No Pope of Rome
 

The greatest song ever

:bored:

No, no Pope of Rome
No chapels to sadden my eyes
No nuns and no priests and no Rosary beads
And Every days like the 12th of July.

If you say so, however Rangers dont agree with you. Try singing it in Ibrox near ground staff.

Think the words "lifetime ban... religious Bigotry... No room within Scottish Football... " etc will be muttered as you are led courteously to the holding cells to await your appearance before the Glasgow Sheriff on the next working day.

Well i am sure Rangers do agree with me it's the SFA that don't.

Nor EUFA.

Yes of course Rangers agree with you, they love playing closed game matches, and paying fines to both the SFA and EUFA. And of course they just love going to court to defend their fans dont they?

Closed game matches.. what decade are you living in? or what planet are you living in more to the point... Rangers have the best support ever there is nothing to defend against really football Chants do no harm adds a bit of flair to the game. Oh and there is no such organisation as EUFA... I think you mean UEFA :amazed:

Yeah your quite right I did mean UEFA, fingers wont do what tell them when typing.

Closed game matches?

Decade?

This one try this ruling from 2006, less than 5 will say that again just so you get it 5 thats FIVE years ago.

Following the two UEFA Champions League fixtures against Villareal in February and March 2006, UEFA charged Rangers FC for being responsible for discriminatory chants sung by sections of their supporters at both matches, in particular, the ‘Billy Boys’ and ‘**** the Pope’.

....

The Disciplinary Inspector called for the closure of parts of Ibrox stadium, as well as a CHF 35,000 fine. UEFA rules also allowed the consideration of forcing Rangers to play matches behind closed doors, as well as a stadium ban.

....


UEFA specifically mentioned “No Pope in Rome”, “**** the Pope” and the Billy Boys as discriminatory singing and concluded the following:

“UEFA has to send a strong message that sectarianism is unacceptable within football, especially within UEFA competitions. If Rangers FC wishes to compete in UEFA competitions, they must combat this behaviour not only on the occasion of home matches but also on the occasion of away matches. These incidents are ascribable to Rangers FC in accordance with Article 6(1) RD and must be punished accordingly.”

Since that time, the Club has continued with informal liaison with UEFA and the Scottish football authorities and it is clear that the Club and its supporters are unlikely to be given the benefit of the doubt in the future should there be further incidents.


Now, do you think I just made that all up?

UEFA can and will order the club to play matches behind closed gates if the club cant keep its fans in order.

And about fines...


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...pe/7034017.stm

£25,000

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ic/7715713.stm

£42,000

See thats what is wrong with some groups of Scottish Football fans, instead of pointing the finger at others, they should be cleaning up their own acts.


But that sort of flies right over some peoples heads doesnt it?

You do know all of that came to nothing in the end? they got fined £13,300 as far as i am aware and that was it. Uefa won't do ****... this has always happened and will continue to happen and Uefa will continue to make empty threats as well... a few fines here and there maybe and that's about it.

Aye thats right. UEFA wont do anything, famous last words those.

Thats why at both Ibrox and Parkhead fans are warned not to sing songs that are on the banned lists.

Thats why fans still get hauled into court for signing songs that are deemed offensive.

On the 19th June 2009, the Appeal Court of the High Court of Judiciary upheld a conviction against William Walls who had previously been found guilty of breach of the peace, aggravated by religious and racial prejudice, at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in December – for singing/chanting ‘**** the Pope’, ‘fenian bastards’ and the Famine Song.

Just making a very good point.. Celtic fans have a bad record in Europe as well as the Rangers fans ( fan running onto the pitch and mocking Dida ) one of the worst cases iv'e seen.. songs are sung on sides and rightly so IMO.. can't keep people quiet throughout games.. things are going to be said and there is no much anyone can do about it..

I never said Celtic were any better.

Both clubs (in fact all clubs in the SFA) are working together to get the sectarianism out of football. Hopefully they will succeed.

It only hurts Scottish football. UEFA will come down hard one day on a Scottish team and when it does the fans only have themselves to blame.

They can ban and fine individuals but they can't ban the whole set of fans.. a few individuals won't make a difference there will always be more people who will take up those empty seats and carry on singing them anyway.. No Pope of Rome has sung throughout Ibrox and Parkhead recently ( That video i posted is from 2010

They will never succeed it has always been a big part of the Old firm.. I don't even think UEFA even care they are just all about the Money

Yeah and it has proven to the SFA that the clubs cant or wont effectively police their own fans. So stronger methods will be introduced no doubt. Admittedly sectarianism is a lot less frequent than it used to be.

Its not deemed necessary or acceptable nowadays.

That message will eventually sink in, lifetime bans have been issued and will continue to be issued.

You have a lot of faith if you think it will eventually sink in.. personally i think it will only get worse and matches like yesteday won't help matters they will just raise tempers for the next OF games... So many OF games this season have really not been good.. no chance for the fans or the staff to calm down from the last one.

Thats been a problem for the last few years, too many fixtures in the season really. Its up to the SFA to come up with an effective solution to that and deal with it.

The SFA will take continue to take action over racial and sectarian bigotry though simply because it does give Scottish Football a bad name, particularly overseas. Its under orders from UEFA.

Would be a shame to see Scottish teams not allowed to participate in European competitions for a number of years but it will eventually come down to something like that.

The league is starting in Late July next season so should the fixtures shouldn't be as packed.. 4 games in 8 days is shocking for any club never mind clubs with small squads.. the league size needs to increase and the Split needs to be scrapped.. 16 team SPL = 30 games for each team all together.. that would be much better then the 38 that have to be played now.. doubt it will come down to Scottish teams being banned from European competitions.. not now that the coefficients is back up to two scottish teams for the Champions league