Ibrox support still singing racist and bigoted songs

It used to be said, with some justification, that it was only media comment and pressure that really led to the bigotry problem at Rangers being addressed by the club and the football authorities. In which case, on the basis of Saturday at Ibrox, it is time for that period of scrutiny to recommence.

A couple of years ago some of the truly offensive chants from the Rangers hymnal were expunged following Uefa’s intervention, but after Saturday’s Old Firm experience, the Rangers problem is evidently boiling away again. Recurring bigoted or racist themes were all too apparent in many songs sung by a section of the Ibrox support, and it looks like this is set to embarrass the club all over again.

Rangers – yes, with Uefa holding a bayonet to the club’s head – took strong action over its fans’ singing a couple of years ago, but both the club and the Scottish media have held back since in a joint effort which, it was hoped, would help the problem to ebb away.

It was Rangers who specifically asked that we in the media cooperate with this “cooling off” period, and most of us have happily gone along with it, to a degree. I’m afraid, however, that the policy appears doomed.

On Saturday thousands of Rangers fans even hijacked their club’s own prematch anthem, The Best, to pollute it with sectarian language. Throughout the game, with the Celtic supporters’ Irish flags goading them on, much of the dreaded preUefa repertoire of bigoted dirges were unleashed. For some reason the phrase “fenian bastards” remains much cherished in chant and song at Ibrox.

Sir David Murray, the Rangers chairman, and Martin Bain, the club’s chief executive, and Kenny Scott, the club’s head of security, have all summed up this type of singing in one word: “embarrassing”. Walter Smith, the Rangers manager, and Ally McCoist, the club’s assistant manager, have also made statements pleading with Rangers supporters to stop singing such stuff. Much of this has been in vain.

As crass as it sounds, now we hear reports of fans’ campaigns on one or two of the demented internet sites to have The Billy Boys brought back at Rangers games. Apparently, the song is alive and well on the trains and buses going to matches.

Rangers FC need to be on guard against this whole embarrassment resurfacing again. Evidently, the club still has this choral poison in its midst.

The Times, 11th May