PO Box 306, Glasgow, G21 2AE, Scotland
Dear NTV,
If you were to ask any supporter of an SPL club - outside of Celtic and the Huns - about bias they would tell you that the 'Old Firm' get all the decisions, the 'Old Firm' get all the dodgy penalties and that all the referees are in the pockets of the 'Old Firm'. What is interesting is that if you ask them why they think Rangers get all the dodgy decisions, 99 out of 100 will say it's because the refs are all Huns. That being the case, why do they give Celtic everything then? Doesn't quite add up does it? That's because we don't get all the decisions from the referees.
Simple really, eh? You see in an attempt to cover up the disgraceful cheating that took place at Tynecastle recently, the media have embarked on a campaign to make the country believe that it was the 'Old Firm' who were playing at Tynecastle and not their beloved Huns.
Hearts should be applauded for demanding a full investigation but, as is the norm in Scotland, the victims become the villains and people of impeccable character at Hearts are now being demonised by a media desperate to keep the cover-up of cheating going.
It was due to this incident that I was asked to help out in a new website www.celtsforjustice.com. When I heard the theme, what the content would be and what they objectives are, I readily agreed. What you'll see on the site is a series of incidents, with more being added on a daily basis, of actual proof of the times Celtic were blatantly cheated by SFA Officialdom. From the McBride Brothers to Jim Farry, it's all in there. Some of it will jog your memory, while other parts will absolutely astound you, frankly and hopefully get you angry enough to fight back.
This conspiracy against Celtic has lasted for years and it's time the conspirators were taken to task. You can read it for yourself and see what you think, but I'd like to highlight a couple of instances that are not on the site as yet but exemplify what we, as Celtic, are up against.
The first is the case of Kevin O'Donnell, only the second man ever to be demoted by the SFA (the first was also for supposed bias towards Celtic) at the insistence of then Hearts chairman Wallace Mercer because he claimed the ref should have flagged for a foul.
Have you ever heard such nonsense? Kevin O'Donnell is said to have never been the same man since. Wallace Mercer is aqpparently the same as he ever was.
The other example that I'd like to give is that Celtic were not given a penalty for 13 months in Scottish Football in the early 90's. Now we were shite then but we still scored goals, created chances and were in the box loads and not a sniff of a penalty for over a year. Compare and contrast this with the amount of penalties awarded to Rangers during the in the 2002/03 season (not to mention the THREE in one game at Dens Park) and you might see where I'm coming from.
Of course the one thing we'll always get from opposition supporters is that we are all paranoid. If you know anything about the meaning of the word 'paranoia' you'll know that it is not a word that is used with any other collective other than Celtic supporters. Why? Because a collective can't be paranoid that's why!
The Scottish Media in its self-appointed role as Rangers' Propaganda Machine Inc. has perpetrated this myth to cover up all the lies and injustices regarding us. In the recent Panorama documentary about Celtic and Rangers, the only decent thing that came out of it was the squirming of David Murray and Lawrence MacIntyre who were not used to dealing with real questions from a journalist who actually demanded answers rather than just accepting them.
From 'Thugs and Thieves' to the comparing of Fergus McCann with Sadam Hussein, these people have made it clear they will go after Celtic at every opportunity. What is also abundantly clear is that they will turn their back every time another example of bias in Rangers' favour is magnified, making sure the victims are the villains.
As Celtic supporters we always knew that, now everybody else is waking up to it. Rangers oversaw 116 years of apartheid at Ibrox and the media - with one or two honourable exceptions - turned their back on it. Get behind www.celtsforjustice.com and don't allow them to turn their back again
. PAUL
LARKIN
by e-mail
Dear NTV,
I write to you as the Hearts paranoia rages on over the almost now customary Rangers penalty debate. I was at Paradise that same night, and when the roar went up that Burchill had scored I turned to a friend and said that maybe if Shug Dallas was reffin' it there was time left for a last minute penalty. Lo and behold! psychic or wot?
It got me thinking about Rangers penalties in general. Having watched Celtic from the early seventies, it comes as no great suprise in itself that Rangers receive dodgy penalties, and lots of them, but the Seville season still sticks in my throat as a 'classic' for hun spot awards. I recall in the first half of that season it became almost a weekly occurrence usually complemented by an opponent taking an early bath, and as every one knows - or should - it ain't paranoia but fact.
I was wondering if it was possible for someone out there to do a special statistical feature on this very subject going back five or ten years? Thank you
R.Gibson
Cumbernauld
same old same old
Dear Sirs,
I have only just returned to Scotland to discover that the pond is as stagnant as ever. Last week, while taking in the cultural and educational (and significantly religious) works of art at the Louvre I came across a Daily Mail and read the results from Wednesday's games. We won 3:0. I then came across the Rangers result - 1:2, last minute penalty. Suprise suprise!
Two days later in london - cabbie hears accent and asks if I know about the fuss about the linesman who gave it. I check tabloids and others - hee haw about scottish football except that the penalty was given by a guy who was a season ticket holder, allegedly, at the haunted mansion. Hearts question 'the decision' and every hun hack in the country lines up to villify them for questioning the integrity of one of their own.
