When there is a disagreement between football fans – and in this case Old Firm fans in particular, there is usually a contrived narrative, ridiculous rhetoric and bullet-points of lame and surreal excuses which back up either side of the argument. We are in the midst of exactly that right now and you could be forgiven for thinking, after reading some of those dim-witted arguments and excuses that are being banded around right now, that football in Scotland doesn’t happen on the pitch, any longer.
I’m going to attempt to debunk that misconception because I’m old and ugly enough to remember this coming together of differing cultures, of which many speak as some surreal epoch in time that you would be led to believe were the ‘glory-days’ of Scottish football simply because there were more away fans at a match.
The buzzword spoken amongst both sets of fans right now is parallel and concise – ‘atmosphere’. When was it that both Rangers and Celtic fans actually sang from the same hymn sheet!? Stick with me here… Nobody is denying the fact that some amount of away fans does indeed make somewhat of an atmosphere at a football match. However, some of the takes I’m seeing across social media right now wouldn’t be missed strapped to a rocket and propelled into the atmosphere. I’ve seen Celtic’s press propaganda iterate that their fans’ buses being parked less than 200 yards from Ibrox turnstiles and Celtic fans escorted like nursery children between high steel police barricades directly into the stadium, somehow is unsafe. If that is the case then this argument surely must be posed directly towards Police Scotland as it is their employ whom both clubs rely on to ensure the safety of all visiting supporters, to their respective stadia. Compare and contrast that 200 yard escorted march with the location of the Rangers bus park when the fixture is at Celtic Park. 700 fans walking half a mile down an open street flanked by – what I would remark as, barely an ample number of escorting police. In the last matches I’ve managed to get a ticket for the away end at Parkhead, I’ve never once felt overly unsafe, at least, not as much as I did in the dark days of yore when each away allocation was in its thousands.
Let me take you back. Some of us will recall the weeks and days leading up to this day in history and those of us who do, will recall the hubbub surrounding it. Rangers had, one month and a fortnight or thereabouts, prior to the 26th August 1989, snatched Maurice Johnston from his contract of becoming a Celtic striker, from Nantes and unveiled him as Rangers newest player in the Souness revolution.
As a football fan, on the wrong side of 40 and a lifelong Rangers fan, I wasn’t taken to an Old Firm until I was in my teens, because for those of us that remember it, it wasn’t ‘atmosphere’. Nor was it an enjoyable experience getting to and from an away match in the Old Firm. Police in those days weren’t as attentive to the safety of either side of the support as they are today and Old Firm matches were dangerous to attend, hate-filled from kick off until full time and conflated with bigotry and misplaced loyalties, singing songs of historical events which most of the fans who glorify them, have no idea how awful those times actually were, equally and from both sides of this divide. Old Firm matches are still generally precursors to some hatred in our communities in Scotland and in the days of large away allocations, the air was thick with it.
Atmospheric? I bid to you that it was the opposite of this adjective.
I recall too well, the 26th August 1989 going to Parkhead. Merely one instance, and because my father has always refused to attend Celtic Park, I got a lift to the game from a family friend. We had our own cultural music on in the tape player of the car on the way, as you do, and my driver on the day was, unfortunately known to have a slightly poor sense of direction. We took a wrong turn. He drove right up London Road with the tunes blaring and I recall his panic, hastily stopping the tape. It was horrific, because even in 1989 his own recollections of Old Firm away day as a youth were far worse than what we were about to be faced with, trust me on that one. I was only 14, it was my first visit away at Celtic and I had my blue Umbro home top on as we slowly moved towards a mass of Celtic fans walking towards the stadium with their backs to us. We were spotted quickly and someone shouted up the road “dirty orange b**tards!“. The car was chased up the road and we managed to get alongside a police wagon before mobs of Celtic fans started kicking at the car doors and battering at the windows… I won’t go any more into this particular event but to say that neither of us were harmed and the cops escorted us eventually away and down towards the Rangers supporter’s buses, the old Ford fiesta however, a bit battered and dented and us, just grateful of the swift actions of the police.
The match that day happened, on the pitch and the spoils were shared in a one-each draw. As a mention to fairness and balance in this article, here is the link to the Celtic Wiki on that particular day- you will note from this, and many will remember the mainstream media and press leading up to the match and their perpetual expectations of crowd trouble. Personally, and I think I can speak for many, if not most Rangers fans that day, we were more saddened by Davie Cooper being moved on to Motherwell the week before than we were elated by the arrival and first appearance of Mo Johnston in an Old Firm match, for Rangers. I find it funny how two sets of fans can expect to know how each other side thinks, and in most times and cases, get it brutally wrong. This has been an ongoing dilemma between Old Firm fans, since the day; dot.
Compare and contrast this wrong-turn we took, which, granted was an isolated incident and a failure on our part at the time, to today, at Ibrox there is a full stand which is now reserved in half for families and as a full, for Rangers season ticket holders. I presume, without having too much interest, or knowledge of Celtic’s own ticketing allocations that theirs is a similar circumstance. Both teams sell their season tickets and allow for a small allocation of away fans. Which in fairness, allows supporters of all ages to take in the splendour of the event that is an Old Firm football match.
So now, we can take our kids to The Old Firm at home, go with our lassies and wives (or husbands) without that fear or panic and we can be expectant in anticipation to be one of the lucky 700 who can get tickets to the reverse fixtures. This ‘atmosphere’ that some of our fans seem to think makes the game, is exactly what stopped it being an enjoyable experience. As an away fan, you’re going to get shouted at, probably verbally abused and there may be an isolated incident where someone throws a pie at you during the 90 minutes of any away match, but in the end, nobody is kicking your windows in as you drive to the ground. We have moved on. Football matches happen on the pitch, not in the suburbs and certainly not on your way towards a stadium.
El classico itself, also has a meagre away allocation and if you are fortunate enough to get a ticket, bragging rights remain your own (if your team wins). This is how it is now, and this is how modern football has evolved.
The Old Firm should be the same and we really need to acknowledge that neither Rangers, nor Celtic fans should be so entitled to be allocated any more or any less visitor supporter tickets, than any other visiting team in the SPFL.
Safety concerns?
Be me, in that Ford fiesta in 1989 and then tell me about your safety concerns. And if anyone wants to furnish me with a ticket for Parkhead at New Year in the Rangers end, I’ll snatch your hand off, because that’s what fans really want, just to go see our teams play football and in reality, there are no safety concerns because it’s a road we have marched, many times in the modern age, without incident.
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