"Why We Are The Most Hated Team In Scotland"

Four months are nearly upon the "Rangers In Crisis" drama that has sucked the footballing life out of the Scottish sporting world. The copy it has given interested parties has been truly endless, however one thing that has evolved is a unification of the entire Scottish footballing community against Rangers football club. 

Perhaps Alex Salmond was predicting something we didn't see back in February this year when he said that Scottish football "needs" Rangers, as this saga has shown that Scottish people outside the gates of Ibrox can be united akin to a model of an independent Scotland. Fans of clubs up and down the country have been following every day developments on their respective football forums. Threads have grown in ferocity and what has happened, mostly in the last month or so, is a hardening of opinion: Rangers must be punished for their sporting misdemeanors. 

What are these crimes? I would like to extricate firstly points that would lead any football fan under attack to point a lazy, accusative finger, as in western Scotland shouts of "bigot" is common. The case with Rangers has gone far beyond the British flag, William of Orange, or the Queen. These are all symbols and shields for a Rangers supporter to hide himself behind, or in extreme cases hit you over the head with. 

Rangers' most serious crime is "financial doping". We have seen slips, reveals, glimpses of what has occurred. Last month the BBC justified itself with the Marc Daly documentary "Rangers: The Men Who Sold The Jersey". After what has been years of chipping away - most notably by "Rangers Tax Case" - the brick covering Rangers' financial operation has been turned over, leaving all the lice to scuttle away in fright. What has so shocked every football supporter in the country is the level of abuse of the Employee Benefit Trust scheme under David Murray, and the proof that over seventy Rangers players had contracts not registered with the SFA. 

To put this into perspective, Rangers fielded unregistered players. These players undoubtedly helped or inspired the team to win cups and medals ahead of teams who registered contracts correctly. Put simply, the players with dual contracts should not have been playing on the pitch. The HMRC case against Rangers, which relates specifically to this serious issue, has yet to arrive, but it will be an obvious catalyst for the footballing authorities to rightfully strip the club of their "victories". 

In the late 1970s David Frost sat down with Richard Nixon and discussed the latter's political crimes. Rangers' current state reminds me of this event and of the state of mind Nixon was in when he was the president and the years after Watergate and his resignation. In the interview Nixon seemingly shirks discussion about his antics in Vietnam and somehow manages to turn the colossally vile act of war atrocities into a puff piece. A soundbite that arrogantly said to the world that he would put people to death and it was necessary. 

In a footballing sense Rangers are doing this now. They have broken the law but they have been put in the media spotlight as "the victor" (when they were winning trophies in the noughties), as if they've been the only club in the land to win cups. They have of course reached this level of "presidency" because of what Walter Smith once called "a Protestant superiority complex" eating into the club. This is key in understanding the make up of the Rangers. It's a complex that feeds directly and clinically into the minds of a majority of their supporters. The reason? Not one person - owner, director, manager, player or supporter from the club - has come out and apologized for what they're doing to the game. 

In fact the opposite has happened, and is likely to happen in an aggressive manner once further sanctions are imposed. After the SFA imposed a twelve month transfer ban on the club as punishment for only one year's worth refusal to pay tax (costing the taxpayer up to £14 million), a raft of supporters marched to Hampden. The week leading up to this march saw ugly and unprecedented threats and saber rattling, which came to a head when Ally McCoist ungraciously demanded the names of the panel who adjudicated on the transfer embargo. The names were rooted out and the three men were threatened by the Rangers supporters. 

When the American businessman Bill Miller put in an offer for the club, and saw the grave situation of the Rangers' books, he suggested a "newco" path for the club. This again chided with the fans and through banners at matches, along with abusive emails, Bill walked away. The reason it chided is because it shone a light on such a dark quarter of financial murkiness.

