Real Rangers Men Running A Sham Tribute Act - How Sad

I GET a lot of stick for insisting on referring to the SPFL Championship club which plays its home games at Ibrox Stadium as: the Rangers Tribute Act, or RTA for short.

 

Surely after the shambles which was the Premiership relegation/promotion play-off, nobody can now argue with that title. A genuine Rangers team - if we can imagine them in the situation of having to contest a relegation/promotion play-off, would have won.

 

A real Rangers team would never have surrendered so tamely over both legs, and, even if they had been beaten, they would surely not have resorted to the sort of infantile behaviour demonstrated by that apology for a North African import.

 

The RTA are well-rid of a player who was never remotely: "Rangers Class". Mind you, there are very few around Ibrox these days, on the playing or back-room staff, who might be deemed: "Rangers Class". How indeed are the mighty fallen.

 

Apparently, the club is now being run by: "Real Rangers Men". Well, they are now facing a crisis which has, even if we subscribe to the theory that the RTA is a continuation of the old club, never before been seen around Ibrox.

 

Firstly, the men at the top have to sort-out the manager's position. If they don't get the right man in, it could take them an awful-lot longer to return to what they and their followers see as their rightful place at the top in Scotland.

 

They have to sort-out too a catastrophic recruitment policy which has seen a lot of poor players recruited. Aye, turning the RTA into Rangers is going to be a long haul.

 

 

 

MEANWHILE, across the city, Celtic are continuing to moan and demand changes to the anti-sectarian laws introduced in haste by the Scottish Government.

 

Ever since Kenny McAskill, who brought-in the new act on his watch as Justice Secretary, climbed onto the band-wagon for change, I have argued: this was bad law, badly-worded and introduced in haste.

 

I agree with Celtic, it is a bad law, but, that club needs to hold up its hand and admit - sectarianism and bigotry in Scottish football is not a one-way street; they too have their bigots with an unhealthy interest in issues which have nothing to do with the game.

 

 

 

LOOK, all this talk about boycotting Friday night's Scotland v Qatar game is pure shite. Boycotts seldom, if ever, work. The guys at the top at Qatar don't give a shit if Easter Road is packed to the gunwales on Friday, or if nobody other than the players and officials are there.

 

The 2022 World Cup will still be held there. There will still be abuses concerning the immigrant workers building the stadia. If the Tartan Army spends the entire game abusing Qatar, it will make not a jot of difference to that.

 

On the other hand, however, we need this warm-up to prepare us for the grater task of winning in Dublin. Get behind WGS and the boys and never mind the political posturing.

 

 

 

IT IS now obvious, Europe, the real source of football's riches, has had enough of Sepp Blatter, ditto the USA. Europe and the USA is where the giant corporations who fund the global game are based.

 

If UEFA and the associations from the nations which hold the global purse strings simply get together and set-up a rival organisation to FIFA, Blatter and his gangster friends will be toast. It only needs the will to make this happen and it will.

 

 

 

I WAS at London over the weekend. There were two major cup finals on-going there, the Aviva Premiership rugby final, and the football FA Cup final. All around the capital I encountered rival fans enjoying the atmosphere and getting along swimmingly. I even met non-aligned fans, up in town for the big occasion.

 

This set me wondering, why cannot we have this up here? Or, is it simply that we Scots remain still, in this 21st century - a backward, tribal society.