Lost in Sectarianism

And so to one of our irregular features on We Love Fitba, which we'll call Lost in Sectarianism in a nod to the Marina Hyde blog in the Guardian.

It's Sunday, and we're at Ibrox, for the third Old Firm match of the season, one that Celtic had to win to maintain any hope of winning the title. But it was off the field where the other battle for (moral) superiority in Glasgow was waged.

Here's the developments so far, but don't feel guilty if you feel like nodding off at any point. Falling asleep with boredom is far preferable to contemplating the depressing reality of Old Firm sectarian hand-wringing in the 21st century.

Rangers elected to begin the afternoon's proceedings with a minute's silence for Gerry Neef. Gerry who? you might say, but obscurity is no barrier to sanctimony these days, especially if your next game is against your hated rivals and you'd just love an opportunity to try and show them up.

Truth be told, if you found 10 Rangers fans who claimed detailed knowledge of Gerry Neef's career at the club, at least nine of them would be lying (he made a total of 48 appearances in the late 60s / early 70s). Nontheless, they all now demanded a minute's silence so that they could pay their respects to a man most had never heard of.

As it happens, the silence was fairly well observed, even though it was reported as "disrupted" in most media reports. Whether it was really disrupted by a handful of Celtic morons, or a larger mob of Rangers fans just itching to shout "scummy bastards!" as soon as they heard a pin drop, is open to debate.

But this episode was just the warm-up to the afternoon's main show piece. Rangers Community Foundation had chosen this match as the ideal event to honour Falkland's vet Simon Weston, who'd given a talk to the Foundation the day before.

Hmm, the Falkland Islands? Haven't they been in the news recently? Surely Rangers wouldn't co-opt one man's terrible injuries and inspirational recovery to make a political point? Are we really that cynical these days?

Sure enough, as Simon Weston was presented with his royal blue shirt at half time, the cameras scanned the Celtic enclosure, seeking any sign of disrespect. The headline just waiting for a story? Rangers support Our Boys. Fenian "scummy bastards" don't.

They found a Celtic fan waving an Argentina shirt around, Scotland's second favourite strip since 1986. This, it was deemed by the Sun, was enough to run the story about how a "twisted Celtic fan" taunted a war hero.

Spurred on by faux outrage, there's now a facebook page where you can register your own disgust at his behaviour, and help to track the offending tim down.

Of course, it is almost too easy to point out that cheap finger-pointing like this is all the more embarassing when it involves a man who met and befriended the Argentinian pilot who dropped the bomb that injured him so badly.

In other words, Simon Weston demonstrates forgiveness and understanding, and a mature world view that our two bigot brothers could barely comprehend, let alone emulate. If Rangers wanted to "honour" this man, maybe trying to build bridges with their neighbour, rather than perpetually wind them up, might be more appropriate?

It might also be stated that - at a time when the prospective next Foreign Secretary of the UK has recently tried to reprise the jingoistic fervour of the Falklands conflict - there has never been a better time to dig out our Argentina shirts and show that we, as a people, have moved on.

But no, Rangers have been declared winners in this round, so we must direct our anger as appropriate. Exploiting charitably-minded war heroes for cheap stunts is fine. Holding a national shirt of another country should be a criminal offence.