An Article Written By “Blue92″
Rangers Football Club – Who and What we are.
MES Que en Club – “More than a Club.”
The motto used famously by Barcelona is claimed by supporters of other football clubs the world over.
It’s a term that certainly rings true when considering Scotland’s Greatest Sporting Institution – Rangers FC.
No professional football club in the world is more decorated, with Rangers claiming the Scottish League Championship on a world record 54 occasions, the Scottish Cup 33 times, the Scottish League Cup 27 times and the European Cup Winners Cup once in 1972.
Success and Rangers go hand-in-hand – the scale of success made all the more astonishing given the club’s paltry and remarkable beginning.
Four boys all in their teens – Moses and Peter McNeil, Peter Campbell and William McBeath began The Rangers in 1872 on a public playing field, without any of the equipment deemed necessary for staging a football match today.
It would have been surely incomprehensible for any of those four young lads to imagine what their hobby was to become, and what it would mean to hundreds of thousands of loyal follwers spread across all four corners of the planet.
Supporters have been blessed to have witnessed some of the world’s greatest football talents ply their trade in the relative football backwater of Scotland – testament to how the Rangers name has resonated globally.
Jim Baxter, Davie Cooper and Brian Laudrup are three of many supremely talented individuals who could have graced any team in any league.
In more recent times, foreign players have made up a noticeable percentage of the playing squad, but the warmth and passion they speak about the club with illustrates the impact Rangers had on their lives.
Jorg Albertz, Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, Arthur Numan, Lorenzo Amoruso and Dado Prso are just five of a long list of players from abroad to have built a special affinity with the club and its supporters.
“Once a Ranger, always a Ranger” – a term apt to those who remain addicted to Rangers after a spell with the club.
What makes Rangers special above all else though, is the traditions set by those four “Gallant Pioneers” and legendary manager Bill Struth amongst others.
reminded that upholding tradition at Rangers is of the utmost importance.
To this day, new players receive a document explaining how they are expected to behave, and how they must play their part in ensuring those strict traditions remain unchanged.
Although fashionable for some in the modern era, no Rangers manager is allowed to coach his team from the sidelines in anything other than a full club suit.
Perhaps small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but it is an example of just one of a number of things that makes Rangers different.
Rangers home, Ibrox Stadium is one of Europe’s finest football arenas, and even when empty is a quite magnificent sight both inside and out.
What makes it more special though, is its modern day state is a permanent memorial to those 66 supporters who lost their lives on January 2nd 1971.
The club’s darkest day continues to be marked and remembered, and no Rangers follower will ever forget their fellow fans lost in the Ibrox Disaster.
On the field and in the boardroom, Rangers now find themselves in a state of flux.
Years of scandalous mismanagement has left Rangers uncertain of their fate ahead of the new season.
Nobody knows who’ll be running the club, nor what league they’ll be playing in.
Of all the uncertainties, there is one thing that remains constant however.
Few clubs, if any have a support as passionate and as loyal as that of Rangers.
Supporting Rangers is a way of life for its fans – and that is something that nobody can ever take away.
“Blue92″
