The Fans Against Racism in Europe (FARE) Network have been forced to apologise to Rangers and their supporters for a retweet which appeared on their official Twitter account.
FARE reweeted a 30-year-old video of former Rangers players singing banned songs..
In the video’s caption, Rangers fans were referred to as the “manky mob” amongst other unpleasant and unprofessional slurs.
According to emails obtained by Four Lads Had a Dream and attributed to Adnan Ouedraogo, the group has put the liability for sending the tweet on an employee:
“We do not support this position or any of the language related to the tweet and it was mistakenly retweeted from one of our employee’s phones.
“Please, excuse this, it has been taken from the page.
“We will assure you that this happened mistakenly and will not happen again. We did not mean to insult Rangers Football Club in any sort of way.”
Four Lads Had a Dream also pointed out that FARE have reported Rangers in every UEFA match for the last few years.
These complaints led to charges in two matches, which saw sections of Ibrox closed for games against Legia Warsaw and Feyenoord.
The club also refused their allocation for the match against Young Boys [Rangers] as a show of goodwill.
Situation raises questions about FARE’s suitability to judge Rangers
Rangers have taken monumental strides in the challenging of unacceptable behaviour in recent years.
The club recently praised all fans for their approach to initiatives such as Everyone, Anyone, which chairman Dave King was quick to point out has been supported by politicians.
But questions will now be asked over FARE’s suitability to be able to judge the club’s progress or even their current status in this regard.
Can the Ibrox side truly be adjudged fairly by a group, or members of a group, who have endorsed unacceptable language concerning Rangers fans?
Does the same apply to those who ignore the steps Rangers have taken to eradicate sectarianism?
Will this employee ever be allowed to influence decision-making concerning Rangers?
Is an email to a club insider really enough and does this warrant further investigation and explanation?
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