For the Love of Football

We should really seize this opportunity now to push to end these old songs / wordings as it will be to the club’s advantage long term to do so.

Eventually one way or the other these songs are going to go anyway (either through the club being financially punished / increased legal action prosecution of supporters) , it will be in all our best interests (not just rangers but the other organisations / community groups that the media tie in to club and out support, be it the OO, ABOD, loyalist / Protestant community / Unionist vote) to be above using this old language as soon as possible.

Being labelled with this sectarian tag because folk drag out these cringy old tunes does nothing to help the club , the image of our support and our ability to grow our fan base / sell the club to commercial partners / drive up investment , not least the energy & attention it saps out of everyone having to even address the sectarian accusations

Maybe I’ve been listening to too many joe rogan podcasts with Jordan Peterson, but the singing issue is a clear example of us having to first ‘tidy our room’ before we look at others to be seen to be credible when arguing our case / position.
 
luckywhitefeather said:
We should really seize this opportunity now to push to end these old songs / wordings as it will be to the club’s advantage long term to do so.

Eventually one way or the other these songs are going to go anyway (either through the club being financially punished / increased legal action prosecution of supporters) , it will be in all our best interests (not just rangers but the other organisations / community groups that the media tie in to club and out support, be it the OO, ABOD, loyalist / Protestant community / Unionist vote) to be above using this old language as soon as possible.

Being labelled with this sectarian tag because folk drag out these cringy old tunes does nothing to help the club , the image of our support and our ability to grow our fan base / sell the club to commercial partners / drive up investment , not least the energy & attention it saps out of everyone having to even address the sectarian accusations

Maybe I’ve been listening to too many joe rogan podcasts with Jordan Peterson, but the singing issue is a clear example of us having to first ‘tidy our room’ before we look at others to be seen to be credible when arguing our case / position.
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disagree....
 
Super A said:
I agree with Robert

Far better songs can be sung and the add ons can be dropped on the others.

This isn't rocket science FFS
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Every Saturday is our best song just now and is clean. The newer chants for Alfie, Halliday, Defoe are all fine.

It's only the use of the word 19th Century Terrorist that can get us in trouble and, since the government have relaxed their enforcement of a 2011 ban on the Billy Boys, it's only going to get cited if we directly call someone a 19th Century Terrorist as happened Weds.

Follow Follow add ons are fine as FTP isn't an offensive statement in that context. Our other songs are largely fine.

This isn't a matter of Rangers having a legally problematic songbook, but about us calling Clarke a 'sad 19th Century Terrorist bastard' to a generic football tune.
 
I agree we should bin the FTP, UVF, 19th Century Terrorist, Bobby Sands stuff, but as long as our club remains silent on the double standards and hypocrisy regarding the game in this country, then Celtic and their political chums will never relent on their war against us.
 
People are pissing in the wind. There's no chance at all that you'll remove the religious aspect from the Rangers/Celtic rivalry. It'll take decades to fully eradicate it.

Remove the religious and hatred aspect from our derby and you are removing a lot of the uniqueness from our fixture and rivalry as well. Nobody outside of Glasgow would give a f*ck about the Old Firm Derby if the intensity and religious hatred was removed from it.

Society needs to man up and stop taking songs being sang literally.

Where does it end? Do we start banning rap music because it sings about blacks/whites being killed by the other? Start banning films etc?

We could sing about the sun and rainbows and the media/tims would still come after us for something. They tried to insinuate Penny Arcade and The Hokey Cokey had a sectarian element to it ffs :D
 
WBD said:
Still not buying that Robert. I VERY much doubt the fans are going to change Dundee Aberdeen, to Follow Follow, ionly for it to revert to Dundee.... ? Hmmm it just doesn't add up. There may have been some recorded it with these changed words, it happens. But the evidence of the original follow follow hymn and the fans singing those words in 1970 steers me in this direction. Also going forward if we are to rid the song of the FTP reference, we have to rid it of Dundee Aberdeen/Hamilton. The sing is further bastardised by 'uo the falls, Derrys walls'
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Sorry to piggyback your post @WBD


Worth noting that the recorded version of TBB makes absolutely no mention of 19th Century Terrorist blood either.

Also, since you mentioned Derry's walls, where did "the cry was no surrender, surrender or youll die" come from? It's "we'll fight and don't surrender, but come when duty calls".
 
Atmosphere at Northern Ireland games is far better since the troubles era songs were left behind. Now one of the best atmospheres in international football. No-one is any less Protestant, British, or Unionist for it.

Still have all the same enemies we do looking to highlight every negative, but they have far less success in their attacks.

I wouldn’t want us to go as far as that as I love a good Ulster folk song as much as the next man, but is no point denying we shoot ourselves in the foot at times with daft chants, add ons etc.
 
trevor_steven said:
This properly raised its head back when the BB got banned and I genuinely feel that the majority of fans back then took on board what was happening.

The singing of the BB and the use of the add on's at many of our games reduced massively and I feel we were heading in the right direction.

