans' would-be Ultras (or perhaps more appropriately, “Ultras”).
With apologies to the FF posters here, who will almost certainly be declared “Timposters” due to being quoted here, the range of replies is revealing.
SuperA: “While I love what the UB do I did think the leaflet was going to draw unwanted attention.”
BroomloanWATP: “Call me a handwringer all you want but the second I saw the word "fenian" on that flyer I knew this would happen. “
The Crimson King: “We could spend 10 pages agreeing with each other over the real meaning of the word, and the waste of police resources, but come on, the UBs have to be a bit smarter than sticking 'March against the fenians' on a bloody poster in modern Scotland.”
Papa Smurf: “Regardless of the lack of a level playing field, it's a bloody rediculous [sic] flier. What on earth did the creator expect.
Does not show anyone in a good light.”
arnietac1: “Unless someone can explain the mindset behind this then all I see as an Auld timer is a cluster %^*& of an own goal here.”
Herbie53: “UB should have anticipated this being the response, bit naive of them to use that word so openly, an unnecessary “own goal” it seems like.”
HCMC_Loyal: “As others have stated...a massive own goal. Hopefully it goes off without incident and the only thing the press can report after the game is a magnificent home win.”
Gattuso72: “What do you expect from a group who will spend a large majority of the game singing about religion/Irish terrorists then wondering why nobody else is joining in.
“IMO they make it impossible for the clubs board to support them in anyway.
“You can see why the club are so reluctant to safe standing if it’s the UB who take centre stage.
“I await the accusations of ‘imposter’ etc. but in reality I’m just a bear who thinks these guys could/should be doing much more to promote our club in a better light.
“You’ve got the platform. Let’s try not to be like our ugly neighbours.”
Buffallo72: “Another example of our obsession with them. If the GB had made a flyer showing a bear being kicked with the H word their would be uproar. Yet another example of so called fans damaging the clubs [reputation]. I’m sure there will be plenty of bears with young kids who will avoid this like the plague. I await the many videos uploaded to social media showing loads of wee guys dressed in black singing the ‘Tiffany’ song among others. A march to celebrate our great club now why not do that? Celebrating late great players like D for example? Or is all that just a bit too leftfield because it doesn’t mention them? Saw a video of Porto and Basel fans doing this and it looked great. Pity we couldn’t lose our baggage for once on this.”
Tommyhlrsc: “So a Taig website [this blog] asks this morning for the Polis to take the boys of the UB's to task?....The puppets that run Police Scotland do exactly that....Tail wagging the dug right enough.
“Wolf Tone was a Fenian, folk in Scotland not allowed to say that now?”
We'll leave the last word from FF to Southpaws:
“F*ck sake! Have the ‘union’ bears been living under a rock for the past twenty years? Of course a banner with the word ‘fenian’ and the depiction of a knuckle dragging Neanderthal kicking a [Celtic] fan on the ground was going to bring huge condemnation.
“I would imagine more than one complaint was made to police Scotland. Just as the club is beginning to get its act together on the pitch an element of its support is dragging its good name once more through the mud with this sectarian sh*t.
“Rangers is a football club and not a religious or political organisation with a support, the majority of which is happy to have moved on from the religious baggage which had previously demonised and damaged the clubs reputation.
“Sadly there is still a sizeable minority bent on pushing their own agenda of [ignorance] and intolerance more akin to their upbringing and lack of a desire to put Rangers FC first and foremost in their actions.
“The whatabootery is just plain facile, since when did we take our behavioural cues from the ‘beast from the east’? Rangers F.C. does not operate nor play to the base standards of that club, nor should its supporters. Rangers songs and Rangers songs only should by sung at our games, barring perhaps GSTQ and rule Britannia.
“Enough is enough, if you want to protest religion, politics, eulogise the death of Bobby sands or any such totally unrelated to football and therefore Rangers FC. Why not try and find the correct platform to so do and spare the rest of us from your outdated and bigoted repertoire.”
The messages above are highly selective. There are numerous others praising the Union Bears, insisting that they will attend the march and using the kid of bigoted, racist language that has become associated with fans of clubs based at Ibrox Park.
As I said in my last post on this blog, this story is not yet finished.
None of the posters on FollowFollow expressed even the slightest sympathy with Celtic and that is absolutely fair. We don't expect compliments from our rivals.
But it is clear to see that the actions of the Union Bears have created a schism in the ranks of The Rangers, which could only be a good thing.
Maybe those calling for decency, 21st-century tolerance and common sense will eventually win the day.
With the support of The Rangers Football Club and the Scottish Football Association, the club might one day be defined, not by its hatred of all things Celtic, Catholic or Irish, but by its football.
We patiently await that day.
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