A crystal clear indication of such staid hubris is to look at their supporters' forum, Rangers Media. It is a one track record of thuggish abuse towards Catholics and anyone else who throws stones at such a "giant". When the club administrators took the shaky step of contravening the football authority of Scotland last week it was the entire football authority of Scotland who, in their minds, should now resign for the sake of Rangers football club. In general it appears that no one is worth anything to Rangers if Rangers are not winning everything either legally or illegally.

This week a thread appeared on Rangers Media that shows the patient awaiting treatment. Without cross-referencing this attitude of itself with other clubs in world football, it is safe to say that this superiority complex will never go away. 

It is of course identifiable for Rangers' supporters to act in such a rash way. Their bitter city rivals have a large support too, who work with them or see them in a street wearing either hoops or royal blue. Mixed with the speakeasy attitude of the average Glaswegian tongue the best form of defense is attack. However what Rangers are presenting us with this year has now traveled beyond the Glasgow boundaries and it is this factor that could be, after years of trying, weakening the misnomer that is the "Old Firm" tag. This is a crucial leap of suspect faith for Rangers as they seem like a Dad's Army waiting for war.  

So where does this leave the brittle state of the average Rangers' fan. In a way you have to empathise with their confusion. The administrators who were appointed under the auspices of Craig Whyte have constructed a media maze in a media frenzy. The process they put up for prospective new owners was at best an assault course with the winner so far - Charles Green - managing to finish first. But are his intentions that of a man wanting to save Rangers? Sheffield United fans wouldn't agree, as when he was their owner in the late 1990s a mood of repression hung over Brammal Lane. The fact that Green is only loaning Rangers a small amount to put forward to creditors does not ring the bell of best starts. 

With all of this burdening them it is no wonder that they put out the bunting in the hope that we will be distracted by it. 

Whyte Crossing The Line Is Going Through Their Minds

Picture for a moment a fantasy world which was, a long time ago, promised to the Scottish press as a complete reality. Outside Ibrox Park stands a gleaming skyscraper with moon beams shining high into the Govan sky. The individual letters on a neon sign flash C-A-S-I-N-O on repeat.  Inside the ornate halls lie a series of crap tables and there the looming figure of Craig Whyte slipping his hand into his suit jacket bears into view.

He puts down onto the table a pound note. A crisp, Scottish pound note. The pressmen from the Daily Record and the Herald stop dead in their tracks as their heads are turned. Chick Young grunts a noise of disbelief as he drops his fifteenth dachary of the afternoon. “This guy’s a serious player”, he thinks to himself. The croupier, Jim White, can hardly believe his luck. “Come to Daddy,” he drools into his bow tie. Behind the security cameras, high up on the sixty sixth floor the congregated Orangemen and Scottish Freemasons who run the club turn to each other and the penny drops: “We’ve got our man, gentleman.”

Nobody needs to be reminded of the complete rush to the head today has brought to us in the ongoing saga that dogs Rangers Football Club. Around the television studios the Rangers apologists are stalking the sets to vent their disbelief of what a large number of supporters – non-deluded supporters – were seeing as a truth a long while ago. Craig Whyte managed to buy “a big, world football club” for £1.

The Ticketus deal is the smoking gun in what has been a long stand-off recently. Even on the Rangers FC forums – home to what can politely be called a set of intransigents – they’re accepting the fate of things to come.

But what is to come? We know now, following on from Whyte’s statement today, there will be no chairman after the Administrators have done their adjudication. And this is not to mention of course the whopping tax bill that will surely – given the absolute facts associated with the club presently – pot their blackball. David Murray – himself to blame for a fair proportion of the club’s worries – sold this team knowingly to a man not worth any business credentials.

What is for certain is a suspicion that with the politicians sniffing around a club in the latter stages of rigor mortis, there could be an intervention from the state. This of course would mean that an institution that has got away with £75 million in tax avoidance will now ask you – yes YOU – to foot the bill. It was blatantly clear where the feather in Alex Salmond’s cap blew last week. It was pretty hefty and expensive rhetoric, a similar rhetoric that was seen at Ibrox where, according to the media, the world and its dog turned out to buoy up their team last Saturday. The team lost to Kilmarnock. So much for the brave leading the brave.