Lesson to be learned - wee Fergus took the SFA to court and proved bias at the top of scottish football. He didn't need to say out loud who benefitted from this 'administration mix up'. At the time the only team to benefit from the registration of Cadete not being completed were Rangers. Why, the master of smoke and mirrors extrodinaire said it himself when he informed us that they were the second biggest institution in the country after the Church of Scotland, so it is pretty obvious to deduce that the majority of the population would prefer to see their team win.
Finally, the nonsense about Judas and the charity game. We are not bigots for saying we don't want him back in the hoops. He humiliated the club and Billy McNeill by saying that Celtic were the only club he wanted to play for before he and his agent negotiated his move to someone else. Doesn't matter who else it was (pity it was the Orcs) but he did it. If he had signed for Cowdenbeath after parading in the hoops we would still have reacted the same way. No bigotry involved at all. We don't like him because he lied to us - plain and simple. The very idea of introducing problems to an already accepted and widely promoted charity game strikes me as odd and perhaps some underhand tactics at work. Not a mention of the huns that might boycott the game - the same ones who had a bonfire outside the main door of Ibrox when he signed to burn their season tickets and scarves.
Oh it's wonderful to be home - have you noticed that the train from London stops at Carstairs on the way to its final destination in Glasgow? Hmm!
Be seen in green!
Prince
Ludvig Von Crisp Packet
by e-mail
sense and sensibility
Dear NTV,
In response to the twenty point plan proposed by David Murray to rid Ibrox of sectarian behavior I would like to point out a few observations I made whilst reading his press release.
Mr. Murray you say in the opening gambit of your press release while discussing the highly controversial Panarama programme that: 'They showed Rangers and Celtic supporters singing sectarian songs in their own grounds and they highlighted assaults carried out in the wake of Old Firm games'. Well actually David, no they didn't. The programme clearly showed Rangers fans inside Ibrox singing sectarian songs but not once did it show Celtic fans inside Celtic Park singing secterian songs. Why is this? Because it just doesn't happen.
With regards to the songs sung by Celtic fans at away grounds I would just like to point out that though some may find them objectionable they are certainly not sectarian. You claim that under your stewardship you can honestly say that Rangers is a non-sectarian club. Though it is fair to say that yes, you did end Rangers sectarian signing policy and for this you must be congratulated. However I also believe it is fair to say that you consistently pander to the lowest elements of your support by introducing orange to the Rangers clubs colours when it has never been there before. By claiming Rangers are the second most important institution in Scotland after the Church. By the waving of Union flags and the playing of Rule Brittania as the team takes the field. If this is not pandering to the bigots amongst your support, then what is it?
You could, of course, defend this by saying you are a British club, but then again so is Arsenal, so is Manchester United and so is Liverpool, yet none of the above feel the need for this jingoistic display of British Nationalism. Are you claiming to be more British than any of the above. Why is this? You point out that at the Champions League match with Manchester United the Rangers fans created a Blue Sea of Ibrox by holding up blue cards with the Pride Over Prejudice logo. Is it not true that the words of this song had to be printed on the reverse side so that your fans would know them. Because in all my years of attending old firm games and of watching Rangers on TV I have never, not once heard this song sung by your fans. Was it not the case that you had to do this to stop your fans singing, as they do at the beginning of every home match, about being up to their knees in fenian blood?
You claim that; 'There is simply no place in Ibrox any longer for the FTP brigade and those that would have us wading through fenian blood.' Does this mean that you will be immediately ripping up the contract of Bob Malcolm who enjoys signing autographs with FTP inscribed underneath. Is Bob one of your employees who will be attending the sectarian workshops that you mentioned?. Does it mean that one of the first people you will be banning from Ibrox park will be your friend and associate Donald Findlay QC. Who as we all know enjoys nothing better than wading through fenian blood?
You end your press release by showing your personal appreciation of the vast majority of fans who behave in the appropriate manner. Who, or more to the point where, is this vast majority of fans? Am I to believe that when up to our knees in fenian blood is cascading from the Ibrox stands that it is not 48,000 voices in unison but rather a few dozen rotten apples hiding away amongst the support?
You cannot say that it is a minority of your fans who are sectarian because David everybody knows that it is the vast majority who indulge in the bigotry that resounds from Ibrox Park You end by asking those who are sectarian or racist to stay at home so as not to damage the reputation of Rangers Football Club.
I ask you Mr. Murray are you really willing to have Rangers play to crowds of less than five thousand because if we are going to be honest that is what you will be left with.
KEVIN McSHERRY
Eire Beag
more than 90 minutes?
Dear NTV,
I was watching the Panorama documentary and was taken by something one of the Ibrox security bosses said. It was along the lines of how most of the supporters inside the Death Star are only 90 minute bigots.
Does this mean that when they're playing a cup tie (like the one against the mighty Maritimo) and it goes into extra time they all stop singing the Billy Boys?
Yours etc.
NICK BROOMFIELD
by e-mail