The sectarian murder and homicidal violence perpetrated on Celtic fans, by Rankers-supporting bigoted maniacs. Once investigated and convicted, the perpetrators have often been found to have grown up in an anti-Catholic environment that encouraged sectarianism and division along football and religious lines.
One of these thugs, Jason Campbell (who murdered Mark Scott in 1996) is the son of a convicted Loyalist UVF terrorist. He is also a diehard Rankers fan, and was defended during his trial by the Rankers FC Vice-Chairman Donald Findlay QC – himself later forced to resign after a shameful sectarian hate incident.
In 1998 Findlay also defended another Rankers-supporting, Loyalist thug, Thomas Longstaff (who cut the throat of Sean O’Connor) is an almost copy-cat attack to Campbell’s. Police later admitted, that in the two-year period between these attacks, 38 similar assaults had taken place in the area, all directed at Catholics or those wearing Celtic colours.
The learned Mr Findlay was happily singing his hate anthems on the same day in May 1999 that 16 year old Thomas McFadden was being stabbed to death by two Rankers fans in Govanhill after they watched the huns play at Hampden. His ‘crime’ was to be wearing a Celtic top. Also in 1999, Carl McGroarty, was shot in the chest by a bolt fired from a crossbow as he left a pub wearing his Celtic top.
On the same day, another young Celtic fan, Liam Sweeney was stabbed repeatedly after leaving a Chinese takeaway. His green jersey and the calling of his name to collect his food order was enough to identify him as a Catholic from an Irish background. Later the same evening in Ayrshire, three young Celtic fans – one female – were viciously attacked by a large mob of Rangers fans.
All three were hospitalised, one of the men had receiving horrific head injuries, and the other a broken jaw. In 2003, Celtic fan Thomas Loughrey was stabbed to death by James McCormick in an unprovoked attack in Pollokshaws.
Thomas had made the fatal error of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as McCormick – high on drink and drugs, took offence to his Celtic top. In October 2004, Ian Gray was stabbed to death by convicted thug Brian Cooper after he had spent the day getting acutely more drunk after watching an Orange Walk, and then attending a match at Ibrox stadium. Cooper, who received ten years for his act of bigoted murder, admitted sectarian abuse of Mr Gray, before striking him with a wine bottle and repeatedly stabbing him in the back.
How many more innocent Celtic fans are to be butchered before something is done to curtail these sectarian animals – and the hatemongers who defend them?
Having 15 hooligan fans jailed in September 1999 by a Dutch court after they were convicted of mobbing and rioting before, during, and after a European tie with PSV Eindhoven. The hun thugs – all from Scotland – were convicted by the court in Den Bosch, and sentenced to periods of imprisonment ranging from 4 weeks to 24 weeks. Afterwards, they were immediately deported upon release. No one likes them – they don’t care!
Being so sectarian that they’ve had a play dedicated to them because of their bigoted and anarchic perceptions of society. In James Barclay’s ‘The Bigot’, Loyalist, Royalist, Rankers fan Andra Thompson is the sash-wearing embodiment of a typical west of Scotland hun, who worships Rankers, Ulster, Ian Paisley, The Orange Order, The Freemasons, and The Royal Family. At the same time, he hates Catholics, Celtic, Irish people, and anything green in general.
The play is an accurate depiction of a hackneyed and twisted old sectarian dinosaur from days gone by, still applying those same tired old bigoted concepts to every second of his waking life. It is a scathing social comment and a damning indictment on a huge percentage of the Rankers support, and how they continue to conduct themselves.
Despite the advancement of society, they continue to live their lives in a bigoted and intolerant manner as if they were still living in ‘the grand old days of yore’. In Scotland the clocks go forward an hour every year – unless you’re a Rankers fan – in which case they go back three hundred years.
The repeated sight and sound of numerous thousands of Rankers fans racially abusing the players of opposition teams, simply because they are black. This behaviour is widespread, blatantly obvious, and as yet unpunished by those who administer the ticketing of Rankers fans. This inaction is viewed by many as tacit complicity.
