Closet Bigotry

It only needs the faintest whiff of trouble in one of the nations two biggest closets of cloaked bigotry, football clubs Rangers and Celtic, for the other side to gloat and jeer from the sidelines at their problems. It is bad enough when the two sides clash over their scores, and respective places in the league table, but when they join in like baying wolves over a financial problem? It seems that bigots and the sectarian divide are alive and well, and enjoying a feeding frenzy on mutual hatred.

No sooner was Rangers Football Club’s financial problems made public, the ‘other’ fans were busy making hay on the social networking site, Facebook. In a little bit of fun (they say), but a whole lot of vitriol, they laugh and jeer their way to making themselves sick at the thought of their hated enemy being reported as broke, and in administration. The phrase “Celtic fans dancing on Rangers Football Club’s grave” comes to mind, and has been used many times recently.

I had naively thought that the clubs and supporters, helped by the Scottish Government, were getting on top of the blight of Scottish football, namely bigotry, but I have been misled badly. The fans don’t really want a peace pact, or a truce, or a cessation of hostilities. They want to taste the ‘blood’ (not literally, of course) of their sworn enemy’s failure at any level, and on any battlefield. The football pitch, or the courtroom, it doesn’t really matter. It’s at times like this I am ashamed to be a Scot in the middle of bigots who can’t see it. And please don’t tell me it’s only the ‘traditions’ of the clubs which are being protected, and no real harm is intended or done. The hatred spouted doesn’t just come from fans, but also from ‘ordinary’ people who don’t go to any games. Could the reason possibly be that the deep seated religious bigotry of Rangers and Celtic ‘supporters’ just needs a spark to ignite it into a flame?

Apparently Tax avoidance, and other money troubles affect many other Scottish Football Clubs, so maybe it is only a matter of time before Celtic Football Club suffers a similar fate. Then by a twist of fate, if BOTH clubs were to go to the wall and cease to trade, maybe Scottish football and society would be the better for their absence. Think of the benefits: Less spouse abuse after a bad game, fewer frightened children, less alcohol fuelled violence, fewer admissions to A&E, ‘real football’ fans going to their local match, and not travelling 300 miles to soak up the ‘tradition’, and a Police Force who can concentrate on other crime, instead of keeping fans apart by colour coding. But most of all, maybe a real and serious chance to put our national shame of bigotry behind us, slowly, slowly, slowly. Ok, I can hear you shout that there are other Clubs around the UK who are also sectarian and bigoted in nature, but in Scotland we have a place to start. I hope we can use this opportunity to forge a new direction and make a change to our national disgrace. It’s overdue, and we desperately need it. Our grandchildren will thank us for it!

“There are none so blind as those who WILL NOT see”. (Matthew Henry 1662-1714 and still true)!