Pressefreiheit oder so...

Zu diesem Foul von Griffiths sagte ein Herr Sutton während des Kommentars (ungeachtet der Zeitlupen), daß da nicht viel geschehen sei und der Malmö-Mann doch aufstehen solle ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=21&v=E0NU0tVolIc

... und Griffiths wurde nicht vom Platz gestellt und der AUFSCHREI in den Medien Schottlands war ... nicht nachweisbar.

Fakt ist eben, daß die derzeitige Generation an Journalisten (so wir wirklich dieses Wort verwenden wollen) und noch schlimmer Kolumnisten wie Provan und Sutton einfach mal unterste Schublade sind, was jeder nach ein oder zwei Recherchen selbst rausbekommt. Nicht wenige verfolgen dabei ihre eigene Agenda oder wollen mit kontroversen Statements und Kommentaren Aufmerksamkeit auf sich ziehen. Ganz egal, wie realitätsfern oder kontra jedweden Fakten dies ist.

Und der Kader dieser Leute ist vergleichsweise gering, so daß man immer wieder deren geistlichen Ergüssen ausgesetzt wird. Das hinterlässt natürlich auch Spuren, nicht zuletzt bei ihrer Leserschafts-Zielgruppe.

Die Zeitungsbilder der heutigen Presse, wie sie täglich auf FF gezeigt werden, sind mal wieder bezeichnend für das derzeitige Niveau:

https://www.followfollow.com/f…f-rampant-paranoia.64678/

St. Johnstone-Boss Steve Clarke, wahrscheinlich zynisch gemeint, meint, daß wenn man seinen Jordan Jones für eine Schwalbe vor den CO zitiert, das auch mit Defoe passieren muß. Gedreht wird es von der Presse aber so, daß Defoe eindeutig ge-schwalbt hat - ne glatte Lüge der Presse - und man holt sich Clarke als "Zeugen" ran.

Die mediale Zerstörung von Dallas ist schon bachtlich, wenngleich zu erwarten. Aber es ist eben so, daß der derzeitige Clan der schottischen Fußballpresse mit Gestalten besetzt ist, die weder unparteilich noch unvoreingenommen sind und ihre Meinung Tag für Tag und Woche für Woche in die Welt blasen. Entgegen jedwedem Anstand und jedweder Moral, oder gar journalistischer Qualität.

Pressefreiheit a la BBC ... die Freiheit, die Interessen aus Sicht der Rangers-Fans völlig zu ignroieren:

The PQ Narrative.
Timeline - Tuesday morning Thursday morning(Sportscene highlights 00.15 to 01.15).
Tuesday morning starts with BBC Scotland's website preview of Wednesday evening's game at Pittodrie, 'an Aberdeen win will see them leap frog Rangers into a more familiar second place'. Tyrone(real name, honest) Smith reminds the readership, 'a position they've occupied for the last four years'. To license fee paying Rangers supporters, this has become a familiar narrative, whether it's Aberdeen, Killie, Hibs, .... etc the opposition has aspiration invested. Here are the prizes to be attained. Rangers and Rangers supporters aspirations are ignored.

By Tuesday evening's Sportsound, there is a deliberate attempt to not to include Rangers as part of the chasing pack. Resources are to the fore, 'Derek' is proud his team continue to compete given the gulf in resources. Further, 'Derek' has Gerrard's number, this will be a fourth attempt this season, to obtain a victory over the Dandies. Liam McLeod prefers to frame it as, 'Aberdeen against a class above Aberdeen'.
Wednesday morning/afternoon reinforces the message, Aberdeen can take second place, in fact a win for both Aberdeen and Killie will see Rangers reduced to fourth. We are still waiting for the possible league placing should Rangers win?

