On September 2 a group called Rangers Fans For Change announced themselves on Twitter.
Quickly they attracted attention with over 2,000 followers in the space of a week during a period where their club is having a disastrous time with even the normally compliant Scottish media highlighting issues among their support.
Over successive weekends issues relating to racism from Ibrox fans was highlighted, initially on social media then seeping into the mainstream.
Inside Ibrox there has been a vacuum of leadership, to use a trendy term no one has been prepared to take ownership of the various ism issues. They know their core customer base better than anyone, the fans that will buy almost anything, everything. Except shares in the company.
We are a group of passionate, working-class supporters who want better for Rangers Football Club, the team we all love. The club has made welcomed progress in recent years in tackling bigotry within the support but we believe there is much more room for improvement. 1/7
— Rangers Fans For Change (@RFFC2021) September 2, 2021
Strangely a week after launch there hasn’t been a name, voice or face identifying with RFFC. Anyone can create video content to share, everyone can look in on it, they can share and spread the word.
Last night Phil MacGiollabhain took a look into the new fan group with the strong hint that it may be a PR squirrel from concerned corporates upset that they are being associated with a form of poison that Scottish society appears to be running out of tolerance for.
The notion of decent, tolerant Ibrox fans is a popular one. In civil life few admit to being involved or supportive of the anti-Irish, anti-Catholic racism that is at the core of the fan experience at Ibrox. Strangely those same fans are quite comfortable sitting alongside it, perhaps tapping their toes and humming along to the tunes of hate. Most folk know the type.
This weekend the spotlight returns to club matters, on Saturday Ibrox fans are on the road to Perth for a lunchtime Sky Sports slot where their views will come over loud and clear.
If RFFC fail to comment, fail to provide a rallying point for the so-called decent Ibrox fans it will look very likely that the cynical take of a PR squirrel could be true.