Club 1872 is extremely concerned about an incident this morning where the official account of Football Against Racism Europe (FARE) retweeted a derogatory tweet from a Celtic fan regarding Rangers Football Club and its supporters.
FARE has now confirmed that one of their employees retweeted the offensive tweet which has subsequently been deleted. They have also issued a statement on Twitter which completely fails to address how and why this happened and is misleading as to the content of the tweet and how long it remained on their Twitter account before they deleted it.
FARE has also not given any indication of what action they are taking to address the ongoing concern that a number of their employees are biased against Rangers Football Club. This incident raises further questions about the impartiality and transparency of the organisation, which UEFA has placed in a very powerful position with regard to supporter behaviour at European games.
We made Rangers aware of this incident early this morning and they have now confirmed to us that they will be raising the matter with both FARE and UEFA.
In the meantime, ahead of a crucial final group game in the Europa League tomorrow night, we would remind supporters of their duty to ensure that no further sanctions are forthcoming from UEFA for sectarian chanting. Regardless of ongoing issues regarding impartiality and transparency with FARE, until UEFA properly examine the way in which the organisation operates they retain the ability to report any incidents as they see fit.
Any future sanction for sectarian singing is likely to include a full closure of Ibrox, which would impact tens of thousands of our supporters and have a negative impact on the club’s finances as it continues to improve the playing squad and upgrade club facilities. As supporters we must continue the vocal and positive backing which the team has received in recent months.
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