Wednesday evening's Sportsound was a car crash, a multiple pile up on the motorway. Big Dick chairing, Liam McLeod commentating, joined by Wullie Miller and Neil McCann. The grievances come thick and fast. Clearly, McLeod does not think Rangers are worthy of a 1-3 half time scoreline. Big Dick puts meat on the bones, he has seen a re-run of the lead-up to Rangers third goal(the penalty) on the paragon of objectivity known as, 'Red TV'. A flickering monitor just to his front tells him there was no foul to award Rangers a free kick, McKenna was claiming offside because Red TV had shown a Rangers player being offside, and McKenna's arm being in an unnatural position, he can understand the ref's award. The clarity of Red TV, maybe we should pay our license fees to them, probably less bias? Pat Bonner's half time report from ra Stydome mentions a heavy challenge from Brown, he was booked, could have possibly been red?

After the game, the focus is on McGregor; Liam, Big Dick, and Tyrone want Allan to be cited. There is a hot line from PQ to the Compliance Officer. Wullie Miller offers the defence of experienced player protecting himself from on rushing callow youth, it's ignored. Currently, Morelos has a PQ standing of flawed genius. His red cards are reamed off, must have an impact on his value. We were not informed of McKenna's continuing petulance in these fixtures; well, it might affect his value? Tyrone Smith's post match interview with 'Derek' was a venting of the Dandy spleen.

Sportscene spat the most venom. Jonathon Sutherland had watched the game inside the PQ gang hut with the gruesome twosome. All those aspirations had evaporated as soon as Defoe's powerful drive hit the net. Wee Jonny's body language betrayed him, leaning forward, continually turning and extending his arms, helpless in a fugue of hatred. They ran through the litany of charges against Rangers, tried us by TV, convicted us, and passed sentence. The only show on TV without credits did not show Scott bRown's possible red card challenge, we do not know the name of the possible PQ Editor that ensured that particular clip fell on the cutting room floor. PQ conveniently forgot all those cries for transparency, so prevalent last weekend.

Sportscene ended where it had begun, Sutherland spat, "title race, what title race, Celtic are a comfortable six points ahead". Still, Rangers and Rangers supporters are denied aspiration.

https://www.gersnetonline.co.u…b=comments#comment-728563

Mal wieder die Freiheit, etwas nicht zu sagen, um somit uns mit ins Boot zu holen. Bei den Grün-Grauen Verwicklungen ja üblich, nun auch hier ... "Fußball-Fans":

Police were called to an incident in the home end at Pittodrie during the Premiership tie.

Two football fans have been charged with making racist remarks during the Aberdeen v Rangers game.
Officers were called to south stand, reserved for home supporters, at Pittodrie during the Premiership match on Wednesday.
Two men, aged 47 and 57, who are both from Aberdeen, will appear at the city's sheriff court in connection with the allegations.
Sergeant Ross Geddes said: "I would like to thank those who brought their concerns to our attention and to those who assisted with our investigation.

"Offensive behaviour of any kind will not be tolerated and anyone who becomes involved in disorder will be dealt with robustly."

https://stv.tv/news/north/1435…ks-at-aberdeen-v-rangers/

Ofcom hat mal bei Sky Sports wegen Walkers Kommentar beim Kilmarnock vs Scum Spiel nachgefragt:

Zitat von FFer

During the Killie game when that lot were calling fat boyd an Orange bastard and Crocker and walker are laughing over the commentary about it I decided I would complain regarding it and this is the response I got today from sky:

Thank you for your patience while we looked in to this complaint for you.
We have received this response from the Sky Sports Team:
Sky Sports does everything it can to minimise any offensive language or chanting in all its broadcasts, and neither Sky nor its people condone this type of behaviour in any way.

Ofcom has a strict broadcasting code and Sky Sports has a standard to maintain on behalf of its viewers.

Andy Walker's headphones had the crowd noise turned down and his director turned up at the time of his comment about Kris Boyd, and his point was a general one about someone he knows who would thrive on interaction with the crowd.

Andy's comments were totally unrelated to the chants and both he and Sky apologise for any offence caused by this incident.
Thank you once again for taking the time to contact us.
Kind Regards
Kerry
Viewer Relations Team

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... also hat Walker garnicht auf die Gesänge der Yahoos geantwortet, sondern just in dem Moment mit seinem director geredet. Schon klar ... muss an den Genen liegen.

