davek
Player Valuation: £150m
I distrust him and his shortbread biscuit name.
The Celtic View
Player Valuation: £20m
The thing is, you know he doesn't believe a word that garbage. He's just writing it to get more zombies to vote Conservative. He'll be telling us next that the Tories are party of the working classes...
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
I was surprised (and not a little bit disappointed) to learn that you can get 5 free Scotsman articles per week. They should firewall it completely.
The Celtic View
Player Valuation: £20m
Fair play to Rangers PR guru, Murdo He's consistent, at least...
An inquiry sparked by clashes between police and Rangers fans in Manchester for the Uefa Cup final needs to be widened, the first minister has said.
CCTV images have shown fans charging at police and attacking one officer after he was tripped and fell to the ground.
Alex Salmond said the Manchester City Council inquiry would initially look at the breakdown of one of the big screens which had been due to show the match.
Scottish Labour, Tories and Lib Dems called for a full, joint inquiry.
Scottish Conservative deputy leader Murdo Fraser initially said the decision to deploy riot police was an "over-reaction" which may have inflamed the situation.
But he was later forced to temper his comments after viewing the CCTV footage.
Speaking at question time in the Scottish Parliament, Mr Salmond said he believed that the council's inquiry was "initially, at least, quite limited in its scope, looking in particular at the circumstances of the equipment breakdown".
He added: "I would think the inquiry should be wider in its scope.
"I think there are a number of other aspects to inquire into and certainly we'll give full cooperation to all the matters under our responsibility to such an inquiry."
Mr Salmond said there had been a change of approach in terms of how Manchester was looking to cope with the huge influx of fans "quite late in the day".
He said more than 100,000 supporters travelled to Manchester.
"The overwhelming majority in the overwhelming number of locations enjoyed a carnival atmosphere - a festival of football."
He added: "It seems that the behaviour of a small minority of fans was completely unacceptable."
Greater Manchester Police said 15 officers were injured under a "severe level of attack" from Rangers fans.
The force said it had been "stretched", but responded appropriately.
One Russian fan was stabbed in the violence and police made 42 arrests as Rangers lost the final 2-0 to Russian side Zenit St Petersburg at the City of Manchester stadium.
Inflamed situation
Ambulance crews were also caught up in the trouble which flared in the city centre, much of it after a big screen that had been set up in Piccadilly Gardens failed about 15 minutes before kick-off.
Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander called for a cross-border probe into the violence.
Mr Fraser, a Rangers fan, said the Greater Manchester force had "serious questions" to answer about its tactics.
He said at first: "I thought there was an over-reaction in terms of deploying riot police which possibly enflamed the situation and I think there has to be an inquiry here looking at how ready were the police for so many fans to come and visit the city."
But after viewing the CCTV images, Mr Fraser issued a statement in which he said the situation was more serious than first suspected.
"The attacks on police officers and paramedics are deplorable and have to be condemned without reservation," he said.
Rangers chief executive Martin Bain condemned fans involved in the violence, but stressed they had been a "small minority".
He added: "The police and council praised the behaviour of the overwhelming majority of Rangers fans and estimates suggest there could have been around 200,000 in the city yesterday.
"There was a tremendous atmosphere all around the city and the vast majority deserved credit for the way they behaved.
"The police and council have identified the failure of a big screen in the city as a key point in the evening. We are deeply disappointed that a small minority soured what was a great carnival atmosphere and this is a view shared by our fans who travelled in unprecedented numbers to Manchester."
Rangers confirmed they had cancelled a planned public procession through Glasgow in light of the death from cancer of Celtic coach Tommy Burns.
Assistant Chief Constable Justine Curran, of Greater Manchester Police, admitted the force had been "stretched" by the "unprecedented" influx of Rangers fans.
She added: "It was challenging and we were stretched. Our officers did come under a degree of violent attacks. I am happy we responded appropriately.
"I watched the scenes in Piccadilly Gardens from the control room. I saw officers chased down a street by a baying mob of around 200 people. We had to do something."
Sir Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester City Council, suggested "a fair number" of fans had been too drunk to follow directions to an alternative screen which was set up after the failure of the Piccadilly Gardens screen.
