The Times (Scotland) has delved into two often taboo issues at Ibrox in what should be happy and glorious times for the club and most media outlets.
Increasingly media access to the club is being denied with short stand-off’s and the withdrawal of privileges before peace resumes with the outlet on the naughty step made fully aware what is expected of them and more importantly what is off limits.
The failure to comment on the SFA Child Abuse report has drawn extra attention on line to the incidents inside Ibrox that the club would rather ignore. In parallel more and more media outlets are feeling the squeeze in favour of fawning ‘fan media’ getting the opportunity to say ‘Hi Steven’ or perhaps ‘Good Morning Steven’ at the carefully controlled Zoom conference calls.
Graham Spiers is on the banned list with no specific reason given although it could be carried forward from a previous employment which felt the heat from one large Ibrox-friendly advertiser.
Why have ?@RangersFC? said nothing over claims of historic sex abuse? asks ?@GrahamSpiers?https://t.co/I9ZTVhIMVm
— TimesEditorScotland (@magnusllewellin) February 20, 2021
Just like the COVID FIVE they are a law unto themselves
— McKay Clan (@McKay779) February 20, 2021
Funny how gers fans were the leading light into child abuse allegations and justice for victims until it came out about their own club. Silence is deafening and the refusal of the MAJORITY of their fans to even acknowledge this is vile.
— theburgerking (@funkinpunker) February 20, 2021
??My column in The Times:
•With so much to celebrate on the pitch, why is Rangers FC turning into the North Korea of Scottish football?
•The embattled Scott Allan
•Memo from golf’s front line: is the baby on its way?
?@thetimesscot?
?? https://t.co/5KW9KCraF5— Graham Spiers (@GrahamSpiers) February 20, 2021
After revealing that the current club has refused to comment or apologise in line with the recent report on Child Abuse published by the SFA Spiers goes on to detail in The Times:
Off the pitch, Rangers FC is starting to resemble some sort of North Korean closed society, espying agendas and enemies against the club and now appearing to ban journalists left, right and centre.
Of those writers or reporters who are banned from Ibrox, I’m at the head of the queue, now five years banished by Mr Robertson, who has been unable to offer me a reason why, save for feeling “under pressure” himself. Over this period, Rangers have proceeded to banish others, including reporters who work for BBC Scotland and the Daily Record.
This week, a freelance journalist claimed that he has newly been banned, while a number of Rangers supporters expressed their concerns at the club having denied reporting access to a reporter from The Athletic following his coverage of the historic sex abuse story. This is a burgeoning “banned list” at Rangers.
Amid all of this, Robertson and his board have swallowed much of the online fan zealotry about Rangers “enemies” and “agendas” and the rest. In one recent case, at a newspaper with a sports desk known to house a healthy contingent of Rangers fans, there was a fan outpouring to ‘deal with them’ because of the paper’s supposed anti-Rangers stance.
Many in the Scottish media actually believe Robertson and Rangers want to end mainstream press coverage altogether at the club: that only in-house club reporting and the congratulatory, approving tones of “fan media” are what Rangers seek going forward. I must say I really believed the days of Pravda and its like were well and truly behind us.
Some of this might seem fun, even faintly comical. But to others, who want to see a mature, adult, 21st century Rangers, it is dismaying, most especially given the club’s stony silence following the SFA’s findings. Rangers, somehow, needs to find a way past its world-against-us outlook.
Some might say that a mature, adult 21st century Rangers wouldn’t be Rangers, just like the club founded by Charles Green and given SFA membership in 2012.
Exclusive: Former top-flight footballer claims he was abused Ibrox while a youth player with Rangers.https://t.co/txiSxU3pmT
— TimesEditorScotland (@magnusllewellin) February 20, 2021