Also wenn man diesen Artikel liest, wird einem schon komisch. Kein Wunder, daß die schottische Presse so reagiert wie sie es tut, etwas Investigativjournalismus wäre hier echt mal angebracht, aber dazu fehlt es in Schottland an Mut und echtem Journalismus

Murdoch MacLennan’s Greater Second Conflict of Interest: Being chairman of the Press Association Group and the SPFL.

....

https://footballtaxhavens.word…__twitter_impression=true

Pressefreiheit in Schottland. Will heißen, man nimmt sich viele Freiheiten und vergißt dann die Pflichten.

Nach dem Celtic vs Rangers - Spiel gab es in diversen Zeitungen und Neuigkeitsorganen folgendes zu lesen:

Three fans stabbed in Glasgow after '15-man mass brawl' following fiery Celtic vs Rangers derby

THREE men have been hospitalised in Glasgow after they were stabbed following the highly-charged Old Firm derby between Celtic and Rangers.
Two of the victims, aged 30 and 47, sustained wounds to the head or neck and a third man, 29, was stabbed in the buttocks during a "mass brawl" at around 5pm on Sunday.
All three were taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary where one is thought to be in a serious condition.
The incident in Glasgow city centre came just hours after a fiery match at Celtic Park saw the Bhoys celebrate a 2-1 victory over their bitter rivals.
According to eyewitnesses, a stabbing occurred in the Strathduie Bar on Blackfriars Street before violent scenes carried on into nearby Albion Street.
Around 15 people are understood to have been involved.

One witness, who did not wish to be named, told the Daily Record: "Three stabbed from what I heard. Saw one stabbed in shoulder and cut on forehead.
"Folk saying someone, young Celtic fan, in bad way. Two separate stabbing incidents I mean.
"The whole thing apparently started when Rangers fans went into Strathduie (Bar) and stabbed people in the back.
"Celtic fans went out to chase them and fight and there was more stabbings",
Another said: "Albion St next to Italian kitchen was where the guy was with a stab wound to the neck.
"Then on Blackfriars St there was two others who were stabbed in the back. Looks like Celtic and Rangers fans met where Albion St and Blackfriars St meet".
A third witness told of "utter chaos" at the scene, adding: "I have never seen so many police in my life. The whole of the Merchant City seemed to be cordoned off.
"We came into town for a drink in the evening thinking the football crowds would be long gone but it looks like the trouble is just starting."
Police cordoned off Albion Street and no arrests have yet been made in relation to the incident.
In a statement, Police Scotland said: "Three men have been taken to hospital for treatment following a large scale disturbance."

https://www.irishpost.com/news…c-vs-rangers-derby-165650

... oder ...

Three stabbed in mass street brawl after Old Firm game

Peter Cassidy 1 April 20
Three people were taken to hospital following the incident in the aftermath of heated clash

Three people have been stabbed during a mass brawl following Sunday's Old Firm game in Glasgow.
Police attended the incident on Albion Street at Merchant City at around 5.05pm after receiving reports of a large-scale disturbance.
Officers have since confirmed that the three injured people were taken to hospital.
The brawl is believed to have broken out in the Strathduie pub on Blackfriars Street before spilling onto the street.
Police closed Albion Street between Ingram Street and Bell Street as they dealt with the incident and carried out their investigation.
A spokesman for the force said: "We were called to a large-scale disturbance at around 5.05pm on Sunday.
"Three people were injured and have been taken to hospital."
The incident followed a heated Old Firm clash at Celtic Park that saw two Rangers players sent off.
Celtic won the game 2-1 thanks to a late winner from James Forrest after Ryan Kent had cancelled out Odsonne Edouard's first-half opener.
Alfredo Morelos was shown a red card for an elbow on Scott Brown during the first half and Andy Halliday was sent off after the game for his involvement in an angry clash between the two sides.

