“The Old Firm concept remains strong. It’s just that some refuse to refer to it as Old Firm”
● With Celtic and Rangers playing in the same Lyon tournament, the Old Firm concept remains strong
Ask any Scotlandbased sports writer who’s worked in the last eight years about the most common complaint to have appeared in comments below their work or under Twitter posts and I would wager it is this, or an approximation of it: “There is no Old Firm!”
The Old Firm concept perished with the bankruptcy of Rangers in 2012 is how the thinking goes. There’s no need to go into the whys and wherefores of that argument here. Celtic have stuck to this “don’t mention the Old Firm” policy most rigidly of all. Games with Rangers are no longer referred to as Old Firm matches even in official club publications.
The first recorded usage of the term in connection with Rangers and Celtic is generally credited to have been a cartoon in the Scottish Referee sports periodical prior to the Scottish Cup final of 1904 between the teams.
Nowadays neither club seem particularly keen to be associated with the other. But – and there’s a big but – they will ride on each other’s coattails when it is convenient, such as in France this week.
There were reports that hosts Lyon were struggling to nail down a TV deal. When Rennes declined the invitation to take part in the Veolia tournament on financial grounds, and with Nice and Celtic already confirmed, getting Rangers involved probably seemed like a very good idea. Certainly, the TV rights have since been snapped up. Premier Sports will screen the Rangers and Celtic games. “Rangers are back!” and “Celtic are back!” the broadcaster’s website screams.
It’s hard to imagine there would be the same enthusiasm if Aberdeen, for example, had joined Celtic in France rather than Rangers.
People can argue all they like about what term to use when bracketing the two Glasgow sides together. However, denying that Rangers and Celtic are a duo – a slightly toxic one, granted – is clearly absurd. The entire voting structure of the SPFL is based on them being able to join forces to veto significant changes deemed not to be in their interest.
Then there was Neil Lennon’s assertion a few weeks ago that he hoped the SPFL would bend over backwards to ensure the first Celtic v Rangers meeting (of course he did not say “Old Firm”) of the season was put back as late as possible to increase the chances of it being played in front of a crowd. “I do think the authorities will look at it and try to push it back,” the Celtic manager said. Would every club not like to be able to request that their biggest game of the season be played at a time when as many fans as possible can watch it?
Pathetically, the authorities did “look” at it, as Lennon suggested. Lo, when the Premiership fixture list was published earlier this month, the first Old Firm clash, often scheduled for late August/ September, had been put back to mid-october. Only twice since 1999/00 has the first Old Firm game of the league season been scheduled later.
What was the justification for Lennon and others to seek to ensure the fixture list was manipulated in such a way?
Their rationale is this is the game that promotes Scottish football. It’s the fixture we must bow down to and defer to because it’s what the broadcast deals hinges on. It is why we’re contorting ourselves into all sorts of shapes trying to fathom how to make the top tier bigger while retaining the unpopular model of teams playing each other four times a season.
And now we have the spectacle of both Rangers and Celtic playing in France while seemingly trying to pretend they are not aware of the other’s presence. What a strange, dysfunctional relationship. They are playing at the same stadium, in the same tournament, on the same day, one after the other. And yet you wouldn’t know it when looking for details of the tournament on either club’s website. Celtic face Nice today at the Groupama stadium at 5.15pm before quickly exiting the arena and making room for Rangers, who will take on Lyon at 7.45pm.
They are not playing against each other, of course. Nevertheless, it’s surely still worth noting the other Scottish team taking part. It is a tournament after all. A trophy is being awarded at the end. The other results do matter (perhaps they can even make it a Scotland v France duel and add up the Rangers and Celtic goals tally...).
What a difference to the days when Willie Maley, the legendary Celtic manager, actually proposed – at a Celtic agm no less in June 1939 – that Rangers and Celtic should travel together to North America to help solve the problem of low crowds in America and Canada. The Old Firm playing against each other in a series of matches over there, he said, in words reported in the Daily Record, “would attract the crowds and do soccer a lot of good in America”.
The Old Firm concept remains strong. It’s just that some refuse to refer to it as Old Firm – their choice entirely, of course. But whether people like it or not, Rangers and Celtic have been a package since the early 1900s. And they continue to be so.
“People can argue all they like about what term to use when bracketing the two Glasgow sides together. However, denying that Rangers and Celtic areaduo–aslightly toxic one, granted – is clearly absurd”