UEFA's reason for not taking action...

FU Media · Apr 13, 2006

Uefa says it could not take action against Rangers fans because their alleged sectarian singing had been tolerated for years in Scotland.
Rangers had been found not guilty of discriminatory chants during the Champions League games with Villarreal.
Uefa's statement said that "Billy Boys" had long been sung "without either the Scottish football or governmental authorities being able to intervene".
"The result is that this song is now somehow tolerated," it explained.
Rangers were fined just under £9,000 after a fan smashed a window on the Villarreal team bus on the way to the second leg in Spain.
But, although they were found not guilty of discriminatory singing, Ibrox chairman David Murray made perhaps his strongest condemnation yet of bigoted behaviour at football matches.
And he warned that European football's governing body could take tougher action in the future.
However, in its explaination of its decision, Uefa appears to wash its hands of what it saw as a particularly local problem.
"In examining the alleged discriminatory chants, the control & disciplinary body admitted that the nature of the song concerned - "Billy Boys" - related to a social problem in Scotland," said the statement.
"The body also believed that the disciplinary decision in this case had to be taken in the context of Scotland's social and historical background.
"Given this social and historical context, the control & disciplinary body said it considered that Uefa cannot demand an end to behaviour which has been tolerated for years.
"In view of the above, the control & disciplinary body ruled that, despite the behaviour of its supporters, Rangers FC had not infringed Article 5 of the Uefa disciplinary regulations and cannot be punished according to Article 6."
However, Article 5 says Uefa will not tolerate conduct that is "racist, discriminatory, politically extremist or insulting".
And Scottish FA president John McBeth told BBC Sport: "There is a problem. It's not peculiar to football. It's society's problem and one that visits on one or two of our clubs."
He welcomed Uefa's investigation as it highlighted the problem and gave impetus to action designed to eradicate it.
McBeth pointed out that the SFA is introducing a license scheme, to be introduced later this year, that requires clubs to take action to tackle sectarianism.
"The only problem we have with European action is that it tends to be a blanket punishment on clubs," he said.
"We would like to see the people causing the problem stopped getting into grounds.
"We are working with the Scottish Executive, Scottish Office and sportscotland to introduce banning orders for troublemakers."
McBeth said that, if clubs did not take sufficient action, the SFA could impose fines, close grounds or impose suspensions.
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Clubs have tryed to combat sectarianism and it's not working so I doubt a license scheme will work.

Murphy7 · Apr 13, 2006

So in Uefa's eyes slavery shouldn't have been abolished.

mafyoo · Apr 13, 2006

ah well if uefa dont deal with them then who will

Murphy7 · Apr 13, 2006

mafyoo said:

ah well if uefa dont deal with them then who will
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The SFA

Lennon's lass · Apr 13, 2006

does this mean that other offenses will also go unpunished if they have been tolerated for years. its a pile of pish, "stamp out sectarianism" but well "seens as 'they have been up to their knees in fenion blood' for so many years its alright" aye witever, who ever said that its ok cause they always sing it is a total *. wat do UEFA do when it comes to racism.. they got 2 b consistant and seens as that has happened for years i suppose in their eyes its ok 2???? seriously stamp it out of everything.

Dempsey · Apr 13, 2006

Even if that wasnt rangers thats the most stupid reason not to punish a club for the behaviour of its fans. I'm stunned by that reason, racism is widespread in Spain & Italy. The same logic will be applied there?

UEFA have dropped the ball completely on this issue. They should have bent rangers ear and made an example of them for all clubs to follow. Since they are going to tolerate it at a european level, is it acceptable now for any club to do it at all european matches??? Shocking stuff

lenny1 · Apr 13, 2006

The reason that they are having this drive to erradicate racism in all its forms is because it had been tolerated for years but is no longer tolerable. Highly hypocritical approach.
These Uefa characters would be quite open to having their palms greased, allegley. How much is LeGuens transfer budget now?

Dempsey · Apr 13, 2006

The more I think about it, the more it doesnt make sense. UEFA have anti-racism campaigns, campaigns against football violence and everything bad in the game and they turn around and do this. Its a cop out of the highest order

liamsquire · Apr 14, 2006

Agreed. Very poor decision indeed. Makes me wonder why we've all tried so hard to eradicate sectarian songs (and successfully too) from Celtic Park.

gingegardner · Apr 14, 2006

It is a rather public slap in the face for the SFA though. UEFA have basically said that the SFA have been negligent in there duty, and left the bigots to go un-punished for too long. I mean, if you think about it, all the plans to erase bigotry have had to come from the clubs themselves - not the SFA. It is possible that the SFA have managed to convince UEFA that they are going to sort this problem out themselves. This concerns me because it means we will no doubt be disproportionately(that can't be how thats spelled) punished to show some * up idea of fairness that seems to float around scottish football i.e. if you punish rangers, you must punish celtic.