https://stv.tv/news/scotland/1…rawl-after-old-firm-game/

Oder etwas neuer ... https://stv.tv/news/west-centr…awl-after-old-firm-match/

Alles schön und gut, Hauptsache erstmal unseren Namen mit reinbringen - nach ner Niederlage MÜSSEN unsere Jungs da involviert sein. Selbst gestern noch immer schön Old Firm schreiben und unsere Niederlage erwähnen:

Attempted murder charge after mass brawl following Old Firm clash

A 24-year-old man has appeared in court charged with attempted murder after a mass brawl following an Old Firm clash.
Three people were seriously injured in the incident in Glasgow city centre, which followed the Celtic v Rangers match at Celtic Park on 31 March.
Kyle Beard, from Glasgow, made no plea when he appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
He was charged with assault to severe injury and attempted murder and was remanded in custody.
He is expected to reappear at court within eight days.
Six other people have appeared in court in relation to the incident, which took place in Blackfriars Street in the Merchant City.
Other court appearances
Jack Docherty, from Glasgow, appeared at the city's sheriff court on Thursday charged with three assaults and a breach of the peace but made no plea.
The 27-year-old was granted bail and is due to appear at a later date.
On Monday 15 April, five other people appeared at the same court charged with a breach of the peace in connection with the incident.
Kahl Cullen, 23, Gemma Martin, 24, Andrew Quinn, 25, William Barclay, 27, and James Quinn, 20, made no plea.
They were granted bail pending their next court appearance.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-48031000

Oder die Schagzeile des Daily Record:

Three 'stabbed' in Glasgow city centre in violent clashes after Celtic v Rangers crunch match
A young Celtic fan is said to be 'in a bad way' according to one eyewitness.

By
Stephen Stewart
Peter DavidsonDigital Journalist

• 19:58, 31 MAR 2019
• Updated07:13, 1 APR 2019

Three men have been taken to hospital after a reported stabbing incident between football fans on a Glasgow street.
Officers from Police Scotland have taped off Albion Street in the Merchant City area following an incident at around 5.05pm today.
One eyewitness reported seeing a 'horrific mass brawl' which involved 15 or so people close to Blackfriars Street.
While another witness to the brawl said a young Celtic fan was 'in a bad way' after being stabbed.

It is reported that one stabbing took place at the Strathduie pub on Blackfriars Street before it spilled onto Albion Street.
One eyewitness said: "Three stabbed from what I heard. Saw one stabbed in shoulder and cut on forehead.
"Folk saying someone, young Celtic fan, in bad way. Two separate stabbing incidents I mean.
"The whole thing apparently started when Rangers fans went into Strathduie (Bar) and stabbed people in the back.
"Celtic fans went out to chase them and fight and there was more stabbings."
Another witness said: "Albion St next to Italian kitchen was where the guy was with a stab wound to the neck.
"Then on Blackfriars St there was two others who were stabbed in the back.
"Looks like Celtic and Rangers fans met where Albion St and Blackfriars St meet."
A passerby, who didn't wish to be named, said: "It looked like utter chaos.
"I have never seen so many police in my life.
"The whole of the Merchant City seemed to be cordoned off.
"We came into town for a drink in the evening thinking the football crowds would be long gone but it looks like the trouble is just starting."
However, The Strathduie Bar state no attacks took place inside the venue.
A staff member told the Daily Record: "The incident never happened here. We had our doors closed and as I was letting a man out, an injured boy was standing at the door.
"I let him in and some other staff and I assisted in helping him until more help arrived.
"The Strahduie is a friendly and quiet old man's pub."
A spokesman for Police Scotland said: "Three men have been taken to hospital for treatment.
"The incident is ongoing."

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/…sgow-city-centre-14215816

Nun muß man aber schon suchen, um rauszufinden, daß es alles Yahoos waren, die sich da prügelten und versuchten Mord begingen. Schreibt aber niemand in der Presse ... die Freiheit, sich die Nachrichten auszusuchen:

Kyle Beard ...

https://twitter.com/Celtic1888…tatus/1120994024440119296

https://www.followfollow.com/f…ass-brawl%E2%80%9D.73078/

Why the media blackout on the boy and fellow celtic fan, that appeared in court charged with attempted murder on the boy in town? Where’s the walk back from people claiming it was a bear?