The problem was that it didn't appear to be a level playing field and fans grew frustrated that others could just sing what they want without any comeback whilst we continued to be targeted. From here, rather than continuing in the right direction, we went back to singing the same old songs with the same add ons. People in glass houses and all that....we can only point fingers when we clean up our own songbook.
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I back any action to stop any add ons but when it's not a level playing field it is hard to near enough impossible to listen to the detractors.

We stop BB (banned)...guess what, other teams get to sing their version and teams not known for singing it, sing it at our stadium.

Just pick pick picking at our club gets us and gets Scottish football nowhere.

It's all or nothing.
 
Laidlaw Loyal said:
They probably understand that 300 years of animosity between Irish immigrants and the native population doesn't really relate to Colombians, etc.
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Imo, in 2019 we shouldn't be having converstions about religion and football, we as a support should only be interested in the quality of the player, we should be better than that
 
Robert Marshall said:
cleaned up or act, 50p Flute ? FTP and IRA / Bobby Sands
I.d rather hear BSOI / EOS / SOIP / FF or a dozen other songs. Clean up TBB
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There’s songs that are getting sung less and less at our games follow follow EOS No surrender to name but a few.
 
We’ve started to get better and maybe win a trophy.
Never bothered then haters the last few years.
 
No Money No Problems said:
Imagine if instead of half the stadium shouting about 19th Century Terrorist bastards it was black bastards instead . . . . .

I know that lot in the other side of the city get away with murder but I don't give a %^*& about them, I only care about Rangers and as a support and a club, we need to move past this nonsense.
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Half the stadium has never shouted racist abuse, ever. I don't see the relevance to imagine it. Half the stadium wasn't calling Clarke a "f word" either. Not even close to that number. It was a small section. You've got to describe what happened accurately. The media and Celtic supporters will exaggerate wildly, no need to help them out.
 
Robert Marshall said:
I would like to see Rangers offer our fans a safe standing area with the proviso that anyone breaching the rules would be evicted from that area. I'm sure 99% of our fans would agree to that
PS I hated the thought of you coming all this way and not get into games.
I get abuse all the time for trying to help people lol
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That’s actually a great idea.
Let the singing section have their safe standing area on the conditions you have mentioned.
Disobey and you’re out on your arse, continually ignore the rules and the seats go back in.

We really don’t need FTP, Jimmy Sands(sic) etc to create an atmosphere.

The UB’s have come up with some great new chants, keep expanding them and leave the guff for your buses.
 
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Is Follow Follow still banned in the boozer? Heard some of the bar staff go mental when people started singing it and I was trying to work out what the problem was.
 
Changing words and dropping the add ons is the way to go.
But will it really stop the attacks on us and the club,my gut feeling about all this is that it won't ,because this is more than about football.
The rise of Scottish nationalism and their unholy alliance with the Catholic church has lead to a rise in anti unioinist/protestant hatred that goes beyond all thoughts or deeds that we might endorse because we are seen as British and therefore are the enemy of one and all.
They want us gone and nothing but that will appease them so these debates are pointless and will never make one bit of difference to changing the minds of these vile bigots.
 
bpfurian said:
Changing words and dropping the add ons is the way to go.
But will it really stop the attacks on us and the club,my gut feeling about all this is that it won't ,because this is more than about football.
The rise of Scottish nationalism and their unholy alliance with the Catholic church has lead to a rise in anti unioinist/protestant hatred that goes beyond all thoughts or deeds that we might endorse because we are seen as British and therefore are the enemy of one and all.
They want us gone and nothing but that will appease them so these debates are pointless and will never make one bit of difference to changing the minds of these vile bigots.
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This.
 
mart22 said:
Half the stadium has never shouted racist abuse, ever. I don't see the relevance to imagine it. Half the stadium wasn't calling Clarke a "f word" either. Not even close to that number. It was a small section. You've got to describe what happened accurately. The media and Celtic supporters will exaggerate wildly, no need to help them out.
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Sectarian chants are much better than racist chants then aye? Half the stadium, a third of the stadium, a quarter of the stadium or just 10% it doesn't matter, it's still clearly audible across all broadcast for tv and radio and it's not a good look for us as a support or for the club. Its as simple as that.
 
Bowery Boy said:
Is Follow Follow still banned in the boozer? Heard some of the bar staff go mental when people started singing it and I was trying to work out what the problem was.
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Half a guess, %^*& the pope in the Vatican will play a big part
 
I've never really understood the argument "the filth can sing what they want, they get away with it, until the get brought to book I will sing what I want" bla bla bla.

Well those disgusting rats have never set the tone and standards to how I behave.

And any who uses what they do as a yardstick needs to have a look in the mirror.
 
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Greigorypeck said:
The song book has been cleaned up, but you’ll never eradicate it completely and I’m pretty sure on the 29th Dec that the majority of Bears at Ibrox were singing the BB’s and more, myself included.
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Spot on mate, and the atmosphere on the 29th was the best in years imo.
 
ahalfallover said:
Glorious memory of those who fell in battle for king and country at the same time defying the home rule bill ....and people think their terrorists......

a will post a rant later on the matter
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Wouldnt waste your time mate. Thankfully FF doesnt represent the majority of our support
 
No Money No Problems said:
Imagine if instead of half the stadium shouting about 19th Century Terrorist bastards it was black bastards instead . . . . .

