Rangers' situation on this day should give hope to true football fans everywhere. Especially when taken in the context of impending FFP initiatives.
An institutional club whose existence gave effect to institutionalised hatreds, they used sport as a proxy for other social agendas throughout the years, and none of it much good. (They refused to let a Catholic or "immigrant" citizen through their doors for over 100 years till almost the 1990s whilst Celtics greatest ever manager and players were consistently from the so called, "other side").
Rangers played the game of "buy now pay later" with no intention of paying, and also of bending the ears of corrupt high powered friends, which us Spurs fans above most could probably understand the consequences of. They are a lesson for the racism and hatreds of Chelsea, the "old boys" smugness and past corruption of Arsenal and the cheapened glory that City are engaged in buying. They are the worst of those clubs mannerisms rolled into one. They were/are Risdale's Leeds with a pointy white mask on over thier faces.
The only downside is that this comeuppance is 20 years in the offing, since "Sir" David Murray and his clique of media, financial elite embarked on an almost hate filled quest to put their rivals (and by extension a section of society they could not abide) out of existence.
To better their nine in a row titles and to match the winning of the European Cup. These pronouncements and ambitions are all a matter of record in that period, and harmless enough in individuality, but the motive of the grand design itself was not. They failed on all accounts, but only just.
The fact that all this was done with the backing of media, financial and political cronies and that we now know it was all a rancid cesspit of financial corruption and cheating, is a matter of seriousness.
Rangers have always sought refuge in "the Old Firm" myth as peddled by lazy and/or corrupt hacks as it allowed them to expound the notion that their ethos is merely the other side of a certain coin.
Celtic have, from their foundation as a community charity then throughout their existence and again today, have stated their club to be the antidote, of Rangers, and that they stand apart and on their own merits. Celtic, quite like Spurs in fact, have a tradition of fair play, goodwill, glory-of-the-game mentality for which there is plenty of evidence from almost every player that has played for or against them, any city to host them. They are the first choice for any friendly or testimonial, and are the only club fans to ever be recipients of the FIFA fair play award. They are entirely solvent, self sufficient, profit making and tax-paying and are now secretly relishing the opportunity to escape "Scotlands shame" .. where everything is artificially cast into a mythical sectarian duopoly to aid a "divide and conquer" mentality, when that boil should have been lanced decades and decades ago.
Make no mistake that it is no coincidence that Rangers are faltering, the rats abandoning ship, at the same time as Scottish society is dragging itself away from the mindset of old, into a more secular 21st century. The extreme far right and fundamentalist religious politics of much of the old Scottish elite has had Rangers as one of their handy tools of social control for too long. There is surely a difference in being "more than a club" and being utilised in such a fashion.
Whether they die or not, this will be a chastening experience. Will serve lessons for them and for others in different ways. The house of cards and lies is tumbling down.
HMRC will not be settling easily and, following this case, have set their minds to sweeping through any cheats in English football in the coming years. Take this alongside FFP and good, well run clubs like Spurs et al will be glad of this modicum of equalization when it comes.
:-({|= :ross: \o/