The guy charged with attempt murder on the Celtic fan is a Celtic fan himself.

Same thing happened with the Reamonn Gormley murder.
The media were all over it like a nasty rash when it was branded a sectarian killing.
Locals in Celtic strips marched through the streets of Blantyre demanding action. Nil By Mouth were foaming at the gash.
When it turned out it was a low-life Celtic fan that had murdered one of his own the main stream media didn't want to know.

Billy McNeill ist tot, John Greig legt Blumen zu seinen Ehren am Celtic Park ab, doch die angeschlossene Medienb(h)rigade findet immer etwas, um Fakt und Fiktion, Realität und Mythos zu vermischen. Gestörtes Realitätswahrnehmungs-Syndrom nenne ich das. Weit verbreitet da drüben ...

Also bitte festschnallen, das Beweihräuchern von Celtic und das Klagelied für die irischen Immigranten und Unterdrückten möge beginnen:

ALL TOO few are those occasions when a certain genus of west of Scotland male permits himself to display public shows of tenderness. Mostly, we are imprisoned in a pre-constructed framework of our antecedents’ grim making which governs how we must respond at those times when emotions threaten to wreck our sense of what makes a man.

You can carry your infant offspring in your papoose if you want and emote all day long to Ed Sheeran but our emotional default is to remain
outwardly impervious to matters of the soul and to be ever-vigilant for the first sign of tears. We know that this has reduced us and stunted
our spiritual growth and that more of our kind are seeking to free themselves but you can’t expect change to happen overnight following
centuries of conditioning.

In Scotland, though, profound human events occurring around our favourite football teams and the heroes who represent them provide a
dispensation from this emotionally monochrome existence. On these occasions you can weep freely and aspire to hug without feeling
self-conscious. You don’t need to worry about lying awake later that night wondering if you over-did it or if your children might have been
traumatised at the sight of your tears.
When John Greig, the great and noble captain of Glasgow Rangers FC arrived at Celtic Park on Wednesday to lay flowers at the statue of Billy McNeill, his friend and rival who had just died, some of us who until then had fought the urge to weep finally succumbed. This, of course, seems ridiculous to those whose lives haven’t been touched by any emotional attachment to a football team. Why does the death of a club legend who you might never have met produce tears when perhaps your own wedding or the birth of your children or the death of your parents didn’t?

Graeme McGarry: The friendship between Billy McNeill and John Greig is an example to us all

Perhaps it’s connected to the role that football clubs once played in working class communities encountering hardship, ill health and early
death. This was especially so with a club like Celtic that drew support from a section of society which were experiencing discrimination and
persecution and lived in conditions of profound deprivation. Celtic were their representatives and competed for them on a level playing field
where the rules were (mostly) applied fairly. Every victory and triumph represented more than just excellence at playing football; they were
glimpses of what might be achieved when given an equal chance.

Certainly, Celtic were the pride of Irish immigrants but they came to represent something deeper.
They gave these people some relief at the end of a week spent either looking for a job; being exploited at their place of work or worrying about how to provide food for the family. In these circumstances you couldn’t afford the luxury of sentiment and tears. To have shown either would have been to admit defeat. The triumphs and failures of Celtic, as with many other clubs who carried the hopes of poor communities, gave hard men the chance to grant parole to their imprisoned feelings. Celtic and football wasn’t their life but they helped make a hard life worth living.