Sir Richard added: "The technicians trying to repair the screen had bottles and stuff thrown at them so they had to withdraw.
"I think there were clearly a fair number of fans that had been drinking since before breakfast time and they might have had some difficulty following instructions, but clearly the vast majority were still capable."
And he added: "If you are going to put blame on anybody you put blame on those people for their behaviour - they have to take responsibility."
Those Manchester police, what are they like? Deploying riot police to deal with, erm, rioting football fans. it's just so unfair of the poor, rioting, Rangers supporters!
The party of law and order...
PaddyJames
Player Valuation: £25m
Cork Evertonian
Player Valuation: £50m
The club has an excellent anti racism/discrimination program. The work the club does, to help underprivileged people in Glasgow is also top drawer. What he said in regards to that is the truth. Rangers is a club with a massive support, and unfortunately there is a few bad apples in the barrel. But i do think, some of the criticisms aimed at the club and it's support, can be over the top at times. At times i said now, there is also unfortunately occasions, when criticisms of the clubs support is sadly justified.
The Celtic View
Player Valuation: £20m
More Rangers fans welcoming Mo Johnston with open arms. The flowers in second is is a wreath! The clubs kit man refused to put out Johnston's kit, ffs. If that's a welcome with open arms, I'd hate to see what they'd be like if they were unhappy with the signing...
It doesn't matter how ludicrous the lie is. If you keep repeating it TRIFC fans will happily accept it, even though they know it's a lie.. So far this season, they've claimed Celtic were getting preferential treatment because they had more fans in the stadium, even though it was pointed out to them that it was a gradual build up and the same for every club.
Their behaviour over their fan zone was appalling. They tried to commandeer the council owned sports facility across from £1brox to use as a fan zone on match days. When the council, quite naturally, refused, they claimed Celtic and Hampden had fan zones, though they neglected to mention they were on land owned by Celtic, and the SFA. They then had several freedom of information request about the spending of councillors who refused their attempt to sanction the newco's land grab. They're bullies by nature. Bullying, and intimidation, is how they roll.
I suppose when your club (or it it the operating company?) chairman is a career criminal who managed to buy his way out of 40 odd years in a South African prison, commandeering someone else's land wouldn't be regarded as a big deal.
Imagine the brass neck of Nicola Sturgeon criticising TRIFC who were rioting in Glasgow city centre! What have things come to when ra bears can't attack riot police on a Sunday evening in George Square without the first minister commenting on their behaviour?
Police Scotland, who's Rangers supporting officers abused their powers recently carried out illegal searches, sang sectarian songs in an attempt to intimidate witnesses, and even claimed Tommy Sheridan's wife was adopting IRA tactics, said when they told the Union Bears fans group who organised the George Square 'celebrations' the fans group said if the police tried to stop it there would be a riot. So, to sum up, there will be a riot if you try to stop it, and if you let the 'celebrations' go ahead there will be an, erm, riot! Talk about a lose lose situation.
The two TRIFC fans on here have summed up the newco's supporters attitude perfectly. They have no interest whatsoever in the truth, or what is right and what is wrong. They only want to hear pleasant lies, no matter how insane those lies are.
D
Deleted member 48881
Guest
St Johnstone against Gala tonight. Should be fun.
Cork Evertonian
Player Valuation: £50m
The vast majority of Rangers fans have no issues with Catholic players, so that's good enough for me.
How would you know about the vast majority of Rangers fans? What is your source?
D
Deleted member 48881
Guest
The Celtic View
Player Valuation: £20m
I accept that nowadays most TRIFC fans will accept Catholic players, but what does that have to do with the outrageous lie Fraser told, or good point as a couple of posters called it, that Rangers fans welcomed Johnston with open arms?
As I said, not only did the Rangers fans demonstrate outside the stadium, the club kit man refused to put out Johnston's kit!
Alanbileysfeathercut
Player Valuation: £80m
Alanbileysfeathercut
Player Valuation: £80m
Honestly unsure about that.
A majority?
Maybe a small one.
As long as they don't cross themselves over the white line.