The club from Ibrox has issued a nameless statement tonight on the back of news that a 12-year-old has been charged with racist abuse.
Even by their own standards it is one of the widest ranging statements ever published, bearing a distinct resemblance to James Traynor’s farewell column to the Daily Record.
Tonight’s statement hints at a number of targets but apart from BBC Scotland it stops short on naming any other media outlet.
Included in the statement is reference to a young immigrant which is presumably a reference to Alfredo Morelos.
According to a Police statement a 12-year-old has been charged, the child hasn’t been found guilty however it seems to have acted as a release valve for someone inside Ibrox.
The club state:
Rangers had a duty of care not to say anything that might compromise a live Police Scotland investigation. What none of us should ever do, however, is dismiss, or trivialise abusive behaviour as too many media outlets, journalists, and pundits have done in this instance.
Perhaps there might be a bout of contrition and one or two may feel a pang of guilt now that the evidence some of them so loudly demanded is there in the form of this charge.
On Morelos the statement adds:
He has been described as a waster, a cheat, an angry brat and one columnist/pundit actually wrote that if you can’t take the vitriol you are in the wrong city. The implication seems to be that the fault lies not with those who choose racism and abuse, but with a young immigrant who chose to come to our country. This is a deeply disturbing attitude and that it was actually expressed in a national newspaper defies belief.
Naming one media outlet it states:
A river of negative and hurtful attention has been flowing towards the Morelos family without thought or concern for the individuals involved and the way they have been treated is shameful. Especially vulgar is the manner in which claims of abuse, racist and sectarian, have been dismissed in some quarters – BBC Scotland in particular – where the overall situation has been mocked amid outrageous claims that Rangers were behind the leaking of certain stories. None of this shows our media and country in a good light.
Steven Gerrard is expected to host a media conference tomorrow to preview Wednesday’s match at Kilmarnock.
No comment was made on the Sky Sports interview which clearly misquoted the striker’s words in translation. Sky have deleted the interview, apologised but offered no explanation how an interview conducted inside the club could go so badly wrong.