Do Rangers fans.....

[la gran siete]

dislike the English football team as much as Celtic fans?Just wondered as I have often seen a Union flag fluttering amongst the Gers fans whilst Celitic mob hold the Irish flag aloft. I guess when England play Scotalnd you throw them flags in the bin and all carry St andrews flags?

[Kazuya Mishima]

It's been a long-held myth/opinion/whatever that Rangers fans, in general, are not as fervent Scotland supporters as the rest of us are....

Then again a lot of the Celtic support are Rep. of Ireland fans.

[pixelpixel]

Some Celtic fans don't even live in Scotland. What about Northern Ireland flags also.....red hand of ulster and all that !

I can see this all going down hill very quickly

[doopydug]

Theres a lot of irish support for Celtic but I doubt very much whether true football fans feel any differently about the english whether they are rangers or celtic fans

[Kazuya Mishima]

Originally Posted by pixelpixel

I can see this all going down hill very quickly

[johnscarlet]

As soon as this becomes a Rangers / Celtic slanging match , I'll close it . Banter is fine , but keep religion out of it please !! I have enough of that in GC , I don't need it in Sport as well

[Graham27]

I think it's fair to say that there's a bit more "sympathy" for the English national squad at Ibrox than there is at Parkhead.

Reason ? Partly due to the period with Souness in charge, where we had half the England team in our squad

There are obvious other more significant reasons too, but it's kinda impossible to explain fully without this topic going the wrong way. All I could say is that certain sections of the Rnagers fans wave the Union flag because they're more in favour of that "Union" than certain sections of the Celtic fans.

I wouldn't say either Rangers or Celtic fans are any less behind Scotland because of these "other" allegiances, though sometimes it's hard to believe and understand that. Some of the "other" flags are only waved to annoy the other support anyway !

[pixelpixel]

Originally Posted by Graham27

I wouldn't say either Rangers or Celtic fans are any less behind Scotland because of these "other" allegiances, though sometimes it's hard to believe and understand that. Some of the "other" flags are only waved to annoy the other support anyway !

So true

[Graham27]

Originally Posted by la gran siete

dislike the English football team as much as Celtic fans?Just wondered as I have often seen a Union flag fluttering amongst the Gers fans

Just reading that again, I do hope you're not suggesting the Union flag represents England ?

We reserve the right to wave British flags whilst still disliking your national team

[Graham27]

Double post... sorry...

[Dony]

Originally Posted by la gran siete

dislike the English football team as much as Celtic fans?Just wondered as I have often seen a Union flag fluttering amongst the Gers fans whilst Celitic mob hold the Irish flag aloft. I guess when England play Scotalnd you throw them flags in the bin and all carry St andrews flags?

The reason the Irish tri-colour is flown at Celtic Park is that the immigrant population played a part in it's formation. For that reason there has always been an affinity for Celtic by many Irish people and that has been reciprocated by the club.

[andytabor]

rangers fan are generally very pro british union, protestants hence the union jacks etc. celtic fans are generally catholics.

you can imagine with the troubles in ireland and the heat of football in general theres been a lot of friction between the clubs.

more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Firm

[DarkEntity]

Its mostly the ignorant knuckle draggers holding the union flags and likewise the Irish flags. You think after all this time they if they wanted to hold those flags they would all **** off and leave Scotland to the Scots and Scottish fans.

Its ridiculous that these idiots prance about with flags that have nothing to do with football.

[andytabor]

Originally Posted by DarkEntity

Its mostly the ignorant knuckle draggers holding the union flags and likewise the Irish flags. You think after all this time they if they wanted to hold those flags they would all **** off and leave Scotland to the Scots and Scottish fans.

Its ridiculous that these idiots prance about with flags that have nothing to do with football.

absolutely, it would be nice to see more people taking pride in them both being scottish clubs.

[kendoll]

Originally Posted by andytabor

absolutely, it would be nice to see more people taking pride in them both being scottish clubs.

Hummed and hah-ed about posting this but....

Maybe I am being controversial here, but I don't see why waving the Union Flag is an issue. It is the flag of the United Kingdom, of which Scotland is a part. I am proud of my Scottish heritage (as established in discussions in another thread in GC ), but I don't see that waving a Union Flag would indicate that you are not taking pride in the club being Scottish.

When people talk about Rangers as one of the 'British' clubs taking part in the Champions League it is fine, but waving a Union Jack is an issue?

I appreciate that some people wave it as a political statement, or to make some kind of point (or be confrontational), but I don't see that the Union Jack being waved at a Scottish ground is inherently 'bad'. There are a lot of English and Northern Irish Rangers fans as well as Scottish Rangers fans (and others), so the Union Jack is common ground.

Maybe not growing up in Scotland has made me naive?

I would agree that a football ground is not the ideal place for expressing political viewpoints.