Billy McNeill became more than just the captain of our football club. Celtic were 70 years old when he joined them yet life for Glasgow’s Catholic Irish from whom the club still largely drew its support hadn’t improved much. We were still barred from many white collar trades and we were still disproportionately represented in Scotland’s prison community. Our cultural reputation remained edged with a patina of disdain: we were still thought lazy, ill-educated and unclean, even though we were, at that point, on the cusp of a cultural and civic breakthrough. McNeill seemed to embody our aspirations for a better future for our children; the sum of our hopes.
If we’d had the opportunity to design a champion for our community we would have produced Billy McNeill. He was handsome and eloquent and his bearing suggested something of pride. Certainly, he was good at football but he also seemed to have that which all natural leaders have. It wasn’t about being Catholic or the son of Irish and Lithuanian immigrants; it was about being all of these things finally coming together in a Scottish skin with a Scottish outlook. The team he led to sporting greatness in Lisbon in 1967 straddled both sides of Scotland’s religious divide and, perhaps for the first time, our people began to feel comfortable in our Scottish skin. In those moments Billy McNeill and the players he led embodied something of what a multi-cultural Scotland at ease with itself would aspire to be in the future.

Russell Leadbetter on Billy Mcneill: Hail Cesar, legend, leader and Lisbon lion
Perhaps you can become overly sentimental about all of this and imbue it with more socio-political meaning than it really has. When Mr Greig laid those flowers at the feet of his departed friend and adversary it did signify a bond forged in the heat of a sporting and cultural battle. But maybe the tears which greeted his tribute were those that spring from witnessing the grief of an old man mourning the passing of his friend. And that it simply represented many such silent partings that take place in all of our communities. Maybe it conveyed something of our shared humanity in the face of which all of our capriciously tribal loyalties are rendered meaningless.
On Billy McNeill’s death others have spoken about the passing of an era that we won’t see again; when there was a heightened sense of fairness and human decency in the way that humans interacted with each other. It’s a rosy picture, fuelled by understandable sentiment. When Mr McNeill and Celtic were in their pomp the patterns of inequality that had disfigured Scotland for centuries were grievously present. Half a century later very little has changed. The communities which suffered most multi-deprivation in 1967 and from which Scottish football still draws heavily remain trapped in this wretched cycle. The same streets still suffer early death, ill-health and job discrimination. Billy McNeill and John Greig and the other working class giants of their era seemed to transcend all of this. More than 50 years later the inequality that blighted the lives of those who loved them remains embedded in British society.

Billy McNeill - 1940-2019

https://www.heraldscotland.com…ould-be-like/?ref=mr&lp=4

Übrigens, Neil Lennon hat geweint, als er die Todesnachricht hörte. Findet sich auch beim Herald. Ach der gute Neil ...

Manchmal reden Leute auch mal völlig normal, also bitte festhalten!

From The Sun ... via FF

Scott Lucky


Fifty-odd caps for the national team also puts him comfortably in the Hall of Fame. But spare me the idea that having more caps than Bobby Murdoch and Bertie Auld makes him a top midfielder. Despite the silverware Broony’s piled up, he’s well down the list of proper Celtic players.

Thanks to fawning media coverage, his reputation has always outstripped his ability.


Brown has now won 18 honours at Celtic In a league where serious opposition has been absent for most of his Celtic career, he won the lottery when signing for Gordon Strachan. There was never a better time to join Celts. If Brown isn’t among the most gifted Celtic captains, he has to be the luckiest. How many of his predecessors have had it so easy? Certainly not the one we lost last week.

http://i.imgur.com/mN4aJ3o.jpg

Aber keine Sorge, Provan ist keineswegs ein Guter, nur ab und an rationaler als die aus der Generation Brown, Sutton, Craigan und Co.

Andere Kommentare:
Archie Macpherson basically ripped into Brown at McNeill’s funeral.
Was talking about how McNeill acted with dignity on the pitch and was implying how the current players could learn a lesson from him.

Es ist schon übel, wenn man sofort am Tage nach dem Ableben eines Spielers den Vollpfosten raushängen lassen muss ... ähm ... ich meine natürlich einen neutralen Rückblick auf das Leben eines Spielers gibt.

