What’s Wrong with Rangers?
Rangers are a travesty, but also a tragedy.
Rangers fans have been calling for Phillipe Clement’s head after the team crashed out of the Scottish Cup to Queen’s Park – the worst Scottish Cup exit in the club’s history. This was Rangers first ever defeat at home to lower league opposition in the Scottish Cup. The shock defeat has left Rangers staring at a trophyless season, but Clement stressed that he will not walk away, and the Rangers board are unlikely to sack him.
Figures curated by Kieran Maguire – who runs the Price of Football podcast – have outlined the massive disparity in financial power between the two clubs. Across Revenue, Wages, Squad Cost, and Player Purchase (!), the figures are staggering.
It all goes to show, as the Queen’s Park hero-goalie Calum Ferrie said “It’s just eleven footballers against eleven footballers”.
The actual triumph of Queen’s Park has been eclipsed in the turmoil and angst of the Rangers supporters, but it leaves the club with a terrible choice between sacking their manager, (who is reputed to be on £50k a week), or slaking the thirst for vengeance of their enraged fans, and their lucrative 40,000 season tickets.
But beyond just a drama in Scottish football, there’s a wider story.
The massive emotional over-investment and detachment from reality that Rangers supporters have in what their club represents make them incapable of doing what they need to do: rebuild their entire club from the ground up with young Scottish players, build a long-term plan for success on the field, and ditch the violence, sectarianism and far-right politics that shrouds the club.
Rangers are not alone in Scottish football in flooding their team with overpaid foreign players to the detriment of youth, nor are they different in chasing a dream by over-extending themselves to the detriment of sound finances. But they are unique in that their desperate efforts to beat their rivals eclipses any reason, and the fact that their opposition have disappeared over the horizon in terms of quality and finance should have brought some sense into play. In this sense Rangers fans are engaged in Fantasy Football.
But Rangers are also alone in having a fan-base which has a sizeable element mired in loyalist bigotry and regularly able to, apparently with complete impunity, render Scotland’s largest city a no-go zone for ordinary people. That’s an ongoing issue for the Ibrox club to resolve, but it also raises questions for Scottish society, its politicians, and its police force.
This behaviour doesn’t apply to all Rangers fans by any means but it is the defining identity of the club.
The tragedy of Rangers FC, rather than the travesty is that, despite representing Establishment Scotland and Establishment Britain to almost a comical caricature, they also reside in one of Scotland’s poorest communities. To this extent the rage meted out against Phillipe Clement is justified, but points to the ludicrous phenomenon of contemporary football. The difference in Scotland is that football grounds are still occupied by football fans, quite different from the dull and quiet corporate librararies that have been created in the upper echelons of England’s bloated leagues.
The harsh reality is that Ranger’s desperation, and their sectarianism, are born out of poverty, and not just the clubs.
Perhaps what Rangers need is to move to a fan-ownership. The model is followed at Real Madrid where fans called “socios” hold membership and voting rights, and closer to home at Norwich City, Hearts, Motherwell and St Mirren and across the the German Bundesliga largely implementing a “50+1” rule, where fan groups hold majority control over clubs through membership associations.
This would be hard for a fan-base where the model of looking upward to rich men or King and Country is the dominant ideology. Despite the constant proclamation that ‘we are the people’, the reality is a worldview based around concepts of deference and fealty. It’s a profoundly disempowering model that’s proven to be a disaster. Maybe it’s time for a real change?
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Nicely put Mike.
During the period when Rangers were in receivership, there was a move by a sizeable group of supporters to take the club into ‘fan’ ownership, as your article indicates other clubs have done. Very quickly, the business community, with the support of the media pooh-poohed the idea and moved quickly to establish some kind of private ownership. Have Rangers run in a communitarian way?!?! The very idea!!! This demonstrates how much Rangers FC is part of the establishment and a significant projection of establishment power. ‘Know you place’, was the message. Support us, give us your money, but do not expect to have any real part of Rangers.
The club needs to be dismantled.
Why are we referring to this outfit as ‘Glasgow Rangers’? That outfit went bust. This club and a sizeable proportion of its supporters are a disgrace to Scotland. One of the saddest and sickest things I’ve seen at Ath Bhruic was those cretins holding up that huge banner exclaiming their sons will be just like the fathers (or words to that effect, in supporting this vile institution). So this putrid sectarianism breeds itself.
It’s high time the authorities took a firm line: Auto-record the sound at each game, one instance of sectarian ‘singing’ = points forfeited, a second elicits no fans at the next game, a third play behind closed doors for a season and a fourth an outright ban. And good riddance.
Totally spot on well written piece. Compassion and pity are required in envisioning the level of change needed to tackle the fan’s obsession with Protestant Ascendancy. The Board requires the obsession in its need for finance. Tricky situation.
Thanks Alice
hmm, I think sum fowk jist prefer blue masel, and before we git oan wur high horse let us no furgit the celtic have a lang tradition ae completely humiliating the opposition for eg., the massive defeat of eberdeen fc during the tenure of mark mcghee, these things are best treated with a sense of humour unless one is so heavily invested in financial terms that the game is liable tae be the end ae ye
I detest ALL professional so-called ‘sport’. It’s not sport – it’s commercial business.
And the fans paying inflated prices to watch, and many spending crazy amounts on daft merchandise, look extremely gullible.
The whole set-up is ludicrous, laughable and, when you consider the way that ordinary folk are ripped-off by it…tragic.
