Rangers Fans v Scotland: The Booing Black Scandal

As with every football fan that frequents the internet, I spend as much time lurking the forums of rivals as I do on forums of the team I support. This often comes with the tags ‘obsessed’ and ‘hate us more than they love their own club’ and remains an undiscussed but acknowledged secret of every internet frequenting football fan. It’s no real surprise to me that the 2nd link in the ‘most visited’ tab upon opening Google Chrome is that of a Rangers forum. The particular forum which I frequent serves as a place for me to crease myself endlessly at the incredible display of what was formerly known as ‘hunnery’, which we are bizarrely not supposed to say any more. Even the banning of said term came about through the endless displays of what was formerly known as ‘hunnery’ on these forums.

The latest stance (what would formerly have been labelled ‘hunnery’) taken by fans of The Rangers FC is against the Scottish national team itself. The previous stance did seem to be focused against the Scottish Football Association alone, given the amount of punishments (translated as consequences to sane human beings) dished out by the SFA to oldco/newco/sevco, as well as acts by the SFA against former Rangers players Barry Ferguson and Alan McGregor for getting minced after one and shortly before another World Cup qualifier. Other acts of what was formerly known as ‘hunnery’ in the recent years have included not just overtaking but overlapping Celtic in the paranoia race regarding decisions given against the old Rangers in their latter years.

This latest stance has come about after the booing of The Rangers FC’s new signing Ian Black when he replaced Gary Caldwell with 3 minutes to go in Scotland’s midweek friendly with Australia. Such an outrageous act by the ‘tartan trannies’, as the Scotland fans are affectionately known as on these forums, has acted as the straw that broke the camel’s back for Rangers fans and their support of the Scottish national team. Fans of the national team are now known as ‘bigots’ – a term made cool from its use by Charles Green (in an act of what was formerly known as ‘hunnery’). Indeed, the latest ‘WATP’/’NS’/’KAT’ type acronym to hit Rangers messageboards is ‘A.B.S.’, easily decoded by anyone familiar with the (pathetic in itself) Anyone But England term.

What is misunderstood by fans of The Rangers FC is that Black was not booed due to being an apple b*stard, solely. The booing was in fact entirely aimed at Levein, almost. It was aimed at Levein for selecting a player who had not once before been called up for his country despite many years of promising performances for Inverness and Hearts. To let our opposites from either side of the gruesome twosome into a secret, a paranoia of fans of clubs outwith said twosome is that players are not selected for their country until they sign for either of these sides. That this happened once more, when Rangers are now in the 4th tier of Scottish football, proves us to be correct. That is before we consider that a footballer playing for a 4th tier outfit cannot be fit to play for the national side and that there are better options in the SPL let alone in leagues of greater quality instead of Black.

Perhaps the greatest reason I have read however in the debate over the great booing Black scandal was by an Aberdeen fan who commented ‘I booed because I love booing. Booing is a big part of sport.’ And there you have it; we booed not because we are Catholics, hate Protestants, hate Rangers, hate ‘the big city’ or hate Ian Black, but because we hate Levein, and love to boo.

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