So wie Roddy Forsyth im Daily Telegraph

Zitat von Daily Telegraph

The minute’s silence which will precede Rangers’ Europa League group stage opener against Feyenoord at Ibrox on Thursday night can – despite good intentions – be categorised as a wholly inappropriate tribute to Fernando Ricksen, the former Ibrox Captain who has died after a six-year struggle with motor neurone disease.

Life was rarely silent when Ricksen was around, certainly not in his playing days and categorically not during his spell with Rangers between 2000 and 2006.

This was the man, after all, who was taken off after 21 minutes of his first appearance at Celtic Park because of his culpability in what ended as a 6-2 defeat, was sent off before half-time on his second appearance at Parkhead and who was the first player in Scotland to be banned on the basis of video evidence, when the TV cameras caught him aim a reverse karate kick at Aberdeen’s Darren Young, before he was later banned for elbowing Derek Riordan of Hibernian.

Ricksen pushed the then Rangers chairman, John McClelland, who was fully clothed, into a swimming pool in Greece before a European tie with Panathinaikos. He won 12 caps with the Dutch international side before being banned after smashing a door on a night out. He tested positively for cocaine when he played with Zenit St Petersburg, where he twice got into fights with the club captain.

On one occasion, in the press room before an Old Firm match at Ibrox, someone asked if it was true that Ricksen had been named after the eponymous Abba song. Came the reply: “Did Abba release a song called ‘Dirty Fouling B------?’ ”
Despite a rap sheet that would have earned respect from the Peaky Blinders, Ricksen’s struggles with personal demons and ultimately with the devastating effects of motor neurone disease earned him heartfelt tributes from both sides of the Old Firm divide on Wednesday. He had forsworn alcohol when he captained Rangers to the 2004-05 Scottish league title and he was an influential figure when Zenit won the Russian championship in 2007.

The onset of MND in 2013 was the transformational factor. Ricksen had been given 18 months to live but treated the prognosis with characteristic defiance, citing the desire to be available for as long as possible to his daughter, Isabella, now eight years old. Despite his painful and obvious deterioration, he appeared regularly at charitable events and raised close to £1 million for MND research and support funds.

He was a regular visitor to the Rangers training ground at Auchenhowie, where his appearance affected Steven Gerrard. “He was still putting up a fight,” the Ibrox manager said. “It’s sad news but he deserves all the tributes that are coming his way.
“He was the type to play with his heart on his sleeve and that was epitomised when he was taken ill in 2013 and given 18 months to live. He fought ever so well and it summed up his character – a warrior on the pitch as well as off it.
“I saw with my own eyes at the training ground the situation he was in and the suffering he was going through. He deteriorated very much in the last six or seven days and was in a lot of pain and was very stressed, so no one likes to hear that news. We send our condolences to his young family.”

Fate and the fixture calendar have decreed that Thursday night’s opposition should be Dutch. Feyenoord are the top seeds in Group G so, if Rangers are to upset the odds, this looks like their best chance. “We are at home for the opener, which could be important. We have the opportunity to get off to a really good, positive start by trying to take all three points,” Gerrard said.
“If we do, it sets us up for game two. We all sat round the canteen at Auchenhowie waiting for the group stage draw and, when it was made, we spoke about it being a tough group with some good teams in it.
“I was confident we could get there, even if it was tough in the qualifiers and it went to the wire. I had to prepare us for Sunday-Thursday over a longer period.

“That’s the reason we have gone for more volume and extra quality in the squad. You’ve seen what’s happened in the last couple of weeks – we’ve lost two players in the same position in Jordan Jones and Ryan Kent, but we have an answer for that now. That’s the reason why, if you have ambition to compete both domestically and in Europe, you need at least two good players in each position.”

It may be, though, that on an emotionally charged evening, Rangers’ best weapon will be to summon the spirit and biting style of the favourite they have just lost.

Can you hear the drums, Fernando?

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Anstand ... nuja. Die Presse mußte die Ehrerweisung der Feyenoord-Spieler für Fernando ja dokumentieren. Und Pressefotografen sind schon eine eigene Spezies ...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1174430115599704065