Starting a Follow Follow thread on the 25th anniversary of John Lennon’s assassination to praise psychotic murderer Mark Chapman for ‘coolly pumping 5 bullets into him’.
Added posts went on to denigrate the victim’s memory, whilst praising and showing appreciation for the cold-blooded killer who murdered him. Not to be outdone, further posts went on to heap praise, and urge others not to forget, ‘the sterling work done by’ other deranged assassins including ‘Lee Harvey Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan’, who assassinated John F Kennedy and his brother Robert.
The disgusting and blatant sectarian abuse by Rankers fans towards Celtic player Neil Lennon. The player has been victimised, brutalised, assaulted, had his property vandalised, and most sinister of all, has had his life threatened. All of these incidents have come from persons later proven to support, or have links to Rankers FC, or have had blatant Rankers connections. How serious need this get before something is done about the cancerous hatred of these people ?
The club being forced to refrain from playing a popular chart song over the Ibrox PA system at matches due to Rankers fans hijacking it, distorting the words, and turning it into a sectarian club anthem. The song was later to be repeatedly sung by tens of thousands of Rankers fans for numerous seasons, dispelling the myth that Rankers cancerous sectarian hate was simply the practice of ‘an unrepresentative minority.’ Indeed, if this was the sectarianism of their minority, heaven knows what depths their majority would sink to.
The persistent and widespread mobbing, looting, and fighting by Rankers fans whenever they attend Away matches involving Rankers FC. A recent, but by no means exhaustive list includes : Munich, Rotterdam, Birmingham, Newcastle, Sunderland, Fulham, Liverpool, Bucharest, Paris………. The above is an obvious reason why Rankers are exceptionally rarely invited to play in testimonial and friendly matches.
Rankers fans being involved in widespread violence and sectarianism during a European tie in July 1998 in Liverpool. The match – against Irish club Shelbourne – had to be moved to a neutral ground (Tranmere Rovers / Prenton Park) because club officials knew that the sectarian Rankers fans could not be trusted to travel to Ireland without the genuine fear that they would cause mayhem and injury – if not murder (See Bohemians 1984).
It so proved that they couldn’t be trusted to travel to England either, where they had to be baton-charged by more than 150 fully clad riot police, as they tried to attack the Irish fans. Amidst mopping up the carnage that Rankers fans caused – including smashing the windows of the Shelbourne FC team bus – Liverpool police commented that Rankers fans would never again be allowed to freely roam the city. If they ever again, did have cause to visit the city, severe policing restrictions would be applied.
This has later been proven to be the case as numerous English cities have faced severe alcohol licensing restrictions when Rankers are scheduled to play there. The above is another obvious reason why Rankers are exceptionally rarely invited to play in testimonial matches.
The embarrassingly shameful booing and vitriolic hounding of Shota Arveladze by his club’s own fans, because he had the temerity to bless himself before entering the field of play, during a recent trip to play Linfield in Ireland.
For good measure, the Catholic-hating, sectarian, Loyalist hate-mongers of Linfield abused him as well.
Printing the personal details in a Rankers fanzine of those certain people suspected of having handed the ‘Donald Findlay’ video tape over to the media.
The inference was that most fellow huns wouldn’t be too bothered if ‘some harm’ befell the culprit(s).
Having three hooligan fans jailed for 20 months each in March 2004, after they brutally attacked an Aberdeen fan in Glasgow as he returned there to catch a train following a Scottish Cup tie in Dumfries.
Video footage showed pedestrians diving for cover and the fight was only stopped when police arrived. Damning the Rankers hooligans, Sheriff Linda Ruxton said jail was the only option in the interests of the public. “This was an incident associated with football violence, which brought about a serious disturbance. It took very little to lose control and, as a result, you behaved like hooligans.
It must have been a frightening experience for those that were witnesses. Your actions made Glasgow city centre a very dangerous place. Public interest demands that a custodial sentence must be passed.”
Continuing...