Some nonsense about the 'Old Firm'

Or maybe not. Because I can't disagree with any of it.

Copied and pasted from the Hibs board

SO THE Rangers fan calls the Celtic fan "Fenian scvm" and the Celtic fan retorts with a "Hun scvm" barb.
That's where we pick it up, that is where we join the underclass on the
Old Firm messageboards and observe the 'patter' of the fans in the wake
of – yawn – 'the most passionate of all football derbies.'
"Dirty scvm," says Celtic man.
"Sub-human
scvm," says Rangers man.
"Shower of scvm."
"Pond life scvm."
"Cowardly scvm."
"Lowlife scvm."
"Scvm to a man."
"Scvm of the earth."
"Scvm FC."
"Scvmmy scvm."
Ah, fantastic stuff. The clever satire, the biting wit, the comedic
genius of these people. Lovely. It's all part of what makes Old Firm
games so absorbing. Train-wreck football, sectarian chanting, violence
in the streets and unbridled bigotry on the messageboards. Special.

Or perhaps not.

As a fixture, the Old Firm has virtually nothing to recommend it, yet
it gets acres of our newsprint and hours and hours of air time on radio
and television simply because there is such an appetite for these
teams. It is a sporting tragedy that there is a generation of kids
being reared on this muck right now, thousands of children who are born
into Old Firm families and who aspire to nothing more than signing for
one side or another and taking part in these slugfests.

The Old Firm derby is a circus act, a freak show. It is football's
bearded lady, interesting only because it is a bit weird to behold. As
a footballing spectacle, it is garbage. And, of course, it doesn't
begin and end with the whitewash on the pitch. If only.

At the moment you have two sets of fans taking pot-shots at each other
in cyber space. The Rangers mob are incensed because the subject of
their bigoted chanting has resurfaced after a brief lull. They don't
like it because us "****" in the media have started to bang on again
about their sectarian element, which was evident at Ibrox on Sunday.
Their point, as ever, is this: 'Why focus on us when the **** Celtic
fans were singing about the IRA and about killing Nacho Novo and other
cheery ditties? Why give us grief when a Rangers fan was knifed on the
night of the game and Kyle Lafferty's car was vandalised? Why don't you
focus on the Celtic vermin for a change?'

It's an argument that I have thought long and hard about. I have also
given due consideration to the counter-claims of the Celtic fans and
their outrage at the way their rivals behave. And here is my considered
response to both groups: Zzzzzz. Wake me up when you've finished,
please.

I wonder if Alastair Johnston is taking in any of this from his home in
America. Last week, we sat down with the new Rangers chairman and one
of the questions he was asked related to bigotry and whether the
baggage attached to the club might prove a barrier to a prospective
buyer. He didn't seem to like the enquiry, which is hardly surprising
given that Johnston comes from the sycophantic golf world, and, in that
environment, especially at his company, IMG, they don't do controversy.

"Nobody's ever mentioned it to me in any discussions I've had," he said
of the bigotry issue. "I really think that's all behind us now." Is
that right, Mr Johnston? You see, this is corporate Al at work again.
See no evil, hear no evil. Well, maybe next time the Old Firm play he
might stick around to watch (and listen) instead of high-tailing it out
of Glasgow as he did in the middle of last week. Cleveland wasn't
exactly the ideal place from which to judge the extent of the bigotry
problem on Sunday.

The folk on the Celtic messageboards are throwing stones, as they are
wont to do. They're having a good laugh at Rangers being under the
microscope. That's the way this pitiful rivalry plays out.

Somebody sent me a link to a YouTube video yesterday. It showed two
Celtic fans with Northern Irish accents getting ready for the Old Firm
game at home. The oldest was about 16 years of age, the youngest around
13. They sit in front of the television and the junior partner shouts:
"Orange ****my c****!" when the camera pans to the Rangers fans. Then
he screams: "Get out, you British b*******!"

He's 13 and the hatred of Rangers has already been bred into him. Not
just hate either, stupidity as well. It's bad enough being as thick as
two short planks, but wanting to broadcast it to the wider world makes
it even worse.

It has been written that the intensity and bile is all part of the
grisly appeal of the Old Firm match, that it is these very things that
lend the fixture a morbid fascination. I don't buy it. If I want morbid
fascination I'll get a DVD of Jim Rose's creepy circus acts and tune
into the chick who stays in the large plastic bag while somebody else
sucks all of the air out with a vacuum cleaner.

As for the Old Firm, I sometimes imagine what life would be like
without them. I think the rest of Scotland would get over their loss
somehow.
********************************************************************


I should imagine all posters on this board will agree with the sentiments.

Well apart from Bewlay and Mita of course.



But then what would I know. I'm just an East Anglian fuckwit.

"But then what would I know. I'm just an East Anglian fuckwit."


we,ll at least you can console yersel with getting at least one thing right.