My boss’s son recently wrote a letter to Pat Fenlon, the manager of Hibernian F.C. In it he explained that it is essential for Hibs to win the next Edinburgh derby due to the torment the lone Hibs supporter in Primary 5 at Aberlady Primary School has been receiving. Composed by the son of an English teacher, the letter was both professional and articulate. I pray that Fenlon sticks it on the dressing room wall.
Growing up as a Hibs fan in the Nineties was not easy. When I was in my second year of high school, Hearts won the Scottish Cup while Hibs were relegated. Did I mention I went to school in the West of Edinburgh? That the vast majority of my classmates were Hearts fans? Like my boss’s son, I understand the relationship between humiliation and football.
For Celtic fans, things were also difficult. The club veered between extinction and Cambuslang. In the wake of the Taylor Report, the stadium was not fit for purpose, while the football played in it was not much better. Worst of all, they tended to spend every Old Firm derby camped in the Rangers half, only to concede one late, sickening goal. Nonetheless, I cannot indulge in the churlish, possibly delusional, euphoria that some Scottish football fans have reserved for the collapse for Glasgow Rangers. For most fans of my age, it is a Schadenfreude born of the pain they suffered during that era.
I needn’t go over the minutia of Rangers going into administration: the number of football fans suddenly able to boast a knowledge of CVAs seems to have exploded in the past forty-eight hours. Instead, I will focus upon the consequences of this for Scottish football and Scottish society.
In order to understand anticipate these consequences, it is important that we understand where Scottish football is. Most football fans of moderate intelligence understand the Thatcherisation of football. Following Hillsborough, Maggie implemented the Taylor Report. All of a sudden, every single top flight British club was obliged to replace its dilapidated terracing with all-seater stadia.
What happened was the football equivalent of the stock market’s Big Bang. Cash hungry clubs were far more accommodating to television, willing to move fixtures into ludicrous kick off times in order to raise revenue. All of a sudden, money was what mattered in football. And no club seemed to understand that better than Rangers.
Whereas the Eighties had seen Aberdeen and Dundee United win titles and compete on the European stage, the Nineties were the beginning of the money era. Bankrolled by David Murray, Rangers marched (sorry, sorry, I won’t do that again) to nine successive titles. In the process, they acquired the universal resentment held by Manchester United in England and the New York Yankees in baseball.
However, there’s a problem with that last sentence. United, the Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys are global sports brands with global markets. Rangers just happen to be the biggest fish in a miniscule pond. The fans demanded success beyond the club’s means. The arrival of Dick Advocaat saw the club spend in an unprecedented manner, including the much famed £12 million that the club wasted on Tore Andre Flo. It also marked the beginning of the process that has brought Rangers to its knees.
One of the most depressing features of football discourse is the consistent inability of fans and pundits to see beyond their own prejudices. However, as a follower of both football and politics I can tell you that football fans are open-minded and judicious compared with anyone involved in party politics. Those unable to see beyond prejudices have imperiously declared that the collapse of Rangers will herald the end of Scottish football. On the opposite extreme, Celtic Chairman Peter Lawwell seems to view the collapse of Rangers as an event no more significant to his club’s finances than a late fan neglecting to buy a programme. Neither claim stands up to scrutiny.
It is certainly true to say that the television appeal of Rangers, along with the gate receipts generated by their numerous travelling supporters, are essential streams of income for Scottish football. For Celtic to claim that the loss of the Old Firm derby would not adversely impact their finances is ludicrous. Football rivalry creates mutual dependency – it is hatred of the other team that is as much the draw as love of your own. It is for this reason that this Hibs fan is perturbed by the prospect of a bankrupt Heart of Midlothian.
However, Rangers simply aren’t going to disappear. The banking crisis of 2008 has taught me to be cautious when employing the term ‘Too big to fail’. Rangers aren’t too big to fail. However, they are too big to disappear. Even if the club does fold – a prospect that appears more imminent by the day – something else will replace them. If Rangers are not there to take the money of their paying fans, another club of a similar name will be formed to do so. Admittedly, SPL attendances are falling. However, compared with fans of other sports, football fans are inexplicably loyal (ok – I did it again).
A precedent already exists for this. When Airdrieonians went bust in 2002, Airdrie United were formed immediately after. While they were only able to obtain admittance to the league by subsuming Clydebank F.C, it is hard to envisage a situation in which Scottish clubs would not fall over themselves admit Rangers’ reincarnation into league football.
The shape of this new club is something worth considering. If a wealthy buyer for Rangers materialises they will be able to save the club. However, if the club collapses, a fan controlled organisation such as AFC Wimbledon could emerge. That may in turn have much needed civilising effect on Rangers fan base.
Rangers are often dubbed Scotland’s Shame, and not just by Celtic fans. No club in Scotland can quite match their record of violent and sectarian incidents. Other clubs have problems, Hibs included, but no club has a list as long or as embarrassing as Rangers. Not convinced? Just consider that in the last few years elements of the Rangers support have:
- Caused more damage to Manchester city centre than last summer’s riots
- Have been subject to a travel ban due to sectarian singing
- Have been fined due to sectarian singing on several occasions
- Smashed the window of a bus carrying the players of the opposing team
- Fought with police during a tie with Osasuna
- Sent parcel bombs, bullets and death threats to the opposing team’s manager and the head of Catholic Church in Scotland
That is just the tip of the ice berg. Most of the incidents above have come during European games, when the rest of Europe has to witness the cesspool of sectarianism that travels between Scottish grounds every week. Rangers get away with a great deal in this country because the authorities (police and SFA alike) are too scared to challenge them.
Not all Rangers fans behave in this way, but a sizeable section of the travelling fans do.
That is another of the reasons why fans of other clubs resent them. Furthermore, it is why some progressive voices argue that the collapse of Rangers would improve the social fabric of Scottish society. But to take such an attitude, ignores the nature of the problem. These problem fans are not going to go away. They will either start following other clubs whose heritage fits their form of bigotry (Airdrie, Hearts) or, even worse, become involved in politics.
Fan ownership might be the best way to reform the attitudes of this problem element, or at the very least inhibit them. As arrangements stand, when Rangers fans embarrass the club the board gets fined. If these fans had ownership or control of the club they might understand the consequences of their behaviour. That may serve to limit their behaviour in a way that a series Tannoy announcements in vain could never do.
Furthermore, it would introduce a sense of financial reality to the fans. If Rangers fans were given access to club’s finances they would not pressure the board to make senseless and expensive signings.
I am more than willing to accept that these speculations could be dismissed as idealistic nonsense. Perhaps Rangers fans will always behave in grotesque fashion. However, those delighting in the collapse of Rangers have not offered any real solutions to the problem, especially that of sectarianism. Suffering a lot during the Nineties does not justify such a narrow mindset. The crisis faced by Scottish football, and the sectarianism faced by Scottish society, demand original thinking in order to combat them. We need a radical shake-up. What’s more radical than fan ownership?