After tonight the men with the power we don’t see will be working in overdrive to save Rangers. If the club is bailed out by the public purse – let’s face it, what businessman would want to be lumbered with such a travesty of an enterprise – then there’d be uproar in Scotland. Today libraries are facing their death because of petty public cuts. If they can shut libraries and save a football team which promotes bigotry almost publicly then is there not a better time to announce a breaking point in society?

Perhaps a cocaine addiction on masse every Saturday would be a more sensible option. For Rangers supporters and for us. 

Does One Damned Single Freemason Hold A Clue For The Long-Term Future Of Their Interests?

Rangers are sharpening the creases that could see them fold quicker than any football supporter throughout the world would have imagined possible on a realistic scale. 

On the playing field side of events the manager Ally McCoist is seeing positives. Former managers of the club aren't. Gallingly it was Souness who steered Rangers's success domestically in the Scottish league but allowed the club to arrive to the point of this week's ever-daily detritus. 

Normally with the case of football clubs entering into the misery of administration the process has been based on a short-term period of terrible takeovers and financial shortsightedness. However, this is Scottish football, and in particular the stakes with the Murray Revolution were high.

Unsurprisingly David Murray released a press statement today to fudge the gap between the merry hell Craig Whyte foisted upon the Rangers support yesterday and what Murray himself bore him last year when he gave up the club for one pound. Murray and Souness were, when they began this misadventure in April 1986, two thieves thick in their intent to steal a charge to domestic and European dominance. Fair play to the two: they did bring in star names (having on their books England internationals who played a large part in the Italia 90 campaign); and obviously rankled Celtic psychologically for five years by signing Maurice Johnston from under their noses. 

Souness left in 1991 but he obviously set a standard that emboldened later managers of Walter Smith and Dick Advocaat to slap into submission big signings using Murray's dubious cheque book. Rangers were rampant. No one in the Scottish league could touch them as they didn't live up to the myth coming out of Ibrox Park. During this time sides like Airdrie and Gretna went under. The media was more distracted by the idea of Gascoigne knocking them in for fun on the park and knocking out his wife off it. They saw how sleek the skills of Brian Laudrup would crank up the numbers. Andy Gray, a former Rangers man himself, would be the first to have made a commentary. 

In terms of statistics Rangers equaled and very nearly bettered the record of league titles in a row. To date they've amassed 54 league flags under their belts. In 2008 they reached the final of the Uefa Cup but lost. If they'd won then they would have added another star to their club badge.

With success a reputation of greatness joins hands. It emotes itself so much that the society of supporters surrounding the club gates start to feel it. It's heartfelt in work relationships, in how a supporter conducts themselves abroad, how a supporter sees someone across the street from you, what a supporters does in a household season after season. Football has this intrinsic knack of ruining or making your life the way it is. But, for twenty three years Rangers Football Club  have spun a woeful, devious, cowardly and arrogant lie to the greater footballing public. And now is the time they've let everyone down.

The supporters who ferry themselves from the sectarian corners of Ulster every Rangers home game must now have serious doubts about a different religion they hold dear: the sovereign Queen of England. Her tax collectors have dealt this facade a crippling blow. 

The Curious Need of Want

At speeds only witnessed since Maradona stripped the entire English defence of their dignity at the '86 World Cup, a nation of sports hacks will today be quick to install Harry "Safe" Redknapp as the new manager of the English team. Redknapp experienced what must have been a spectacularly safe bet on his fortunes yesterday when six hours previously to Capello's resignation a judge decided upon a speculative tax case in his favour. 

Redknapp is of course the forerunner for the position now. In terms of one crucial acid test in being England manager is how he seems to be a totem for the perceived "white man van" that The Sun, a paper which he writes for, likes to pretend to promote. A swift comparison in this mould of England manager would be another high court ally: Terry Venables. This type of "geezer" mentality sells papers and wraps the St George in the flag of lager drinkers from the south of Wembley's gory arch. 

