Lawwell had the chance after the ‘bloodstained Poppy’ banner but after the customary ‘we’ll take action’ statement the only action he took was to promise The Green Brigade Celtic would never have a poppy on their shirts again and they never have.
It’s not easy for Lawwell as no matter what others might say there is a huge amount of the Celtic support who feel entitled to sing and say whatever they want. For years we have had Jeanette Findlay claim they don’t sing sectarian songs but political songs. This fucking clown has been allowed to champion her warped views by many media outlets and especially through the Scottish BBC! Now we have an official Celtic statement saying the club will not be used to promote political agendas. You’re a bit late.
There has been an ever growing number of unsavoury incidents in and around Scottish football grounds for quite a few years. The authorities can do little as clubs are never going to vote for strict liability.
For me the answer is self policing among the supporters. I understand that not everyone is going to want to be confrontational and especially at home games where you sit next to the same people every week. I’ve a twat from Greenock who hasn’t spoken to me since he called Wes Foderingham a certain name. Fuck him. Everyone around me backed me up once I stood up to him and he hasn’t repeated it since. Supporters feel emboldened in a crowd but like bullies if you stand up to them individually they crumble.
I emailed Rangers about numerous incidents and got a reply saying they were aware of the incidents and numerous supporters had been given bans of varying lengths At that time Rangers had banned over 1,000 supporters since the start of some campaign (sorry can’t remember which one. There’s been a few). Two ways of looking at that. One is well done to Rangers for taking a stance or two the problem at Ibrox is massive if you’ve banned 1000 and still we occasionally have the same shit!!
I absolutely agree with Magic. If you want to be political , sectarian, racist fuck off and do it elsewhere and do not involve our football clubs in it. He put it a tad more polite than that.
I had a ‘discussion’ with a few Rangers fans a number of years ago who were giggling away singing a certain loyalist song. Not one was in a band. Not one had been to Ulster. They didn’t attend marches, loyalist dances or any loyalist events!
I’m from a family of mostly Hibees with a couple of Jambos thrown in. My old man fell out as a wee boy with his older brother so started supporting Rangers as they were Hibs biggest opponents in ‘The Famous Five’ years. Nothing to do with religion. It grew from there and he then used to take me to Starks Park one week and Rangers game the next and that’s why I’m a Rangers supporter. I’ve never cared a jot about religion. The vast majority of football supporters will have similar stories to why they support who they do. I like Man City and will always want to see them doing well but , IMO, you can only truly support one team! I hear some of the songs getting sung at Ibrox and I actually cringe. Not all sectarian either. There are some pretty awful stuff sung about the CSA at Celtic.
When will all this end? When the decent supporters take positive action and only then will the vocal minority be put in their place