Hugh Keevins has finally called out the hatred and poison of the Ibrox support- a week after the festival of hatred at Easter Road.
For 24 hours after the match the Daily Record and others followed up the match centering on Hibs losing their discipline with two players sent off in a five minute second half spell to ensure an away win.
Quickly the mainstream focus moved on to consider the implications for the second leg of the Europa League tie against Benfica. Was Dujon Sterling ruled out long term? Would Ross McCausland recover in time to be involved against the Portuguese side?
Viaplay Sport, BBC Scotland and the legacy media were all on the same page, there wasn’t a single dissenter from that script except for a tweet from the guy that offers racing and football tips to The Sun, Jim Delahunt.
His tweet, specifically about the chant at Martin Boyle from the Ibrox supporters while the player received seven minutes of treatment on the pitch certainly gained traction on social media.
As we know repackaging stories from social media is now the backbone of publishers like the Daily Record. There is virtually no need to employ reporters, send them out and about when a few sharp Twenty-something’s can sit online and pick up on the real news agendas. Whatever is trending.
When Hibs issued their ‘enough is enough’ statement on Monday night the news was pointed in a different direction but with the Edinburgh club afraid to name the culprits from the previous day the Record and others were able to deflect and avoid calling out the bleeding obvious.
Strangely, in today’s Daily Record/Sunday Mail, Hugh Keevins manages to type out some truths about the issue, buried in amongst his latest declaration of affection for all things Philippe Clement.
I have this recurring image of a perplexed Clement being told by his members of staff with local knowledge why a visit to Dublin was so important to an element within his team’s support and the Belgian trying to work out what they’re talking about.
This is a sophisticated man of high intelligence and academic achievement trying to build a modern team. Primitive behaviour is alien to him. When Martin Boyle lay stricken on the pitch with a serious head injury at Easter Road last Sunday, Rangers’ medical staff, appreciating the gravity of the situation, stayed on the field to assist their Hibs counterparts in any way they could.
Behind them, in the away end of the ground, some Rangers fans sang a song about Boyle that was an affront to human decency. It’s probably a good idea if Clement’s assistants with local knowledge don’t tell him too much about what’s going on around about him and leave him free to focus on what needs to be done on the park.
Have said it for a while now, any club playing Rangers and having to endure the racist and sectarian chanting, should be taking their players off the park.
Martin Boyle was getting treatment for a serious injury and supporters are chanting ‘to die a f*nian bastard’. https://t.co/AfthvJUIRv pic.twitter.com/K2coF8G0GB— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) March 11, 2024
This apparent sophisticated man of high intelligence and academic achievement did his due diligence before accepting the task of taking over from Michael Beale. The whole package with the main backers for the club coming from the Season Ticket holders chanting about Boyle.
The charm, appeal and financial backing of the club comes from a support with an attitude and songbook of hatred and intolerance, no other European nation would allow them to pollute television and radio broadcasts without any comment. Silent support and backing.
If Morton fans have a view of Lawrence Shankland BBC Scotland are falling over themselves to apologise to offended viewers. But not with the Boyle chant, their man at Easter Road praised the poison claiming that they kept the atmosphere up during a lull in play.
Typically the SFA have said nothing about the events at Easter Road, twice in 2019 UEFA closed parts of Ibrox as punishment over the chants that will be broadcast today from Dens Park by Sky Sports and BBC Scotland.
CLICK HERE for Loyal Justin walks away from Ibrox as Benfica strike.