It appears that the job of England manager is toxic in many, curious ways. But has it ever struck the normal football supporter that the job is Southern England and beyond-centric? This list of recent managers is telling - since 1966 it has read: 

• Alf Ramsey (manager 1963-1974) - born in Dagenham
• Terry Venables (manager 1994-1996) - born in Dagenham
• Glen Hoddle (manager 1996-1999) - born in Hayes
• Sven Göran Erikkson (manager 2000-2006) - born in Sweden
• Fabio Capello (manager 2007-2012) - born in Italy

The managers who filled the positions in-between the ones in the list were deemed complete failures and were to large degrees put out in the tabloid stocks for public ridicule. Curiously it was these ones who were from and  plied their trade in the north of England. Revie was "an overblown flop"; Robson should never have been allowed to take the national squad to Italia '90; Taylor was the infamous allotment vegetable; Keegan was too media-wet (quite literally on the day he resigned at the old Wembley); and McClaren was "the wally with the brolly".

With consistent failure darkening the national team's doorstep in every effort to win a tournament since 1966 it does seem to be "the impossible job". A lot rides on timing and the mood of a "nation" when the FA come around to doing the appointing. But like everything else in England since the systematic destruction of the working class industries (prevalently in the north) the entire set-up has become a brand. This I think has alienated a core support from the cities and towns in the north of England throughout these barren years: support for the local team seems more crucial. 

Which leaves the options open only to a good old Cockney geezer. A safe pair of hands. Cor blimey, guv'nor: we've only gone an' lost to Kyrgyzstan. Don't love a duck: LOVE ME! But more importantly he is manager of a rich London club; he is from London; he wears nice suits and he avoids going to prison when the evidence is against him. 'Triffic.

In the detritus of today's headlines it is no surprise that the reason for Capello's exit was over a Southern, expensively paid and spoilt footballer. Who, pending a court hearing, so happens to be a proto-racist. It will be no greater of a surprise that the headlines through the tenure of the next manager will turn ugly depending on well Harry writes his. 

It Was The Winning That Counted

This video footage of the 1995 Scottish Cup final brings back the memories of the sheer relief  I felt when Celtic ended their six year failure of winning any trophies. A particular poignant moment is when Peter Grant cried on Charlie Nicholas's shoulder. It was quite a turning point in Celtic's recent history. 


Despite of his proto-Tevez instincts, Petrus Ferdinandu Johannes Van Hooijdonk was my hero that season. His header in the first ten minutes of that game showed why. 

Are They "Ready" Yet?

There is a storm brewing on Edmiston Drive but the forecasters are being slow to react. Yesterday evening there was talk, speculation, a sense of triumph - call it what you will - over on Celtic's most followed fans' forum, Kerrydale Street. It was over some speculation that Ranger's current chairman, Craig Whyte, was battening down the hatches in preparation for a fall out with the Rangers support. 

Talk was rife that, at last, The Daily Record - long held as a second fanzine for the Teddy Bears - was going to do a hatchet job on the serious problems within the club. The main talk was that Whyte mortgaged four years' worth of season ticket sales but has run up a debt against this. Ranger's on pitch failures in Europe this season has proved to be a considerable financial stumbling block in what can be considered a stupid venture. In addition to this Rangers fans have had to deal with the ignominy of having their star player, Nikica Jelavic, move down south in what has been essentially a fire sale of a transfer.

And of course, dare we mention the spectre of Hector The Taxman, who wants close to £50 million of unpaid tax. 

For sure the financing of the club is looking very dark. It is mooted that the club will soon be liquidated or less seriously put into administration. For nearly a year since the club was taken out of David Murray's hands for £1 it has remained static, only showing some signs of creeping slowly into the abyss that poorly run clubs fall foul of. 

