Jewish Celtic Supporter Speaks Out

[major.tom]

BBC had a podcast a short while ago: Rangers v Celtic (mp3)

I'm flummoxed that there's such strong divisions in Scotland. Seems a waste of energy when there's more to be gained from cooperation toward common goals.

That's not to say that there aren't divisions here; the anti-immigrant brigade seems to be growing. There were even recent convictions for racially-motivated assaults, but the hate-crime angle was virtually ignored.

[faceless]

Offensive rant against the Pope and Celtic published on ex-referee Jeff Winter’s blog
The blog entry, posted under the name of former English Premiership referee Jeff Winter, sparked outrage on Twitter.
Mike Farrell
12 January 2012

A former English Premiership referee's personal website has been suspended after an offensive rant against the Catholic Church and Celtic appeared on the blog. The blog entry, posted under the name of Jeff Winter, asked whether "altar boys" would get "abused in celebration" after Celtic won the latest Old Firm game last month. The post on the 56-year-old’s website also described Pope Benedict XVI as "dress wearing, Nazi, kiddy fiddling protector".

On Thursday morning, web hosting company 123-Reg suspended the site after the post was widely circulated on social media site Twitter. The company refused to comment on the reasons behind the move.

Mr Winter has worked as a pundit for Sky Sports and Talksport Radio since retiring as an official in 2004 and has performed on the after-dinner speaker circuit. His blog post was meant to be charting a winter trip around New Zealand and Australia. In the middle of describing his travels, the blog contains an abbreviation known as an offensive reference to the Pope and refers to Celtic’s home ground as "Septick Park" (sic).

Peter Kearney, director of the Scottish Catholic Media Office, said: "Not only is it not banter this goes way beyond comment on football. I mean the comments made here, if they prove to be correct, take us into a different realm altogether. And they do constitute the most outrageous religious hatred."

On his official Twitter account Mr Winter describes himself as a supporter of Middlesbrough and Rangers. In November 2010 he was pictured attending Rangers’ 3-1 win over St Mirren in Paisley. The post, made on December 30, has been followed by several other blog entries since and has been widely circulated on Twitter.

Football pundit Gabriele Marcotti revealed he had contacted Mr Winter about the posts to establish whether or not the site had been hacked and had received a reply saying Mr Winter's website manager was looking into it.

Strathclyde Police said they had been made aware of the remarks and were carrying out enquiries into it. Celtic FC confirmed they had taken legal advice over the post and made a complaint to the police regarding it.

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Here's a screengrab from his site, though I'm not sure when it's from. He's an utter prick.

[SpoiltVictorian]

Ridiculous thing for him to post on blog, but if you strip it down the argument it is:
Man has stated opinion;
Someone complains.

Whether he was a referee or not is irrelevant.

He portrays himself as a despicable lowlife. I hope he has trouble sleeping at night.
But, 'Hey-Ho'.
~ Vikki



That

[faceless]

Bigotry, Bombs and Football

[faceless]

Rangers must act tough on Ibrox mob who bring fear to Glasgow
A Channel 4 journalist has found evidence of shocking intimidation from a small minority of those who follow the Light Blues
Douglas Beattie
19 October 2012
morningstaronline.co.uk

There have been deeply worrying stories in recent days from Channel 4 News journalist Alex Thomson concerning the conduct of some individuals who associate themselves with Rangers.

Thomson, who has taken a close interest in the club over its many months of financial meltdown, describes intimidation on a grand scale by some followers of the Light Blues, complicity by those now running Rangers, and an inability (or unwillingness) on the part of the Scottish media to speak truth to these forces.

The ITN man, who has been embroiled in the brutality of the Syrian conflict of late and covered numerous wars around the world, seems genuinely shocked by what he’s found, and personally been subjected to, in Glasgow.

As far as he is concerned, in Scotland in the 21st century a “mob” is threatening the legal profession, football’s governing bodies, club executives, publishers, bookshops, newspapers and TV companies for daring to contemplate investigations into and stories about Rangers and their fall from grace.

Staggering stuff — and getting worse it seems. The London-based correspondent points out that death threats have been made to at least one individual (the Scottish FA chief executive no less) prompting action by counter-terrorism officers. Not only that the National Union of Journalists say around 25 of their members on Clydeside have suffered abuse for simply doing their job.

Thomson also finds alarming the “silence” over all of this in some quarters of the media, asking “why not a single Scottish newspaper has reviewed a book” — Downfall: How Rangers FC Self Destructed — “selling way beyond its publisher’s estimates? What kind of power does the Ibrox mob have still?”

While it is clearly obvious that the police must be willing to act over these matters it is also necessary for Rangers themselves to take a stand, if they truly wish to have the slate wiped clean of past misdemeanours.

The individual now running the show, Charles Green, recently said he wanted Rangers to “be a force for good in football.” He now has a duty to make it plain that abusive and threatening behaviour will not be tolerated at Ibrox, for no football club nor any other part of society can appear to be contemptuous of the law.