Every big club on the continent has a group of fans who go that one step further to show their appreciation and love for the club, an Ultra fan if you like. No more a fan than anyone else, just one willing to put time, effort and money into making games more enjoyable to be at and to watch. It had never caught on in the UK, that is until now. It's at this point we have to look UP at sheepy. We can say a lot of bad things about the mutton molesters but one thing you can't doubt is their passion for the club. The Red Ultras, not to be confused with their casual scum element, are a group of fans who have been putting on displays since 2000. They are Scotland's first and until recently only Ultra group. Other than that we only have the Livi Drum Beat Mafia who try their best to lift things up at Almondvale.
At the moment there are a few things holding the boys from TBO back. Firstly we have Laurence McIntyre who assures us that it's not safe to have a card display as it's seen as a fire hazard (Not in the San Siro it's not) then amazingly gives the go ahead for The Blue Sea of Ibrox display against Manure! You really couldn't make this stuff up. The second main obstacle is finance. The lads have spent a good whack already on banners and other TIFO materials and we can't expect them to keep it up forever. TIFO is the fans celebration, for the fans, by the fans and hopefully funded by the fans as far as possible. On a positive note, the display at Firhill seems to have been viewed like it was supposed to, with positive comments appearing in both The Scotsman and the Official site.
Now, It wouldn't be The Rangers if there's wasn't someone out there thinking "what a waste of time" or "It'll never catch on." Someone will find something to moan about. Heck those who leave before 90 minutes are up might even start greeting about it holding up the kick off by half a minute or two.
Let's not kid ourselves on here. We need to take things slowly, making small advances and improvements every game. We can take advice, learn from and admire displays put on by groups such as the Brigate Rossonerre of Milan, we can also dream of one day being able to put on such a show of colour but let's not get ahead of ourselves or think too big too soon. Aswell as this though, we can take heart from smaller clubs, clubs with smaller numbers, stadiums and possibly less passion than ourselves.
Take my "other" club, Djurgårdens IF for example, they didn't start off big, they started off with the same raw materials as us, passion, love & voice with a few streamers and boxes of confetti thrown in. I'm sure you can see the difference in quality of the two displays I've chosen as examples, but don't you agree both would look great at Ibrox? I can't yet imagine the Broomloan as a massive Union Jack, the Copland as a massive saltire or the Main Stand as picturesque tribute to the late great Davie Cooper, but if the Blue Order have their way, we may not have to.
If you can help TBO out in any way, be it taking part in a display or making a small donation for future displays then drop a line to bluecowdisplays@hotmail.com
For further reading on TIFO you could try:
www.brigaterossonerre.it (AC Milan)
www.jarnkaminerna.nu (Djurgårdens IF)
www.tifonet.it (General Pics, Italian only)