So how has this been covered in the media? With a club the size of Rangers, with the history that it has foisted upon football (good and bad) you'd expect constant attention to the issue. However today this has not been so. The BBC, for example, have only shown signs of interest in the story late on Tuesday evening. Unsurprisingly it was covered by Chick Young, a known Rangers supporter, and had a degree of sympathy and none of the clinical incision that would have undoubtedly taken control if the problems were Celtic's. Paranoid, us? In December the BBC Football website was chronic in its coverage of accusations of sectarian chanting on a Celtic away day in Europe. Hardly was this a case of complete financial mismanagement on a scale that even Peter Ridsdale would applaud, but these are the times we live with.

Whatever talk of a "cracked crest", Rangers look like a weakened side on and off the pitch. It will be both interesting and depressing to factor in the level of media attention and scrutiny they will receive before the receivers come knocking at their doors.  

Anne Williams Is How A Mother Should Be

Now is the time to tear this wankerish whitewash we call elected democracy into shape. Death to Duckenfield. Death to Popper. Death to the putting of British football and its genuine supporters to the wall. The real action is in us and not them anymore.

God bless Kevin Williams - 1973 - 1989.

You Can't Really Blame The Failure Of Success

No one can fault the efforts of Crawley Town tripping up Barmby's army today in the FA Cup. They went for it and by all probable accounts, based on the Hull City teamsheet today, the Tigers didn't. 


Personally I was here today, so displacement theory again works wonders when your team lose: 

Hillsborough

Here is footage of local and national news on the Hillsborough disaster. We can only but thank the person who put this together as it acts as a collection of evidence from the time of the events of who was to blame and that the victims have a real case against the perpetrators. 

When Traditions Become Old And Firm

When Neil Lennon took over the mess left behind by Tony Mowbray’s unsuccessful stint as Celtic manager in 2010 he inadvertently sowed some bad seeds. In his first proper season Celtic were paired up with Rangers in a fifth round Scottish Cup tie. Before the game stories were coming out that Lennon was becoming a victim to the prejudice that plagued his playing career in Glasgow. A letter bomb was sent to him, bullets also. Later in the season, in front of football supporters worldwide he was attacked on his touchline whilst watching his side play Hearts at Tynecastle.

The heated encounter against Rangers led to chaotic scenes on the pitch. Similar to an Old Firm match in1987 when a number of players were sent off, and Englishman Graham Roberts controversially encouraged the Ibrox crowd with their sectarian chanting, the game at Celtic Park saw two Rangers men sent from the pitch. Off the pitch, on the touchline a scuffle broke out between Lennon and Ally McCoist, Ranger’s then assistant manager. The police reported that after the match there were incidents involving the two sets of support outside the ground and in the city centre of Glasgow. The infamy of this match went far beyond the Scottish press: politicians on both side of the border were now embroiled and emboldened to campaign against the bigotry stemming from both clubs. Its nadir was an episode of BBC 2’s Newsnight programme: Jeremy Paxman was to ask a searching question that didn’t really have the justice of a short interview to reach its answer. He asked: “why do these two sets of supporters hate each other so much?”

Celtic and Rangers are undoubtedly two very passionate and proud football clubs. They command respect and hatred in equal passions. Their worldwide appeal has been borne out of successes on the pitch. They have graced the European scene with competitive and skilful performances. Celtic of course was the first British team to win the European Cup in 1967. Rangers have had success with the Cup Winners Cup in 1972. Both teams have also got to the finals in Europe but without success, but for a country the size of Scotland, this can be not seen as failure by any account possible.  

These registered achievements would not, it could be argued, have been possible were it not for the implacable rivalry and sense of one-upmanship concerned between east and west Glasgow. This is where we should start if it comes to answering Jeremy Paxman’s question.

