I've written something similar to this a few months ago when I highlighted perhaps one of the fiercest rivalries in world football, which is the Argentinian superclassico derby between Boca Juniors and River Plate, both hailing from the capital city of Buenos Aires. Both fanbases represent two different population segments, with Boca fans are mostly working class who are proud of their Italian ancestry, whilst River Plate pride themselves as the club for the upper class. This, added with the undying Argentinian passion for football, makes this rivalry as one of the most exciting football games ever played. It shows that some clubs within a city are closely associated with one segment of the population, and some of them are proud of it.
From Buenos Aires, let's hop on the British Isles, more specifically to Glasgow, Scotland. From this city. two teams call this place home, which is Celtics and Rangers. Looking at these two teams, we instantly get the differing vibes. Hell, we can even trace one club's roots as far as when the Irish had to flee the potato famine. Glasgow Celtics, in this case is the club in question, proudly traced their roots to the Irish immigrants settling in Scotland. The club was founded in 1887 by an Irish Marist known as Brother Walfrid, with a purpose of alleviating poverty on the East End of Glasgow by doing a fundraiser for his charity, The Poor Children's Dining Table. The club was named "Celtics", but pronounced with an "S", nicknamed as "The Bhoys" using the Irish spelling and was intended to reflect the club's Irish and Scottish roots. Their club colors are green and white, their home shirt features the two colors in horizontal hoops and plays their home games at Celtic Park.
The Glasgow Rangers, meanwhile, are the original Scottish-based club formed much earlier than their Irish-clad counterparts, being founded in 1872 by four founders, brothers Moses and Peter McNeil, Peter Campbell and William McBeath, all four of them were students at the West End Academy as a means to keep themselves fit during the winter months. Being the older club of the two, the Rangers played Celtics for the first time just barely a year after the latter's formation. They are known for their popularity amongst the working class of Scotland and was nicknamed "The People's Club". Rangers wears blue, white and red as their club colors, with their home kit features the combination of blue shirt, white shorts and red socks. They were stadium-hopping during 1872 to 1897, but since then, settled in Ibrox Stadium as their home base.
Collectively, the two Glasgow clubs are referred as the Old Firm after a satirical comic strip that described them as "two old, firm friends", and whenever the two teams play each other during the Scottish Premiership or other competitions, the game is usually dubbed as either The Old Firm Derby or the Glasgow Derby. To date, in 443 games played in all domestic competitions, Celtics hold a slim advantage over Rangers with 170 wins to 169, with 104 draws between them. Celtic also had 1 more domestic trophy than Rangers, with 118 to 117, but Rangers have more Scottish Premiership titles (55 to 54), and Scottish League Cup titles (28 to 22). But Celtic has more Scottish Cup titles (42 to 34). Both teams also won one European Title, with the Rangers won the now defunct UEFA Cup Winners' cup in 1972, whereas Celtic secured their first and so far, the only UEFA Champions League title way earlier in 1967. While River Plate being the only club in the Buenos Aires rivalry who were relegated, Rangers suffered a more brutal fate, by being dumped to the Fourth Division (Scottish League Two) after the club went to administration and almost went bankrupt in 2012. Since then, they won one Scottish League Two title in 2012-2013 Season, one Scottish League One title in 2013-2014 season, and the Scottish Championship in 2015-2016 Season. During that time, Celtics steamrolled the Scottish Premiership 9 times, only to be stopped by Rangers in the 2020-21 season.
Here is why the rivalry is not only intense, but also dangerous: Sectarianism. It is well known in the Glasgow area that the city itself is practically divided between two sets of fans. Celtics fans mostly come from Ireland and have some form of Irish descent. The Celtics fans are mostly identified as someone with Irish ties and a proud Catholic, owing to the fact that Catholicism is the main religion of Ireland, whereas Rangers drew most of their roots in Britain Scotland, and often adhere to the Protestant branch of Christianity. There was an unwritten rule which is since debunked, that Rangers won't sign a player if they somehow found out that the player is a Catholic. This practiced ended when then-Rangers manager Graeme Souness signed a protestant player, provoking the ire of the fans. In contrast, while most employees have more Catholic-oriented mindset, Celtics never impose similar restriction, actually signed more Protestant players.
Sometimes, it goes way deeper than that. Rangers fans are known to be right-leaning conservatives with a more Loyalist ideology, favoring the administration of Northen Ireland to the United Kingdom and a staunch supporter of the royal family, while Celtics fans are mostly left-wing socialist with a Republican ideology, favoring a unification of the entire Ireland under the Irish Republic. Historically, the two clubs came from a drastically different areas, with the Rangers fans are historically native Scots and Ulster Scots from the historic Ulster Province (Now Northern Ireland), and Celtics fans who are obviously Irish Scots by virtue of the Irish immigration. This is shown whenever the old Firm is scheduled to be played, with Rangers fans tend to wave the Union Jack flag, and the Celtics who responded with the Irish tricolour. One section of the Celtic fanbase, dubbed "The Green Army" are often seen waving Palestinian flags and openly express their support for Palestine, especially during the genocide. The reason for the support is that they can relate to the struggles of the Palestinian people to the time of the British Occupation of Ireland and the Irish war. The Rangers, meanwhile, showed support to the zionists instead.
And what's a rivalry without a share of riots every now and then? There are some cases of stadium riots in the history of Old Firm, but one in particular stood out as the "most infamous case of disorder" as described by BBC news in 2011. The site was Hampden Park, it was the Scottish Cup final on 10 May 1980. At the time, more than 70.000 fans from both teams attended the match, which ended 1-0 in favor of the Celtics after a lone extra time goal by George McCluskey. After the match, while the Celtics celebrated the victory, one Celtic fan ran to the Ranger side, and kicked the ball to their direction, triggering a massive brawl involving few objects like bricks, bottles and cans. It is also important to note that at this point, both sets of fans were extremely intoxicated due to alcohol consumption. The police were unable to contain the situation. Hell, even football commentator Archie MacPherson described the riot as something straight out of Apocalypse Now. He even compared the fights to the battle of Passchendaele from World War 1. As a result, both clubs were slapped with 20.000 Pound fines and 200 arrests. This too was the trigger for the passing of a measure that bans the sale of alcoholic beverages inside Scottish sports grounds. It was partially lifted to allow sales within rugby union matches. Nowadays, the alcohol sales and consumption are restricted to the hospitality area with no direct sight of the pitch.
The Old Firm Derby isn't just one of the oldest football rivalries ever existed, but also one of the messiest due to the fact that Scottish sectarianism is pretty visible during its lifetime. From ties to the Irish resistance to religious ties, Celtics VS Rangers always lived up to the hype, often times to the limits of human decency and often pushing it to the maximum. Nowadays, both the Rangers and the Celtics are launching joint initiatives to combat sectarianism, but the legacy of the Old Firm will still remain as one of the most hostile derbies in world football.
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