Rangers and Armed Forces Day – Whataboutery and Bad Judgement

I think it is fair to say that there will not be a repetition, at least in the same format, of the “Armed Forces Day” held at the Rangers game on Saturday. What is alleged to have happened at Ibrox on Saturday has resurrected concerns about “succulent lamb” press coverage; has brought back into fashion “whataboutery”; and has shown that in both the Army/Mod and Rangers nobody learned the lessons from last year and opened themselves up to criticism by ignoring them.

You would have thought that, after last year’s Remembrance Event there would have been some consideration given by Rangers and the Ministry of Defence to the format for Saturday’s festivities.

In case you have forgotten last November’s event resulted in the following, as reported by the Daily Record:-

Why Did Professional Investors Buy Into Rangers Share Issue? – Guest Post by Allybhoy

After reading Goldstein’s blog on this site, I thought the article focused far too much on the Whyte angle. Is Whyte pulling the strings or not? In my opinion what and why things are happening matters more than who is pulling the strings.

Firstly, I was amazed at the success of the Rangers share issue. The club claimed to have raised £22.2m. That is a hell of a lot of money for several reasons – the main one being it was a terrible investment. I can understand supporters being willing to make a financial investment to match their emotional investment … and it’s always nice to have a framed share certificate to display at home. Professional investors are another matter. In the article linked above, Rangers manager Ally McCoist says “The fact that it’s in the region of £22m, and for the fans to chip in with roughly £5m, I think is absolutely staggering”. From that quote we can see that institutional investors were responsible for around £17m raised in the issue.

Why is Mr McCoist Taking a Pay Cut at Rangers When There is £10 Million in the Bank?

Goldfish have a short-term memory which lasts only ten seconds apparently.

One sometimes suspects that journalists have a recollection span which does not extend back beyond the press conference they have just been at!

Do I have an example? Yes, I do!

The papers yesterday covered Mr McCoist’s confirmation that he and his management team had agreed to wage cuts. The Daily Record reported:-

A Story about Craig Whyte, Rangers, Charlotte, and the Last 2 Years – Guest Post by Goldstein

I don’t have any quotes, or smoking guns, or links to official documents, tape recordings, or any credentials whatsoever. All I have is a story, a story that you will hopefully agree has a ring to it. In a way, everything that has happened over the last 24 months is evidence. You are all familiar with the facts, so hopefully my story will help you process them.

Let me start by suggesting this story makes much more sense if you look at it from the perspective of Craig Whyte, before, during, and after RFC went into administration. Very little of that which follows is in the least bit controversial. Most of the key events and facts are already known and in the public domain. How those facts and events are explained here in my story might be a surprise to some but I think deep down inside everyone who reads it will appreciate its simplicity and wonder how they didn’t see through all this before.

Is The New Rangers Song “Friday Night’s Alright for In-Fighting”?

A good day for me to have a few minutes for writing!

At about the time my last post went up, the official Rangers website issued another “Club Statement”. They have been coming think and fast over the last few weeks despite the earlier statement that the club could not reply to each and every incorrect story and rumour.

Tonight’s statement confirms what Chris McLaughlin of the BBC referred to earlier and it has also been confirmed by Mr Dingwall of Follow Follow that he received an email from lawyers for Rangers this evening (just imagine how much the hourly rate must have increased for working late on the Friday of the September weekend!)

What have Rangers said officially?

RANGERS FC have tonight informed Police Scotland of deeply offensive and threatening comments that have been made on the Follow Follow website. These remarks have placed a director and his family in a state of fear and alarm.

This Club is shocked by the kind of physical violence being mentioned and is sure the vast majority of Rangers’ support will share our alarm and disgust. This type of rhetoric can never be deemed acceptable.

Rangers FC cannot tolerate this behaviour and intend to take an extremely robust approach to this sort of conduct. The board finds it inexplicable that some so called supporters of the club are bringing Rangers into disrepute and these people are not welcome at Ibrox.

The board is also aware that certain individuals are holding meetings and inciting fans to unruly behaviour. This has also been reported to the police.

As I mentioned earlier the language on some websites and message boards is not something you would want your children to see. Some of the sentiments expressed are vile and repugnant. (By the way, I am not saying that this is exclusively a Rangers problem – of course it is not – although, for my own part, those websites are where I have been the target of such comments.)

A thread commenting on Craig Whyte giving evidence at Inverness Sheriff Court today, for example, seemed to contain enough vitriol and expressions of ill-will towards Mr Whyte for the entire resources of Police Scotland to be put to work on it!

The people who run Rangers are not stupid. They know what kind of comments are made on message boards and clearly they tolerate them, until now. (Equally, if the complaint was about some specific and credible threat, then of course action should be taken, but in 99.99999% of instances it is at worst an “Internet hard man” shouting off.)

Actually Rangers Football Club must tolerate the Follow Follow website. “Follow Follow” is a registered trademark of Rangers. If it wanted to close the website down, or at least stop it using that name, then it could easily do so.

The shock of Rangers discovering what kind of comment goes on on these message boards reminds me of this film clip below:-

The comment too about taking action against “this sort of conduct” irresistibly reminds me of this:-

And as for the final paragraph – fans have been holding meetings and “inciting fans to unruly behaviour”!

“Unruly” is an interesting word – one definition reads as follows:-

Disorderly and disruptive and not amenable to discipline or control.

So, not criminal, not unlawful, not threatening nor even offensive. Rather the concern is that there will be disruption and disorder. When the Scottish Government pushed its Offensive Behaviour at Football etc Act through Parliament, one wonders if any consideration was given to adding “unruly” behaviour to what was criminalised.

Otherwise Rangers should be happy that there are people who are sufficiently committed to their football club (a) still to care about it (b) with the desire to come to games even when they do not like the present Board and (c) to want to organise protests against the Board. People care about Rangers and the Board Statement seems to be promulgating the idea that the Board’s view is automatically the Rangers view.

It is clear that there are many who do not agree and now they seem to be at the receiving end.

What a mess!

Posted by Paul McConville