The two sides are the sporting outlet for the overarching chaos of the society of Glasgow as a city. The bedrock of Glasgow’s main identity has revolved around the pillars of religion, politics, economy and pride. Celtic was created out of all of these factors. Brother Walfrid was an Irish Marist who saw that the Catholic Irish immigrants in Glasgow’s east end needed a totem for their endeavours. Rangers, who were, ironically, formed on the pitches of Flesher’s Haugh (less than a mile from Celtic Park) held out its hand to the Protestant faith of Glasgow and indeed Scotland. It was sixteen years before they took part in the first “Old Firm” fixture, which would be the very beginning of a simmering rivalry based on the clashes Glaswegian society had to offer.

The formation of both sides coincided with a time in Glasgow’s history when it was the febrile industrial trade centre renown in Britain’s empire. At one time the commodities dominating Glasgow’s trade infrastructure was churning out ships on the Clyde, trains at Springburn, steel foundries in the east and west end, and the textile trade set throughout the city. With so much skilled labour floating about a population of over one million there was a milieu of men and women who asked for nothing simpler  during their weekend leisure time but to practice religious reverence to their Catholic or Protestant faiths on a Sunday, and sporting reverence to their Celtic or Rangers faiths on a Saturday.

With such familiarity contempt bred. Celtic supporters, whose bedrock is the political exiles from Southern Ireland and Catholic Northern Ireland, were detested because of their immigrant status. Since the sixteenth century Scotland has practiced Protestantism. Rangers were the object reason to bash Celtic over the head because of this historical and religious fact. It took a series of wars to rid Scotland of the Catholics who got in the way of the Protestant Reformation, so it seems very obvious why the religion plays a crucial factor in the violence and hatred that underpins the two teams.

With this issue there is no closer source I can consult other than my father. My father was brought up in the mostly Catholic Gorbals district of Glasgow in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. His story is indicative of the many lives affected by the Old Firm. Although he never preached the overtly hostile elements of the religious context (parts of his family married into Protestant unions) he nonetheless saw first hand the rivalry and to what extent it unfolded. He often tells me the reason he left Scotland for England. After one Old Firm game he was on the bus heading back home. On the bus a number of Celtic supporters jumped off when they saw a group of lads in Rangers shirts. They beat up the Rangers fans viciously: my dad didn’t want anything to do with Glasgow and its battles any more.

I was not there but I can understand fully this story. I have seen, growing up as a supporter of Celtic the bizarre levels that the bitterness can reach. On one occasion I was in London crossing a road. It was on Oxford Street, I was with my parents and I was wearing a Celtic shirt (which at the time was very brave as Celtic was appalling on the field at that time). A gloating man nearly twice my age screamed at me about how Rangers had won yet another title and Celtic hadn’t.  

I and my father, however, have never shown interest in the Catholic faith: my dad was an alter boy but very bravely he dispensed of his religion in the 1950s. I have never been affected by it to the point of it poisoning my soul. We have become outsiders looking in. I love Celtic because of different reasons which involve mainly of them winning and not ruining my life on a Saturday afternoon. And they also remind me of the pride I have in my dad and his colourful life.

The ugliest factor of the division of both sets of supporters is the political and economic prejudices. Within organised religion there is not the drop down factor of what goes onto the family dinner table. Work is the factor which decides this. Since the mixture of Catholicism and Protestantism rushed to the fore of Glasgow society the whip hand has become ever more aggressive, depending solely on who holds the whip. The labour classes in Glasgow have predominantly erred towards the Catholics and the work ethical obsessed, managerial classes have erred towards the Protestants. Glasgow today can be easily carved up in its urban make up to hold this point to account. The east and south east sections of Glasgow are relics of the city’s “slum problem” whereas the west and south western areas are put into a more luxurious context. It’s a straightforward case of the affluent and non-affluent, and the aesthetics of its architecture is an indication of this.

