The Daily Record yesterday were digging up falsehoods from a bygone era, while conveniently forgetting about similar incidents more closer to home…
An article in the Record on Friday morning caught my eye. It was regarding the Europa league draw and the rag was highlighting that theRangers could draw French side Marseille. As it turned out they got Benfica, so they can updated F1 calendar with race dates as hopefully they’re set for a very speedy exit for the Europa League. It has to be said that they’ve done well enough to get this far but you’d have to fancy Benfica who Celtic have played so many times in Europe. Remember the toss of a coin, anyone?
🚨 Europa League draw LIVE 🚨
There could be a grudge match on the cards as Marseille denied the Gers a spot in the inaugural Champions League final – before being embroiled in a bribery scandal 👀
Follow the build-up LIVE 💻#EuropaLeague | #UELdraw https://t.co/lNgVjnhkzd pic.twitter.com/OCFUL1Ppnr
— Daily Record Sport (@Record_Sport) February 23, 2024
Back to the headline in the Record that suggested it could be a grudge match despite theRangers and Marseille never meeting in a competitive match. They are of course nodding towards the old Rangers RIP who faced the French side in the first ever Champions League group stages back in 1992/93.
There is a popular belief amongst supporters of the old Rangers and the new one that they should have somehow won the whole thing back then! Yes they really are that deluded. It’s nothing but a myth, plain and simple. Yes they had a good side back then and they had a good go in Europe, but they failed to win enough games to reach the final.
Marseille were found guilty of breaking the rules back then and were severely punished when it all came out in the wash, but it was a bribery scandal domestically that was to prove their downfall, nothing to do with Europe. They were rightly stripped of domestic titles, but still allowed to keep the champions league title.
Rangers RIP failed to beat Marseille over two games, while drawing to both CSKA Moscow and Club Brugge. They therefore finished a point behind Marseille, so it was Rangers themselves that were the reason that they didn’t reach the final. There was also the small matter of an unbelievable AC Milan side to overcome, so for them to say they were cheated out of the big cup is total fiction.
Not that their supporters or the media will tell you that. They also ironically and conveniently ignore the cheating that Rangers RIP were found guilty of under David Murray, but they do say it takes one to know one. The extent of their cheating was so great that Scottish football and indeed European football couldn’t grasp the extent of it all. They had improperly registered players for over a decade which should have resulted in numerous titles being stripped in all three Scottish competitions.
BREAKING! Celtic announce they have a staggering £67m in the bank and reveal £32m profits as revenue rockets to £82mhttps://t.co/mneddwkYK2 pic.twitter.com/R4oFGE2beP
— Daily Record Sport (@Record_Sport) February 23, 2024
Rangers eventually went bust, liquidated in 2012 owing around £100m. On the day Celtic’s interim accounts were released the Daily Record tweeted about Celtic having over £67m in cash in the bank after costs, immediate theRangers fans latched onto this with their usual ‘pay the victims’ stuff, too dim to realise that’s for the insurance company to deal with. However I liked the response for the admin on The Celtic Star’s twitter who retorted ‘Pay the creditors’, after all they are the same club, right? The one that was robbed by Marseille all those years ago?
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