Dempsey · Apr 14, 2006

Uefa bosses are set to appeal against their own football court's decision to clear Rangers fans of chanting sectarian abuse. (The Herald, The Sun)

They better appeal the decision, it undermines everything that tries to eliminate the bad side of football.

Mark · Apr 14, 2006

The SFA are part to blame for this. So much sectarian singing goes on at Rangers and other football clubs around Scotland and goes unpunished.

But UEFA should have came in and punished Rangers for this and made the SFA take notice. Instead it's being ignored and allowed to continue.

Dempsey · Apr 14, 2006

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/4909508.stm

I dont think this story is finshed yet and rightly so. Looks like the huns will have to let go of the billie boys song

mick vannucci · Apr 14, 2006

l now that uefa is aware that there is a problem,it would not suprise me to see the sfa trying to get rangers to deal with for once and all

lenny1 · Apr 14, 2006

It's a bit rich from Murray to say the "90 minute bigot" is bringing disgrace to their club. It wasn't 90 minute bigots who had a sectarian signing policy for 115 years, it was full time ones in the board room. And it was these same people who cultivated and manipulated anti-Irish/Catholisism to make Rangers the club that they are. How this isn't highlighted beggars believe. If Murray was so intent of getting of bigotry he would have cleared the boardroom of these people when he took power but he didn't.

Saw a recent documentary on ESPN classics "Great Duels" featuring Celtic/rangers and the background. Much was being made of them signing Mo Johnstone. Derek Johnstone was interviewed on the matter, his interputation was that not signing Catholics was costing Rangers sponsorship money as companies didn't want to be connected with it. This is hugely different from stopping it because it was wrong/racist.

Lennon's lass · Apr 14, 2006

wel said lenny1, the sfa have 2 take action, im surprised jock mcConnel hasnt said something.... poor Paul le guen nxt season.. will they still b up 2 their knees in fenion blood? he wont b too happy with that will he??

Dempsey · Apr 15, 2006

lenny1 said:

It's a bit rich from Murray to say the "90 minute bigot" is bringing disgrace to their club. It wasn't 90 minute bigots who had a sectarian signing policy for 115 years, it was full time ones in the board room. And it was these same people who cultivated and manipulated anti-Irish/Catholisism to make Rangers the club that they are. How this isn't highlighted beggars believe. If Murray was so intent of getting of bigotry he would have cleared the boardroom of these people when he took power but he didn't.
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Well said, we see this but why doesnt the media at large point out this, are they chicken or something.

They are the symbol of bigotry and a root cause of sectarianism in Scotland. Celtic was founded to protect people from becoming their victims and we are getting paint with the same brush as them.

Dempsey · Apr 15, 2006

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/r/rangers/4910218.stm

McLeish warns Fifa over chanting

Alex McLeish has warned that world football's governing body is "opening a can of worms" by wanting clubs deducted points for fans' discriminatory chants.

You open a can of worms with this," he said, wondering which chants would be acceptable and which would not. "Where does it stop and where does it start?

Looks like someone agrees with you theboymalone...

lenny1 · Apr 15, 2006

Strange thing is Murray, McLeish and his cohorts all thought the support they recieved was tremendous and the supporters were a credit to the club for their conduct against Villareal. Conflicting quotes coming out of Ibrox

cavan1 · Apr 15, 2006

uefa songs for europe

just listening to radio scot' , it seems it was the old firm and not just rankers being observed in villareal, why are we being brought in ,thats whats wrong in this country, we cant tell the truth without being seen as biased towards the offender ,whats the betting the sfa take action next season and the first team found guilty will be celtic, and why are the rest of the spl culprits never mentioned, by far the worst example of secterian behaviour was hearts last year at hampden, lest we forget, killie, airdrie(leckie's mob, he likes to overlook these little rays of joyous sunshiners), motherwell ,falkirk .in fact what about the press and the sfa the phrase institutional sectarianism appears to have been invented for this, so lets all be men about it ,as the truth shall set us free, constructive or paranoid ??, just * of being lumped in with the real villians time after time, only one team in scotland operated an open secterian employment policy and it was'nt us, are the jews wrong for hating the *'s, end of . hail hail