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"This has to be said about Ranger, as a Scottish Football club they are a permanent embarrassment and an occasional disgrace. This country would be a better place if Rangers did not exist."
Ian Archer (journalist, 1970s)

"There's nothing worse than sitting in the dressing room at Celtic Park after a defeat, at Celtic Park after a defeat, not a word being said, listening to them going mental next door."
Ally McCoist (ex-Rangers striker)

"Rangers like the big strong powerful fellows, with a bit of strength and solidity in the tackle, rather than the frivolous, quick moving stylists like Jimmy Johnstone, small, tiptoe-throughs the tulips type of players who excite people."
Willie Waddell, Rangers manager 1972

Brian Clough: "What team did you say you support again?"
Man in the studio audience: "RANGERS!"
Brian Clough: "That's not a football team! That's a gang of villains."
The irrepressible Brian Clough on "Sport in Question"

"In every hick town in Caledonia across the pseudo nation, you can see the most fucked up scum who were shat into creation, where a blue McEwans's lager top equals an imagination.
"Think you're a success?
"Your's psyche's a mess.
"Your economy is in distress, you're HUN-believable!!!"
Irvine Welsh, the irrespressible novelist on his opinion about Rangers fans (1996)

'It's not that they weren't penalties - it's just that they're the kind of penalties nobody else gets!'
Not the View fanzine in 2003 after Rangers were awarded three penalties in their 2-2 draw with Dundee in May 2003

Ray Wilkins on an ESPN documentary said about Rangers (June 2007)
"I'd just come from Italy and France which are catholic countries,very warm and friendly,and here I was in Glasgow with some of my team-mates [i.e. fellow Rangers players] hating catholics. I just couldn't understand it and frankly found it ridiculous."

Walter Smith, a two-time former manager of the club and now manager of Scotland, once said to me: “There is a Protestant superiority syndrome around this club . . . you can feel it.”
Graham Speirs quoting Walter Smith (taken from his book on Paul Le Guen's time at Rangers, 2007)

"When I came here in 1964, we had no Catholics," he said. "Not just the playing staff, anywhere. There was no bit of paper, it was an unwritten rule. David Murray changed that and it moved on significantly in 1989 when Maurice Johnston signed. You cannot clear up 80 years of sectarianism in eight months, but we are a huge way down the road."
Sandy Jardine

It was not until the 1960’s that the burning issue of sectarianism reared its ugly head at Ibrox. A former player, Ralph Brand, made the sectarian policy at Rangers public knowledge and around this time the behaviour of Rangers fans was a real problem for the club. In 1963, Rangers fans jeered during the minute’s silence for assassinated Catholic U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Then, in 1967, then vice Chairman Matt Taylor was questioned about Rangers no Catholics policy and he stated that he felt that they policy was “part of our tradition....we were formed in 1873 as a Protestant boys club. To change now would lose us considerable support.”
Vice-Chairman Matt Taylor of Rangers from 1960s

To the Rangers fans: "Stay and vomit in your own home, urinate in the corner of your own sitting room, fight with your own neighbours Celtic (who deserve a medal for putting up with you) and foul the streets of Glasgow. Don't come back to Barcelona, you're an embarrassment. And while we're at it, don't play in the Champions League. You're not up to scratch, either on a sporting or human level.
There are noisy supports who, even though they drink large quantities of beer, make friends. Not you lot, because you turn everywhere you go into dumps. You are undesirables."
El Mundo Deportivo Newspaper on Rangers after the Rangers game v Barcelona in the Nou Camp (Nov 07)
Full Article: "Don't come back to Barcelona" (Nov 07)

"The people in that CCTV footage acted like a pack of wolves. Whatever happened earlier there was no excuse for this level of violence. "
Assistant Chief Constable Justine Curran, the match commander during Rangers' shame in the UEFA Cup Final "Battle of Piccadilly" in Manchester (see link)

"Celtc : Bohemian, Underprivileged.
Rangers : Dour, Establishment."
FourFourTwo magazine describing the two clubs


Lionel Messi, the Barcelona striker, accused the Scottish side of indulging in "anti-football" when the same goalless Ibrox scoreline was achieved against his own team in the Champions League. Now Mutu has expressed his own distaste.
"I've never seen a team play like that at home before, but that is their game, their tactic, and what they believe in," he said. "I thought maybe they would want to make more of a spectacle for the fans. For me, it was an ugly game. They were defending all the time and I just hope we see a bit more attacking, some spectacular"
Mutu (Fiorentina) on Rangers just before 2nd leg game in UEFA cup v Huns (Apr 08)

“Celtic have all the cool people supporting them. Rangers have me and Wet Wet Wet!!!”
Alan McGee’s lament on the great truth (Alan McGee was the founder of Creation Records and the former manager of Oasis (who also happen to be Man City and Celtic fans)