Rangers fans have criticised “Scotland’s leading anti-sectarianism charity” for their response to “derogatory tweets” from St Mirren chairman John Needham.
Nil By Mouth have encouraged Needham to donate to the Rangers Charity Foundation after the comments and have condemned the “derogatory tweets”.
However, the charity have come in for criticism for not condemning the sectarian nature of some of Needham’s communications.
New St Mirren chairman John Needham apologised to Rangers and the club’s fans after a series of tweets were unearthed from a Twitter account linked to him.
These include encouraging a bridge holding Rangers supporters to collapse, the use of a banned sectarian term, and nods to refereeing conspiracies regarding the Ibrox club.
Naturally, there have been major calls from Rangers communities to see the St Mirren chairman resign.
Despite the charity listing the insult as “offensive sectarian language” on their own website, fans find it strange that Nil by Mouth have not referred to the use of sectarian language in their own tweet.
Especially when you consider the vociferousness with which they went after Rangers following a kit launch earlier in October.
Anti-sectarianism charity damages credibility with Rangers fans
The charity finds itself under scrutiny from Rangers supporters for their response to a special kit release video which included the Ibrox anthem Four Lads Had a Dream.
In a manufactured response, several anti-Rangers voices essentially accused the club of ‘dog-whistling’ to sectarianism by including an orchestral version of the song; the track has a similar melody to the banned “Famine song”, which is similar to the well-known song Sloop John B by the Beach Boys.
This includes Nil by Mouth.
However, the club’s entire kit launch campaign has centred around the origins of the Ibrox side, with each of the four kits being adorned with the names of one of the club’s founders.
The use of Four Lads Had a Dream – a perfectly innocent chant which has been sung at Ibrox for over a decade – was perfectly appropriate.
This damaged Nil by Mouth’s credibility amongst the Rangers support and the defensive nature of their latest retort regarding Needham has seen fans further distance themselves from the group:
https://twitter.com/EvanAlex95/status/1452577549666619394
As a footballing community, it is undeniable that Scotland has taken great strides with issues such as sectarianism, racism, homophobia and abuse.
There are still major steps to be made in football and society in Scotland and everyone at Rangers News supports progressive and positive change in this regard.
Like the majority of supporters, we applaud campaigns such as Everyone, Anyone and will always endeavour to be a responsible voice whilst standing up for the views of fans.