It's been a remarkable
weekend. We had Stewart Regan giving an interview for Scotland on
Sunday and Graham Spiers hosting a radio show. The former during the
course of that interview comments “Charles has made his point but I
would ask the question as to why there is a desire to leave “ the
latter during his radio show suggested the Rangers support are
suffering from a persecution complex.
Let me kill both of
these birds with one stone and deal with both the question and the
accusation.
Many years ago I
studied at the Church of Scotland's St Colms College in Edinburgh.
During that time I learned one of life's most valuable lessons – to
understand where people are coming from you have to walk about in
their shoes for a bit. So what do see when you don the shoes of the
average Rangers supporter ?
You certainly see a
support with a persecution complex and a desire to leave Scottish
football. Forever. So let me present some of the reasons for both.
Lets start with our
governing football bodies, who rather than await the process of
justice, pre-determine the outcome of a tax tribunal and deal with
our club from the perception we are guilty. Who draw up plans to
punish our club based on a pre-determination of guilt. Who impose
punishments on our club, which have already been deemed unlawful by a
Scottish Law Lord.
And despite being
cleared of any wrongdoing by that tribunal, those governing bodies
are still treating Rangers with contempt. The new league construction
model sees Rangers remain in the bottom tier despite the ever
increasing likelihood of earning promotion. Yet when Stranraer faced
a similar situation several years ago, it was deemed to be unfair and
they were granted the promotion they had earned. So why are Rangers
being treated in a different manner ?
But it was not only the
Scottish football authorities who jumped to a conclusion of guilt.
The Scottish media and the Scottish footballing public also jumped on
that particular bandwagon. The real problem is that this particular
bandwagon appears to be still rolling.
“Cheats”
,“financial doping” were terms which were, and continue to be
overused, but perhaps the icing on the cake was comparing our club's
tax avoidance strategy to the corruption and bribery which disgraced
both French and Italian football. The truth is it's never been about
sporting integrity, its about an unbridled hatred of Rangers Football
Club with the indication being such hatred is not going to go away
anytime soon.
One only has too look
at the response to Jim Traynor's “Gentleman be careful” comments.
Mocked, goaded and challenged. Given that our club has been subjected
to a witch hunt which should shame Scotland in the last 12 months,
with such flames of hatred being fanned by the lies of a blog and a
documentary, (which they saw fit to honour with awards) is it any
small surprise our football club would make moves to prevent such a
repetition ? Or is this club not allowed to defend itself from
blatant lies ?
Perhaps one the
greatest ironies about this article is that the individual who made
the persecution complex comment was exposed as a liar recently on
national television, denying he had attributed certain words to
describe Rangers use of EBT's, when in the public domain, screenshots
from his twitter account, serve to confirm that Graham Spiers claims
of innocence were false. In essence his conduct and the subsequent
lack of accountability for it, from the individual concerned and
Scottish media in general, strengthens that persecution complex.
So Mr Regan and Mr
Spiers, I hope this answers your questions and accusations. I hope
the time spent wearing my shoes granted you an understanding of the
feelings of the Rangers support and, for your own personal
contributions to such feelings - a sense of shame.
But I doubt it will.
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