Westminster Rangers provoke and offend

Thou great star! What would be thy happiness if thou hadst not those for whom thou shinest!

There was once a convention that people associated with Celtic or Rangers would be careful to avoid any action or comment that might further heighten tension prior to a match between the sides. The reason was obvious – innocent people are battered, stabbed and occasionally killed by thugs who can’t confine their anger to shouting at players or kicking their televisions.

What then should we make of Democratic Unionist MP Gregory Campbell, vice-chair of the Westminster Rangers supporters club, who has today tabled a motion to honour former Rangers player Sam English?

For those who don’t know – English was the unfortunate player who collided with Celtic’s goalkeeper John Thomson (pictured), resulting in the young Celtic star’s tragic death. English was blameless in the incident, which it is said affected him for the rest of his career.



However, what purpose can a member of the House of Commons hope to serve by calling for him to be honoured just days before Celtic visit Ibrox? Is he pandering to that low and vociferous element amongst the Rangers support that vocally dishonours the dead to provoke and offend?

Whatever the motives – and questioning the thinking of a Unionist MP is akin to debating the culinary merits of a cheeseburger – it is at best, grossly insensitive, at worst a deliberate attempt to inject yet more hatred into an encounter that has already left parents without sons.

No doubt, there will be some visible demonstration from the Rangers support on Saturday as they take a break from besmirching the name of Scotland’s greatest ever manager.

It has to be said that this exemplifies a distinct difference between our club and our city rivals. While Celtic have a small number of fans who let the club down, Rangers, from top to bottom demonstrate an appalling lack of dignity and even decency. Of course, that does not apply to all Rangers fans or people associated with the club – there are some who are embarrassed by such behaviour (and even a few are found on the internet, usually when banned from the most popular fans’ forum).

But with a wide range of Rangers fans, from Bridgeton to Barcelona; in the boardroom, in our courts and now even in our parliament, one theme pervades – the desire to confront and offend.

• John Thomson memorial
  

Celtic brand in Europe’s top 20

You don’t get points for brand awareness but off-field indicators at least point to the potential for a club’s future success.

So a recently published list showing that the Celtic brand is among the top 20 in Europe demonstrates that the club’s commercial activities are going well.

Independent consultancy experts Brand Finance have compared Europe’s clubs based on 'market share, market growth and company financials' to come up with an overall brand value, placing Celtic 19th. Benfica and Lyon are the only other clubs from outwith the big four leagues of Germany, Spain, England and Italy.

The list is further proof that Celtic’s worldwide fan base and mass appeal is not the myth some would like to believe and can only strengthen the club’s commercial activities when negotiating with sponsors.

Needless to say, none of Scotland’s minor clubs makes the list.

The full list is:

1) Real Madrid - £271m
2) Manchester United - £264m
3) Barcelona - £215m
4) Arsenal - £201m
5) Chelsea - £184m
6) Liverpool - £165m
7) Bayern Munich - £147m
8) Milan - £134m
9) Juventus - £95m
10) Internazionale - £84m
11) Tottenham - £81m
12) Roma - £59m
13) Newcastle United - £55m
14) Hamburg - £52m
15) Schalke 04 - £48m
16) Lyon - £48m
17) Benfica - £44m
18) West Ham - £41m
19) Celtic - £36m
20) Manchester City - £33m

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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.