The pressure dial had been turned up in the preceding days. ‘Ibrox to be shut', ‘Rangers to receive a massive fine', ‘UEFA set to hammer bigots'. All of this was built up to breaking point in anticipation of the final judgement and then came the largest anti-climax to ever hit the Scottish sport writers: not guilty. But why should they care? After all, it's only a binding decision by the chief administrators of European football.
It is apparent that certain sections within the media fancy themselves as being the police of morality and good. Having worked their way into a position where they can publish their own opinion, they deemed it necessary to determine on their own what is right and what is wrong. And then they shoved it down all of our throats. Who cares about a right of reply, either? They took their position, fed us a sound bite via their respective media outlet and that was that. Rangers were guilty.
In my recent days of youthful naivety, I assumed that the Scottish sporting media were all fighting for the good of our game. They still claim they are fighting for its benefit, their objective being the removal of sectarianism from our game. On the face of it their fight is justified and in many ways respectable but never judge a book by its cover: further investigation will clearly show the way they fight their battles is fickle and blatantly wrong. They opted to attack and are confrontational, foolishly assuming their power within the public spotlight will make their argument the one heard louder than any other.
Taking a confrontational approach to dealing with issues in the media will rarely lead to any positive outcome. One of the major problems is that it tars a whole support with the same brush. When the print media publish headlines such as “UEFA set to hammer Rangers bigots”, you have to delve quite deeply into the accompanying article before it is mentioned that the people being referred to are in a definite minority. Sometimes this point is never made. As a ‘moderate' Rangers fan – like the massive majority of the support – I get angry when referred to in this way. Reading headlines and articles as such don't ever make me want to engage in some sort of debate with football writers as to why their point of view is wrong or right: it simply angers me and pushes me further away from the mainstream discussion. This is never how problems are solved.
So it begs the question as to why football writers choose to report in such a manner. Is it because they truly believe their actions are helping, or is it simply because scandal sells? Are they are simply foolish? A more disagreeable bunch you couldn't wish to meet, but they are far from stupid. They must know what sort of reaction their writing will inspire. Following the SPL must be tedious at the best of times so having a major story to write about is good for business: it fills column inches and it once again allows them to assert themselves as reporters willing to get their hands dirty. Good for them, bad for the rest of us. Take one recent example: Hugh Keevins, the Daily Record and Radio Clyde pundit, recently went on television and launched a stinging attack on the Rangers support. Without wishing to delve too deeply into the comments of Mr. Keevins, he strung a single sentence together implying Nazism and referring to the soundtracks from ‘Dambusters' and ‘The Great Escape' like someone had just taught him the meaning of irony. As far as examples go, it's up their with the old ‘getting run over by an ambulance' caper. It is blindingly obvious that these comments were intended solely to be confrontational as they could not possibly provoke any other reaction. Likening a match day atmosphere at Ibrox to a Nuremburg Rally is, at best, ignorant and, at worst, sickening. Did our friend Hugh actually expect the Rangers support to say “Oh, he's got a point”? He knew fine well that his comments would ring loud and clear in the ears of the wider support. Good fans of Rangers could never, ever relate to what he said. That is what makes their game so dangerous.
If certain elements within the media were unaware that confrontation does not work, they need to be asking themselves why it hasn't yet. They have been doing it long enough and all it does is trigger heated debate in which the real issue takes a back seat. The topic then moves on to why are they attacking our support and what is their motive? This cycle goes on and on with no end - only aggression between two parties unwilling to enter into any real debate, one through ignorance and the other through sheer annoyance and frustration with regards to how the issue gets publicly dealt with.
The motives of these journalistic types are hazy to the naked eye. Only recently, the bigwigs of the game were dusting down the kilts and arguing as to why our country deserves to host a major European tournament. Naturally, the majority of the media were fully supportive (as you'd expect them to be). With Hampden always in consideration for hosting European finals and bid for Euro 2016 looming on the horizon, what good can airing our laundry in public do? It helps us not one bit. The media launched numerous attacks on Rangers fully expecting UEFA to hammer us, but they must have known full well that spreading this issue onto the continental stage will hinder any bids we put forward in the next few years. How much would you bet that we get pinned with the blame of that one as well?
The key to ending bigotry is through education, as our friend David Edgar insisted on radio recently. Rangers should be allowed to deal with the situation along with help from an impartial Scottish Executive and SFA. It must also be recognised in public that Rangers are not the only club who need to take action: it just seems that way with all the recent events. If the media really want to help in this fight – and I remain unconvinced that this is their true motive – then it's high time they started writing about how it can be achieved. Stop the aggressive rhetoric intended to anger and start writing about solutions. Stop treating Rangers fans as if they are the only offenders and recognise offensive behaviour by other supporters. Write about how to educate supporters in Scotland, seeing as you have placed yourself on top of a moral pedestal.
If the media is only willing to be aggressive towards us and refuse to offer viable solutions then they should put their pens and notepads back in their briefcases and get out of the mainstream media. They have the audacity to claim that we are burning the spirit of the game when they themselves constantly fan the flames. If the media are interested in just selling their product, scoring cheap hits with no right of reply and intentionally creating divisions then they are the ones destroying our game. Not us.
MK