In the early twentieth century the religious divide spearheaded the Education (Scotland) Act, which more or less brought about schools for the Catholic children of Glasgow. Tribally this was a crucial spur towards the ever deepening rivalry of the two football teams. Indeed it would be foolish not to imagine a typical day in the yards of both Catholic and Protestant schools: in the former, boys wanted to be the Celtic star of the day, the latter the Rangers star. With poverty, in all walks of live, a hardening in the sense of political activism occurs. For Celtic supporters the disillusionment at the treatment of Irish citizens at the hands of the English government played at the forefront of their psyche. The terror campaign from the era of both the Black and Tans and the Republican movement has always played a literal backdrop to Celtic and Rangers games, even to this day. Celtic enveloped themselves with hero figures of the Irish Republican Army’s struggle against British Sovereignty tyranny. Likewise, Rangers supporters maintain the traditions of the Orange Order and Unionism. For Celtic it’s Bobby Sands; for Rangers it’s the Queen. Never the twain shall meet.

Within the loaded question that Paxman asked last year was a certain degree of irony. Paxman, who is Jewish, will be familiar with the peculiar bitterness that exists in the political situation of Zionist Israel. There is within this small, concentrated population a fiery rivalry that is based on the lines of religion, politics, economy and civic pride. One side sees itself superior to the other in terms of politics and economy, to the point where the other side exists in a state of near penury, victim hood and an anger of mistreatment. The history of this conflict of opinions goes back to the supposed creation of Man and whose religion comes out on top. Glasgow could be Jerusalem but without the fireworks of death and retribution.

But where would we be without the Old Firm in football? Without blowing the Old Firm out of its complete perspective there wouldn’t be the passion that elevated the action on the pitch to pure theatre. The atmosphere of a Celtic and Rangers game is thunderous to the point that it is in the same ranks of the derby matches in Manchester, Liverpool, North London, and the El Classico. Football brings out our basest of elements, whether those elements are good or bad is inevitable: these matches unify them and to a large degree control them in a sealed environment. 

We Could Bring In Howard Jones...

This is a great piece of footage of a time when Hull City were in a pre-postmodern transition. Don Robinson had ideas above his station, a fact in a football chairman I am accustomed to. Similarly, a decade later Celtic were being promised a bit of earth in Cambuslang which was just another pipe dream to sell to the support. 

The "Hollywood type bowl" never came to Boothferry Park, and neither did Howard Jones. 

Justice For The 96

The movement that supports justice from the failings of the Hillsborough disaster is something of a paradox: a noble cause that you want to end, because if it does then the families will have won. Liverpool FC will of course never forget April 1989 and it has made them as a support stronger than they were in their heyday. 

On my sister blog I wrote about how football changed dramatically from the day that ninety six people innocents died on the Leppings Lane end of the Hillsborough stadium. It can be viewed here. The peculiarity of that day involved everyone in this nation: from the establishment classes to the working classes, the event was a heady reminder of where as a society, and football as a product, would go to next. 

Justice Please

Let's Dispense of Titles

The main influence for this blog's title was the lessons football broadcasters did not chose to follow from this interview. 


Brian Clough did say a lot of things that were blatantly ahead of their time. It could be argued that he would still be ahead of his time in today's game. But, timing is always important. 

And The Second Half Kicks Us Off, Now....

Hello and welcome to my blog which will before your very eyes progress into something I do not know yet. The more posts I do about our national obsession will give you a firmer idea as and when they're added.


I do intend to write about the almost countless football stories that litter and entertain our hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly existences. I have been personally faithful to two football teams in the last twenty two years of following football: Celtic and Hull City. The reasons have been simple: my father is from Glasgow and spent a number of his formative years in The Jungle of Celtic Park. With Hull City this is the geographical local team. My father moved to Hull and, growing up there myself, The Tigers were the only football team in town. 


Like anyone with a human obsession, football has spread into my life like a cough on a sick person. Within the twenty two years of loving the game it has changed like anything else going through generations. Kits change; money changes hands; managers come and go; success with it too. 


I will also be linking quite a considerable of discoveries from the internet and then talking about them. I will also add some of the political aspect that creep into football. The two are completely linked. Football, after all, does reflect a lot of our lives and in society it brings people together. 


Grab a pie, a pint, a quick snout, and stand on the terraces to observe....