I know that lot in the other side of the city get away with murder but I don't give a %^*& about them, I only care about Rangers and as a support and a club, we need to move past this nonsense.
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I'm not sure how it helps by bringing in the hypothetical. Let's address the issue instead of talking about fantasy problems.
 
jprfc said:
On our supporters club bus we allways have a loyalist cd on, and guarenteed everyone will be singing the songs on the journey home.
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The sash bash thing / get the same old bus cd on is a large part of the problem with the away games plus add in booze & other drugs falsely gives the younger ones the group mentality, self confidence and power (under their misplaced cloak of anonymity / freedom) that they can sing & get away with singing any old shite as it’s tradition / part of the away game experience (fills up the boredom of the bus trip / game itself depending on how we are playing

To be fair to the younger ones they’ve been handed a bad hand , they are faced with the actions of those that came before and how the support is now viewed
my generations behaviour saw us banned from an away game in Europe (& before that my dad’s generation saw the club banned for a year & Waddell issuing his famous statement about fan behaviour, so this isn’t a blame the young team thing (I’m personally a huge hypocrite as I certainly did sing all the old songs when I was younger, the thing is the times have changed, the culture in Scotland , along with policing , the law and most importantly CCTV / video technology / social media

Unless we all work to educate and bring up the standard of behaviour amongst the support all we are doing is setting up next generation of young fans to fall foul of stricter policing & criminal records for singing songs that should’ve been confined to history, not withstanding continual bad press for the club , damage to the club’s reputation
 
DavidSmith said:
For me since when I was a kid in the 1950s and 1960s it was just the ‘plain’ Follow Follow that I sang with my pals, in the streets of Maryhill :) with no add-ons, no Aberdeen and back again, no pope or Vatican, and that was the same at Ibrox when I started to go there in 1965.
I still sing the original words, which is what I’m used to, which at first confused my grandson when he started to go to the matches ;)
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This! The true original version of the 50s and 60s is our Anthem.
 
Bear all said:
Gerry McNee was offended by Does your Anchor hold also they tried to make out Penny Arcade was about a Catholic being killed in a amusement arcade that's what we are dealing with.
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A tiny minority of fck wits attempting to portray everything we do as offensive do not hold up as an argument to continually singing words that we KNOW are genuinely frowned-upon and will land us in the sh!t.

Some muppet claiming the hokey-cokey or Penny Arcade are religious-hatred has never been anything other than laughed at.

Singing about 19th Century Terrorists WILL always get us in hot water.
 
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Bluenose1979 said:
A tiny minority of fck wits attempting to portray everything we do as offensive do not hold up as an argument to continually singing words that we KNOW are genuinely frowned-upon and will land us in the sh!t.

Some muppet claiming the hokey-cokey or Penny Arcade are religious-hatred has never been anything other than laughed at.

Singing about 19th Century Terrorists WILL always get us in hot water.
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Where did I say otherwise ?
 
Turrabear said:
Good luck with the going after Celtic fans.simply won,t happen in this country.
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They will remain untouchable till the day they kill a rangers supporter and I fear that day draws nearer every day.we are portrayed every man,women and child of us a group of people to be hated and viewed as sub human who deserve everything that’s gets thrown at us and we can clean up our songbook all we want and it won’t matter a jot to the haters
 
It would be interesting to see what is deemed appropriate and not appropriate.

The country and time we live in means we're under the microscope more than ever i believe. Recent developments will simply amplify that attention we're being given.

I think the best thing the club and its supporters can do is draw a line between the profile we're assumed to have and the values we actually have. We then validate that as a support by our actions.

We can't though abandon our identity.
 
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dublinbluenose said:
Only uvf song in the louden is “coming down the road” which is about the original uvf from 1912 which went on to become the 36th division
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I understand your point, which is right enough. I just don’t think it’s a good look for us with the obvious connotations. However, as I say, I don’t want to derail the thread.
 
dublinbluenose said:
They will remain untouchable till the day they kill a rangers supporter and I fear that day draws nearer every day.we are portrayed every man,women and child of us a group of people to be hated and viewed as sub human who deserve everything that’s gets thrown at us and we can clean up our songbook all we want and it won’t matter a jot to the haters
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This is true mate, the same applies to the Northern Ireland support who will be attacked and demonised by the usual suspects for as long as there is a NI team.

But the example there shows our enemy’s ability to damage us does depend in some ways on what we do. A strategic mistake to give them a free hand or assistance in promoting their narrative of us. At the end of the day feck them and their putrid wee plastic Provo shitfest, it is the wider reputation of Rangers and our support that matters. If we can improve that we should.
 
Jaymuz7 said:
Theres your answer.

Well said mate.
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Oh they hate it ,one of them was trying to be funny last week with a Bear in my work on the anniversary of our Liquidation ,he said Happy Anniversary and before a reply could be given he said I know what your going to come back the Boys Club Abuse.They hate it all right and they should be a constantly reminded of it until they take some ownership of what they have done.
 
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