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.

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.

Time for forgiveness.

Time for forgiveness.

Leigh Griffiths: Celtic Footballer, Scotland International, Hibs fan, Edinburgh Boy. Racist? Not for me. As I have said since these allegations surfaced, I don't think calling someone a refugee is a racial slur, derogatory: certainly, offensive: most likely but in my understanding of the term, not racist.

That however is neither here nor there in the point I aim to make via this blog. My point being even if what he said/ sung had been a racist slur, does that make him a racist? Again not in my eyes. Everyone has at points in their lives said things which are inappropriate, offensive and things which they wouldn't say under normal circumstances. This is not to say what they said has no meaning but it isn't necessarily who they are and there in lies my point.

I'm sure a lot of the people taking the moral high ground on this issue would not be so quick were they being challenged on statements they had made/ chants they had sung at the age of 23. Yes he is in the public eye and yes, perhaps he should know better but as we all know  well in the heat of a derby game atmosphere, the build up, the game, the aftermath it is all too easy to become swept up in it.

In my opinion that is what happened to Leigh Griffiths. No matter what team strip he pulls on for a game, he is and always will be a Hibs fan and I have the utmost respect for that. He in this instance for me was stupid, naive and gullible. He was swept up in atmosphere among a group of his own fans and acted foolishly (as we all have).

My main point in this blog is that weeks on from the incident, the charge, the investigations at a home game versus Inverness the Green Brigade unveil a banner emblazoned "A Man Must Be A Celt On & Off The Field, Otherwise He Is Of No Value To This Club". While I understand the frustration of these fans and others, and agree yes a Celtic player should act with more class off the field than Leigh has so far my problem is how is the Bhoy supposed to move on from this incident and learn from his mistake if it is going to be thrown in his face at every turn? How can he be expected to turn the corner if he is being blocked?

So I guess my main point is stated in the title it is time to give forgiveness a try, for if not forgiveness then what?

On the field I love the way Griffiths plays I think he has the ability to score goals for Celtic for years to come, the hunger and passion with which he chases every ball and his control is great and at only 23 I feel he will only get better and I think that is what we need to wait for off the field as well, just that little bit of maturity to come. He is going to be The Scottish medias favourite target for the foreseeable. He is for them the new Boruc or Lennon before him but it will be how he deals with it that is the making of the player. The test of the man.. and the bhoy.

Give him time and let him become the Celt he is on the field off the field. Back our player.

Let The People Sing?

"Let the people sing their stories and their songs
And the music of their native land "

These lyrics ring around Celtic Park just before kick off at every home game ....and so they should although, now the sentiments seem to have been lost. Every time I hear the song start up at paradise, I sing along of course but it sets me thinking.

"For those who are oppressed, in song you can protest...". Well apparently not if the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 is anything to go by.

Don't get me wrong, I do understand that some songs are unacceptable and that they cannot be tolerated, having said that the wide scope and in some parts hypocritical nature of this bill is beyond belief. The fact Roll Of Honour is one of the song banned under this Act yet Flower Of Scotland which includes the lyrics "But we can still rise now, And be the nation again, That stood against him" is nothing short of laughable.

Again I run the risk of being misunderstood, I have nothing against the National anthem I am Scottish, and proudly so yet I am also proud of my Irish heritage and if the lyrics of each song are examined impartially think it is plain to see which come across as more inflammatory or provocative of violence. This is my point about the hypocritical nature of the Scottish Governments act.

Celtic Football Club should be looking at helping out the fans in this situation, have CLEAR lists put forward about which songs are acceptable and unacceptable and challenge the ruling when we don't agree, work with the fans to come to an agreement rather than allowing people to be banned from football of imprisoned for singing certain songs, otherwise Celtic show the same hypocrisy as the Government by playing Let The People Sing at matches.

This is not a blog in unadulterated support of The Green Brigade, I am talking above about Celtic fans as a whole. I do not think the Green Brigade have been treated completely fairly but that is for another time.

We need our fans to be able to sing and express themselves at football and for some people to know be fearing going to the football in case a song they sing lands them with a criminal record is unacceptable.

Let The People Sing.