JABBA THE AGNIVORE

EGG ON THEIR FACES AND EGGSHELLS ON THEIR HEADS

Graham Spiers further alienated himself from the Trigger's Brush FC hordes by taking a stick, shoving it into their nest and stirring it around. The WASPs soon came swarming out after he had the nerve to claim that their club is a new one. They claim vindication due to the Advertising Standards Authority's ruling and the BBC watchdog supporting their complaints about BBC pundits talking about Oldco Rangers and Newco Rangers. Unfortunately, however, this vindication comes about due, not to the justice of their case, but through abject fear.

Remember a few years ago the furore over some foreign newspaper printing caricatures of the prophet Mohammed (P.B.U.H)? The usual death threats followed and the story was broadcast all over our newspapers and TV. Not one paper or TV channel, however, would show us what all the fuss was about. It is difficult to believe that in the hard, cynical world of news reporting that it was respect for Islam that prevented them from showing the offending cartoons. It was fear, plain and simple. Although the majority of Muslims are peaceful folk there are more than a few extremist nutters that are prepared to die and kill, as they claim, for their faith. It's the same scenario with Trigger's Brush FC.

The disgraceful destruction in Manchester and the threats on the life of Neil Lennon and others shows that this kind of extremist element exists among the Trigger's Brush support as well. The decisions to uphold their complaints, therefore, are primarily driven by the fear of getting home-made bombs through the post and of instigating destructive rampages through our streets. This can hardly be called 'vindication'!

The majority of the Brushers, however, are too concerned with what's going on at Tynecastle to bother about what Spiers has to say. Again, they seem to think they've been vindicated; they warned us all that the SPL would collapse without them, didn't they? As usual, in their self-absorption, they ignore the facts. Hearts have been teetering on the brink for years. Even Wallace Mercer saw the warning signs twenty-odd years ago and proposed a meger with Hibs. To the Jeremiahs of the Trigger's Brush FC support, however, this is just the start. The whole of Scottish football is heading into the abyss and then the Glorious Trigger's Brush FC will take its place at the top table of English football!

Their main concern, though, is that Hearts are treated the same as Rangers were. Many of them are demanding that Hearts are tossed into Division 3 now. They forget, of course, that this did not happen to them until their club was liquidated. In fact, it did not happen at all; it was the new team that had to start at the bottom, albeit the rules were bent so they could jump the queue into the Scottish leagues proper.  The exact same thing will happen if Hearts go into liquidation. Any new club based at Tynecastle will need to apply to get into the league, exactly the same as happened with Rangers and Gretna before them. The delusion that they were somehow treated unfairly, however, seems to have become ingrained.

Kevin Kyle was in the Daily Record yesterday, blaming the SFA for everything. According to him, the SFA should have ensured that people like Romanov and Whyte were not allowed to take over their respective clubs. Quite apart from the fact that this is not the job of the SFA, can you imagine the reaction if Whyte had been prevented from taking over Rangers? Remember all the 'In Whyte we trust' nonsense? Remember how they demonstrated outside BBC Scotland because said channel had the nerve to question Whyte's suitability? If the SFA had blocked Whyte's takeover they would all have been claiming that Peter Lawwell was to blame; pretty much the same as they do now. No matter what happens, everyone else is to blame!

They are also indulging in a major case of straw-clutchery and whatabootery at the moment. They are claiming that Celtic were sold land for £1 by Glasgow City Council and are determined that this is all some kind of 'Fenian' conspiracy to help Celtic. Good luck to them with that one! It is common practice for councils to sell land to companies for a nominal sum if it means regenerating a deprived area and providing employment. It would be easy to find other examples of such business and I've no doubt that Rangers took advantage of such deals too.

Much more potentially criminal was Duff and Phelps's cheap sale of the assets of Rangers to Charles Green. A blind eye was turned to this underhand deal, even though it was incumbent on Duff and Phelps to act in the interests of creditors and sell assets to the highest bidders. A blind eye was also turned, indeed, support given, to turning the holding-company model on its head to let Green claim that his new club was still Rangers. Nor does anyone want to look too closely into the health-and-safety implications of a football stadium full of asbestos. Not to mention the blind eye and deaf ear that have been turned for decades to the racist and bigoted chanting and singing at Ibrox and the sectarian signing policy pursued by the club until relatively recently. Yes, if it comes to enquiries uncovering misdemeanours and cover-ups then the Ibrox clubs would win hands-down!

As to what is happening to Hearts and other teams it is being caused by huge changes in society. Changes have happened before in Britain and it is easy to be cold and dispassionate when reading a History book; living through the changes, however, is another matter. To the Luddites of the Industrial Revolution, they were fighting to preserve their way of life, as were the unions in the 1970s. Equally, the British Empire was a symptom of economic weakness, as other European countries caught up with Britain in industrial competitiveness. At the time, however, the Empire was made out to be something glorious, even though Britain had always tried to avoid this kind of costly enterprise. Football in Scotland is now going through the same kind of change.

Since the end of the Second World War the entertainment industry has changed considerably. Cinemas closed, and became bingo halls, in the face of competition from television. Now those bingo halls are closing due to people being able to play on the internet. Playstations, X-Boxes, Netflix, Sky TV etc are forcing other forms of entertainment to change and football is primarily an entertainment. Many youngsters would rather play Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto than go to a football match and this is reflected in the falling crowd sizes at football grounds. The situation in England is somewhat disguised by the huge payouts from Sky Television; when this dries up then football there will be in serious trouble.

In Scotland the same mega-bucks from television is just not available. At one point it looked as if Scottish football could ride the same gravy train as English football and clubs spent money accordingly. The big money, however, did not materialise but Scottish football was caught in a cycle of spending that spiralled out of control. This reckless spending was instituted by Rangers and everyone else tried to keep up. Clubs like Celtic were derided for their 'biscuit-tin' mentality and even the fans complained that the boards were not spending enough. In the long run this spending could not be maintained in the face of declining ticket sales. Now Scottish football is finally having to face up to reality.

The supporters of Trigger's Brush FC, however, refuse to recognise reality. Like crops in a farmer's field they have been fed nothing but horseshit by Murray, Whyte and then Green. In their desperate need to believe in their own, and their club's, superiority, they simply cannot accept that Rangers were to blame for their own demise. To their brainwashed way of thinking it had to be external enemies that were responsible. They blame a 'Fenian,' Peter Lawwell-led SFA and SPL, a 'Fenian' media, a 'Fenian' HMRC and a 'Fenian' Scottish Government. I read one idiot that even claims that Hearts' problems are down to the SPL and SFA, led by Peter Lawwel, naturally, who have victimised the Gorgie club because of the guy that attacked Neil Lennon!

What the hell is to be done with these people? You can't debate with them. The only answers you get back are, 'We arra Peepill' and 'Shut it ya Feenyin bastird!' It is one of the main problems that a modern Scotland is going to have to address, whether independent or not: how to eradicate this anachronistic thinking from a sizeable portion of our population. They are an acute embarrassment, not only to Scotland, but to themselves.

 

An Ibrox spokesman