Hun - The Sectarian Myth.

A new campaign has been brought to my attention via twitter to make the use of the word "Hun" illegal. This campaign is based wholly on the myth that the use of this term is "sectarian" in their words "term of religious hatred, a derogatory and sectarian term for a protestant or those perceived to be protestant by supporters of other football teams".

This is in its basic form a lie and they know it. The campaign is a desperate grasp at a few remaining straws by an organisation trying desperately and failing to distance itself from a so called "small minority" of the Ibrox fan base who engage genuine sectarian behaviour, by throwing mud in the direction of other fans and hoping enough sticks that they can use to deflect from their in house problems by pointing in any direction and exclaiming 'look, they dae it tae' in the most petty and childish way.

The term Hun being used as a term for Rangers(1872 & 2012) fans and players has nothing to do with religion.

This is not however the first time this tactic has been deployed. In 2008 after Celtic played Aalborg a letter of complaint was sent to UEFA from a concerned person at the use of the chant 'NO HUNS IN EUROPE!' by Celtic fans. However UEFA responded: "With all respect to your personal feelings and impression, the terms you object to do not appear to be connected with racial abuse or discrimination." 

There are differing versions of the origin of the term Hun being used to describe this groups of people. The one which holds the most weight is that they were described by an English journalist in the early 1960's as "coming across the border like marauding huns." due to the destruction they had caused in the local area. This nor any other version I have seen of the term could be construed as religious in my opinion.

The best way to illustrate that religion is not a factor in who is and is not a Hun is to look at some of the most high profile players, players anyone who uses the term would tell youis one, for example Maurice Johnston: the first Roman Catholic to sign for Rangers is most definitely a hun. Novo, Mccann, Amoruso, Albertz, Andrews and more recently Mohsni and Jon Daly are all "Non Protestants" for want of a better term who are all without a shadow of a doubt Huns.

This campaign is a nonsense at base level and should be viewed as such but this being Scotland it will be used by lazy sports journalists to fill column inches and to create punchy attention grabbing headlines.

We expect nothing less, all we can do is stand our ground with the truth on our side.

Sack the board ? Part 2.

A couple of months back I wrote a blog titled "Sack The Board?" which I later expanded for an article for CQN Magazine which can be found through the links. At the time it was met with quite a lot of criticism due to the board and then new manager being under a significant amount of pressure.

Today with the results of the S&P Capital IQ list of the most stable clubs in Europe in which Celtic were named the third most stable club Europe behind only Ajax and Arsenal and the club "least likely to default" in the Credit Football League of 44 public and private European clubs. I was compelled to write this follow up to that blog.

My obvious question would be are there still those among our support who would want to "sack the board" ? Are the detractors who were so vocal all those months ago about how Mr Lawwell and co. were "taking the heart of our club" or the various other accusations leveled at the board of directors, are they still as adamant that these men are so wrong for our club?

We are now experiencing a good period on and off the pitch being in 4 competitions, the squad in playing well and with a couple of impressive late signings in the January transfer window.

My point, I guess is that if people are so quick to criticise during the bad times we should all take a moment to say well done during the good times.

To the men who make our club a financial success, I salute you.

Acceptable Violence

Over the last few days I have found my attention drawn to the Scottish print media, in particular the "Red tops" this in itself is somewhat of a surprise given that  I don't buy the papers and rarely find any of what they write in their "unbiased" "journalism" worthy of reading.

However in these latest instances I have found myself (not for the first time) not only miffed by the poor standard of people who hold the most prominent roles in the MSM in Scotland but by the trivialisation of what in any other circumstance would be treated as a very serious incident.

A man being knocked unconscious in the street, regardless of who he is should be unacceptable in any modern city. Glasgow is no different in this respect.

However, Scotlands most popular newspapers feel that the fact that Lukasz Zaluska wears a Celtic top to his day job means that it is acceptable to make his ordeal a laughing matter with headlines such as "bashed in lane" "goal keeker" "peek a bruise" and the like. I'm sure if a print journalist was beaten in the street you'd be hard pushed to find the headline "hack cracked" on the front page of any of these papers,though that is neither here nor there.

Whether or not this is an attempt to play to a target audience of these papers as I have seen suggested might find it funny that a Celtic player has been given a black eye,I don't know but the fact remains that this type of reporting is  completely devoid of respect or empathy and this is representative of our society as a whole not just a "target audience".

As I mentioned earlier this is clearly not a new thing yet people continue to buy these papers religiously. I understand that there may not many alternatives to paper readily available but the only way things will change is if people stop buying them.

Take a stand, Dont Buy The Record or The Sun.

Sack The Board?

It amazes me that in this year, the 20th anniversary of Fergus McCann rescuing Celtic from the brink, two decades since he had to prise the Club from the selfish hands of the Kelly regime that we have Celtic fans(albeit a minority) calling once more for the board to be sacked.

I am well aware that our current playing squad is in need of investment , this was proven by our recent games in qualifying for the Champions League against Legia Warsaw, if not in out 3-0 victory in the second leg (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) but if one thing can be learned from the demise of our former rivals it is surely that throwing countless millions at a playing squad in Scotland is just not sustainable. 

Surely then we should be grateful for the investment and prudent leadership at our club, not only during the McCann era but to the current day.

Peter Lawwell is currently a love/hate figure among our fans but as fans we must realise that in his job, being head of non-footballing activities at Celtic he has done a stellar job and to call for him to be sacked is nothing short of foolish when we look across at the comedy cavalcade of characters across Ibrox way in the last throws of the old club(1872) or in the 2 year struggles of the new club (2012) we need to be thankful for the people we have in charge of our club.

I'm sure the signings will arrive in the coming days and I'm sure our scouting team will unearth another gem or two as they have for the last few seasons.

