Rangers fans have been saluting the club for their swift response to images and videos of a group of Gers fans and an incidence of racist abuse aimed at Celtic star Kyogo Furuhashi.
The Ibrox club are clear that racist abuse of any kind will not be tolerated at the club and the severe punishment of “indefinite” bans and tickets being withheld from the RSC involved should serve as a severe deterrent.
The club released a statement after an investigation into the incident, which took place on a supporters’ bus travelling to and from the 4-2 win over Ross County.
“Rangers can confirm that an investigation is now complete in regard to a video circulating on social media yesterday,” reads the statement.
“The individuals involved have been identified and will be banned indefinitely from all Rangers games.
“Furthermore, the RSC of which they were members and travelled with to the game, have been banned from receiving tickets for future fixtures.”
Rangers fans drag the good name of the club and the majority of the support through the mud with this behaviour and from our point of view, this is the only recourse the club could’ve taken.
Since the fall-out of this incident we’ve seen headlines across the country which cause often irreparable damage to the reputation of the club.
Not only this, but we’ve seen people from across the journalistic and rival spectrum use this to unfairly level accusations and smear campaigns against the entire support.
That said, most importantly, racism is intolerable and there is no defence to this kind of behaviour away from those ramifications in Scotland which remain a sad indictment of footballing culture in the country.
Rangers fans applauded the club for their response to the incident and hope this will serve as a warning to anyone considering indulging in this behaviour in the future:
https://twitter.com/Pena_Cartel/status/1429821948008206337
https://twitter.com/ArranJamesGrant/status/1429820526210527233
https://twitter.com/wullyanderson/status/1429827523240730624
https://twitter.com/RSRHIGHLANDER2/status/1429847122241798150
Rangers will now move on from this quickly and put the focus right back onto the football ahead of a massive week for the club.
This starts with a trip to face Alashkert in the Europa League Playoff but it won’t just be a long flight into the east that presents a challenge to the Gers.