I mean commercialisation has a lot to answer for, the advent of the televisual medium etcetera, way back afore the georgie best days fitba players were lucky if they made half the wage of a factory worker, all went a bit mad with the advent of beatlemania imo, I have to say a swatch at the fitba or the snooker is far preferable to the pish one must occasionally endure jist tae see how adept the latest liars are in trying to justify their salaries on the power suit favouring anti beeb rite inuff
Local amateur teams on the local pitch is (almost) sport and maybe worth watching and taking part. Folks doing it for the fun, the exertion (and maybe with aspiration in mind to being a Denis Law or Kenny Dalgleish or even a Pele – aye, summa them are getting on a bit!).
But high level, professional, business, playing for big wages and fame stuff has taken the sport out of sports.
And as for darts and snooker (and chess?!) – sport? Aye, right.
well, being a pro snooker player for example would not be a picnic in my opinion, I think I agree wie fit ye’re saying in that the commercialisation hus gone too far, the problem wie bein a fitba player is constant worry and stress ye micht git a career endin injury, so it’s no a barrel ae laughs either, seems like the usual state ae affairs where the vast majority ae all involved are skintoe whilst a lucky few are disgustingly wealthy, a great thing the capitalism is it no 🙁
There have been great Scottish sportsman in intervening years (Andy Murray, Chris Hoy etc) but I doubt if there have been any Scottish footballers as good as Dalglish and Law since the 1980’s?
Sandy – having heroes such as Dennis Law & Kenny Dalglish who were professional footballers inspires many youngsters to go out and play sport.
Professional sport at elite level is part of entertainment business but in sport you cannot progress without ability and commitment unlike many other areas of life.
Sport reflects the society we live in and the remuneration and commercialisation at elite end reflects that but this only a very small fraction of professional sport played today.
Ability at football allowed Dennis Law to come from a background of poverty to be a national icon. It may be worth pointing out in context of this article that Queens Park were an amateur team until a few years ago and never beat Rangers throughout 20th century as an amateur team.
With the lack of competition in Scottish football these days Sunday’s result was something to enjoy and also personally helped make up for disappointment of Scotland losing to Ireland at rugby.
I think you guys might need to update your sporting heroes a bit … its 2025
what I know about rugby could be tattooed on an ant’s left testicle but what I will say as regards the fitba is that we have heroes we will forever remember such as Denis, Kenny, Danny, the list could go on & on, but as with every other endeavour be it music or whatever else there are so many we never hear of or know of, it is a tough tough environment, great thing about the scottish cup is there is always an upset, wise not to get into the habit of taking a punt tho, only ever bet fit ye can afford tae lose & pls dinna git used tae winnin as the streak ay peters oot
“…never beat Rangers throughout 20th century as an amateur team.”
Aye, they did. There’s a Queen’s Park stats book called “The Men With The Educated Feet” which covers the time from their formation to the early 1990s; following the other night I was curious about when they’d last won at Ibrox, and it turns out to have been 1948 in the league. They won there in the Glasgow Cup a few years later, but that was on a coin toss after a draw.
Darts not a sport?
You obviously never saw Jocky Wilson in his prime…..what an athlete!
He got thru 60 fag’s and 20 pints a day when throwing his arrows. That takes dedication and serious training.
Snooker is one of the most interesting and best sports out there and whether people call it a sport or a game or whatever is irrelevant. It involves an incredibly high level of skill, concentration and commitment over many years to get even remotely close to the top level which is also played under the most intense pressure in the arena.
Sadly it has had its issues with betting scandals mostly brought on by the lower ranked Chinese players struggle to keeping going financially (along with the betting syndicate criminals tempting them), but on the table, generally? It is one of the most honest of sports with players routinely calling a foul on themselves when not spotted by the ref. Name another sport that does that.
So no more dissing of snooker!
I mostly agree with this, but the idea that it is Chinese players who are guilty of cheating is not borne out by the facts. A cursory Google check would have confirmed that.
Ach, depends on the definition of sport, or we see it…
Here’s the OED:
“I.4.a.1491–An activity involving physical exertion and skill, esp. (particularly in modern use) one regulated by set rules or customs in which an individual or team competes against another or others. Frequently in plural.
In early use the sense of ‘sport’ as a diversion or amusement is paramount; by the 18th and 19th centuries the term was often used with reference to hunting, shooting, and fishing (see blood, field sports at the first element). The consolidation of organized sport (particularly football, rugby, cricket, and athletics) in the 19th cent. reinforced the notion of sport as physical competition (for contact, motor-, racket, spectator, team, water sport, etc., see the first element).“
Not just Chinese not at all, but in recent times all the major scandals involving several players, some quite high level, have been Chinese. I am not dissing the Chinese, just reflecting recent reality. RoS made the point in mitigation about how tough it can be for the Chinese players to make a living on the circuit.
Sandy I have no idea why folk are so obsessed with such definitions. Any mention of snooker always brings out the ‘it is not sport, it is a pub game’ types. I just don’t care and those people are fools to think of it as a ‘pub game’: It is an excellent ‘game’ of very high skill and that is what matters.
IMHO, what matters is that what sport used to be – interesting, entertaining, enjoyable to take part in …etc etc…is now led by commercially aggressive business interests. The clubs/teams, tge players and the fans are all just tools and fodder for business finance.
Sandy when it comes to football I agree wholeheartedly. The whole thing has become ridiculous. It is the hubris that gets to me most.
Thank you, Sandy. Sport is something you do, this is a very good thing and should be encouraged. A simple cost/benefit analysis on health care and sport participation would have us all playing five-a-side.
40,000 people at Ibrox or parkhead has nothing to do with sport. It is the entertainment industry and contributes nothing to the mental or physical health of the nation. The financialisation of sport has been a disaster.
just for you ed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da_CDPRG2j0