Forty-Three Years On And Dan's Words Still Ring True

EVERY TIME it happens, I think again of dear old Ian “Dan” Archer, erudite Rugbyean, master wordsmith, but, at his core a Jags man. Ian's ashes were not scattered over Firhill – but they should have been.

In his pomp as Chief Football Writer of the Glasgow Herald, in a time when that was still a serious newspaper which mattered, or as Sports Editor during the brief Camelot of the Sunday Standard, Dan was The Man in Scottish football writing. And back then, in the days when giants: Stein, Ferguson, McLean, Greig, Wallace, MacLeod and McNeill trod our turf, what Dan wrote got people talking.

Thus, when he described Rangers as: “A permanent embarrassment and occasional disgrace,” that quote was on its way into the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

Dan wrote that critique of “Ra Peepul,” following a riot during a match against Aston Villa, in October, 1976, nearly 43 years ago. When Dan came up with that line:

• Jim Callaghan was Prime Minister
  
  
• Margaret Thatcher was a mere 20 months into her tenure as leader of the Tories
  
  
• Gordon Brown was a young lecturer at Glasgow College of Technology
  
  
• Boris Johnston had not even started at Eton
  
  
• Donald Trump was a Manhattan property developer
  
  
• Gerald Ford was the 40^th President of the USA
  
  
• Alex Ferguson was managing St Mirren
  
  

It was indeed a different world. But, here we are, 17 years on from Dan's far-too-early passing, and he is being proved correct: Rangers is still: “A permanent embarrassment and occasional disgrace.”

Just consider for a second; those hooligans from Birmingham, 46 years ago, if we assume they were mostly young men, are now grand-fathers – and still they besmirch the name of their club.

Perhaps some, proudly carrying their “battle honours” - Birmingham, Barcelona, Newcastle, Barcelona, were among those who misbehaved in Warsaw, leading to Rangers being ordered to close-off 3000 seats at Ibrox for the second leg match with Legia this week.

I feel certain some sons and grandsons would have been involved – after all: “It's oor kulchur.”

At the time Dan got tore intae them back in 1976, I was living and working in Yorkshire – the whole storm in a tea cup passed me bye. It wasn't until an hour ago, when researching this piece, that I read in its entirety what Dan wrote back then. He wasn't having a go at the “supporters”, he was having a go at the whole ethos of the club, which, of course, back then was all about arch Protestantism: “Nae Kaffliks, Nae Surrender, We Arra Peepel.”

Since then, Sir David Murray and Graeme Souness signed Maurice Johnston, an Italian Roman Catholic named Lorenzo Amoruso has captained the team, yet still a section of the Rangers' support cling fiercely to the old mantras: “Nae Kaffliks, Nae Surrender, We Arra Peepel.”

I accept, religious bigotry is not as such, Rangers' problem. Hatred of Roman Catholics, a firm intention to keep replaying King William's Irish campaign of 1689 and 1690 in 2019, that's behaviour learned in the home. Obliterating it, may never happen. But, Rangers could, very easily, distance themselves from behaviour and beliefs which have nothing to do with football in the 21^st century.

I honestly do not believe they want to do this.

The club has a hard core following of not-very-bright people, but, they buy a lot of Rangers' branded products – replica shirts, scarves, mugs, you name it, if the name Rangers is on it, they will buy it.

The re-born club is being run by: “Real Rangers Men,” led by a man described by a leading South African judge as: “A glib and shameless liar (GASL).” His management model seems to be to operate using OPM – Other People's Money, I doubt he has any morals or scruples when it comes to the source of the cash which keeps his club going.

I do not see the GASL being in any rush to root-out the cancer at the heart of his club and restore a good name to the institution he oversees – for him, it is all about the cash. King will not change.

But, what of the damage to Scottish Football and it's good name? Might we see the SFA step in and finally do something to sort-out this “A permanent embarrassment and occasional disgrace?”

Well, they've had at least 43 years in which to do something, and they haven't bothered. Indeed, when Rangers were liquidated in 2012, they could have allowed the beast to die, but, the great brains along the sixth floor corridor at Hampden were quite willing and able to break their own rules to keep a “Rangers” presence within the game.

This is pay back time, however, I remain convinced, in another 43 years, Rangers will still be with us in some form, and the club will still be: “A permanent embarrassment and occasional disgrace.”