As Rangers prepare to host Celtic at Ibrox this weekend, the match will not only hold significance for the present and future, but also the past.
The match will take place on the 50th anniversary of one of Rangers’ and Scottish football’s most defining moments, the Ibrox Disaster.
Fifty years to the day Rangers will meet Celtic at Ibrox once more as the emotion and drama of a title race is intertwined with eerily empty stands and haunting memories of one of football’s darkest days.
A total of 66 Rangers fans died in an agonising crush on Stairway 13 as fans left the stadium following a 1-1 draw with Old Firm rivals Celtic in 1971.
The appalling tragedy remains one of the saddest in British sporting history and forced Ibrox Stadium and British football to react as the laws were rewritten.
But our Old Firm rivals Celtic undoubtedly deserve credit for rewriting the age-old laws of engagement between the two clubs with their touching tribute to the Disaster this week.
Whilst it was the lives of Rangers fans that were lost Celtic were just as much part of the day as Rangers and throughout the 50 years the club itself have been a tactful and respectful presence in the memory of the fans who lost their lives that day.
Once again, the Parkhead club assumed this role with class and dignity as they laid a virtual wreath in respect of those who lost their lives with a dignified detailing of the events.
You can read it HERE.
The comprehensive retelling of the tragic incident was not necessary and if anything, highlights just how big a moment this was in Celtic’s history as much as Rangers’.
The images of Jock Stein and Wille Waddell side by side helping those affected by the crush is a lasting tribute to the quiet respect which can exist between the two clubs in their hour of need and reflection.
Before the Old Firm do battle on January 2nd 2021, they will stand shoulder to shoulder as Stein and Waddell did 50 years previously and lay a wreath in respect of those who lost their lives.
But the Parkhead club’s respectful response to the events of that day in the build up should live long in the memory and they deserve immense credit for acknowledging the gravity of what happened that day even before a ball comes close to being kicked.
Here’s how Rangers fans reacted to a “hard to watch” BBC documentary on the Ibrox Disaster which asks some difficult questions about what happened on that fateful day 50 years ago.