And us, well we will continue to support the team. We will continue to be as fickle as all football fans and find someone to curse after every result but we will always be back, faithful through and through.

The Club, The Company... The Mythology.

My last blog concerned the claims of a "Celtic Newco" and my intention was to put that theory to bed, in this blog however I have no such illusions, since July 2012 the debate regarding Club & company and whether they are one and the same has raged pretty much non stop and I don't doubt they will continue to rage, emotions run too high on this subject to expect anything else. I merely intend to put forward some facts for consideration by people who would like to know the truth.

The source of the Screen Grabs in this blog will be the Memorandum and Incorporation Certificate of The Rangers Football Club (1899) a copy of which can be found at :
Rangers FC Memorandum & Incorporation Certificate

 
sent to me by @celticservant on Twitter who has been very supportive of my blog in helping it reach a far greater audience than it otherwise would have.

I'll start off with the kicker, the line which for me and for anyone of sound mind puts to bed the argument that Club and company are separate entities contained on page 8 of the said document: "The words 'Club' and 'Company' and also the words 'Member' and 'Share Holder' throughout the said Memorandum and Articles of Incorporation shall; where the context admits of it , be of synonymous meaning."  This is therefore to say that Club and Company are nearly or exactly the same.

I know some will find a way to wriggle around this statement which completely contradicts everything they have argued for over the last 2 years, but the fact remains that in black and white the people who ran "the club" and incorporated it as "the company" intended that they would indeed be one and the same, a single entity for all intents and purposes.

This notion that in modern football a "Club" can exist without a company or that a Company is somehow a disposable add on which has no effect on fabled "Club" is a non-sense.

Understandably some people have too much of an emotional investment in a football club to accept that club is simply no more but unfortunately for them, that is the case and what they have now is a cheap imitation run by money hungry businessmen who have no real interest in the success of the club but only the amount of profit they can squeeze before financial ruin approaches.

I best heard the position of a Rangers fan summed up by a friend in this anecdote: 

I had a jacket once, it was my favourite jacket. I wore it everywhere, I had my wallet with £50 in my jacket pocket. One day as I ripped my jacket when I was out, when I took it to be fixed I was told it was damaged beyond repair, I was devastated. The very next day I went to the shop where I bought my jacket and bought another. It was exactly the same: style, size, colour, identical. I took my old jacket and put it in the bin, took my wallet from the pocket and put it in my new jacket, I told everyone that it was the same jacket, my favourite jacket and most people believed me but deep down I knew that it wasn't the same. 

Lets be honest the vast majority of them know its a different club, they know its gone deep down. They are just to emotionally involved to admit it and to be honest it they would be fit for pity rather than ridicule........ if they weren't such pricks about it.

The Newco Debacle

In the last week or so I have come across several fans of a blue persuasion, for arguments sake we'll call them Rangers fans describe Celtic as a "Newco".

I know the vast majority of them are willing to believe that only because it is convenient and they aren't actually interested in the truth but for any who actually want to learn something here is why that isn't true: "Screen Grabs" provided are from Companies House, the Governments website which can be found easily through Google,

http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ > Find Information >WebCHeck

CELTIC PLC
Incorporated: 12/04/1897
(Despite a name change: 15/12/1994 from The Celtic Football & Athletic Company Limited)
Company Number:SC003487

RFC 2012 P.L.C
Incorporated: 27/05/1899
(Despite a name change: 21/07/2012 from The Rangers Football Club PLC)
Company Number: SC004276
*COMPANY LIQUIDATED & THEREFORE CEASES TO EXIST*

THE RANGERS FOOTBALL CLUB LIMITED
 Incorporated: 29/05/2012
(Despite a name change: 31/07/2012 from Sevco Scotland Limited)
 Company Number: SC425159

The Company which incorporated in 1899 Liquidated and therefore no longer exists, The NEW COMPANY formed in 2012 runs things hence "NEWCO"

The Company which runs things at Celtic Park was incorporated in 1897, no liquidation, no new company, NO NEWCO.

Obsessed is spelled S-C-H-A-D-E-N-F-R-E-U-D-E

Schadenfreude, a loanword from the German language with the literal translation "harm-joy" or to be more specific pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.  

Schadenfreude in a word sums up my interest in The Rangers International Football Club 2012. 

Who cares about them? Call them Rangers, Sevco, Newco whatever you will but to answer the question, I do. I should clarify that by care I don't mean I worry for their well-being but I am interested.

As I say new club or not the people who follow the team that currently play out of Ibrox stadium are the same people who followed the team who were our rivals or as I saw it elegantly put the other day, "same flies different sh*te". As a Celtic Fan growing up in the 90's I took my fair share of stick from them and it is now their misery from which I now derive pleasure.

So if I see a story about the "imminent demise" of this club or that they have been beaten by part-timers or spent almost £7million on footballing costs to win only third tier in Scottish football (a feat which cost Queen of the South only £650, 000 and they also won the Challenge cup) Yes, I will laugh and most likely share this story with other people who I think will laugh.

If this qualifies me as obsessed then guilty I am but to be honest I don't think it does and for me these stories are of interest to anyone who cares about Scottish football or who cares for the well being of any other club in Scotland because like it or not these people have a huge say in our game and will continue to do say while they last. Although that may not be long if they keep employing crooks and financial crack-pots as board members.

For people to comment on social media (mainly Facebook pages) "Who Cares?" on any post just because it is involves them is somewhat shallow and to be honest if I don't care about something I keep scrolling I don't take time out of my day to register my non-interest but I digress.

Regardless of this blog they will still call me obsessed, people will still ponder "Who cares?" on my posts and I, well I might have to stop and take a look at what I post but that of course would require that I stop laughing for long enough to notice.