Rangers History

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1872 History Of The GERS

Rangers Football Club were formed by four men who dreamed of running their own football team. Peter McNeill, his brother Moses, Peter Campbell and William McBeath met in 1872 and played their first game as Rangers on a first-come-first-served pitch with a second-hand ball a 0-0 draw with Callander FC.

The name Rangers is taken from an English rugby club, and was adopted for the club's second game that year. It was the first time Rangers played in light blue and it clearly had a positive effect as the team beat Clyde 11-0.

Officially, the club is known to have been founded the following year in 1873 because that's when everything official took place meetings, AGMs etc. It wasn't long before Rangers were pushing for silverware. In 1877 they reached their first Scottish Cup Final, although they were unsuccessful and it was another ten years before Gers won some serious honours. However, they did come close to winning the English FA Cup losing out to eventual winners Aston Villa in the 1887 semi-final.

Rangers started out as the nearly men, narrowly missing out on every opportunity to win a trophy. They did win every game during the 1898/99 season and won their first ever championship a feat which has yet to be repeated. Around the turn of the century, Rangers were often second fiddle to their Glasgow rivals Celtic, with The Hoops often winning the Cup when Rangers were victorious in the League or vice versa. They had to wait 29 years before completing their first League and Cup Double.

Rangers became a Rangers Football Club Ltd in March 1899, and the club moved to their new home and the site of the current stadium Ibrox. Gers won the title consecutively for the next four seasons, although joy was short-lived as the club were victims of the world's first stadium collapse in 1902 when part of the ground's terracing collapsed during the Scotland v England game.

After WWI, Rangers really came into their own. Led by William Wilton and William Struth, Rangers dominated Scottish football up until the Second World War broke out in 1939. They claimed the title 15 seasons out of 21, although Wilton was never able to bask in the glory after tragically drowning in a boating accident in 1920.

Once the Scottish Football League resumed after the war in 1946, Struth led the team to triumph in the first ever League Cup, as well as winning the first post-war championship. The 1948/49 season was Rangers' greatest ever as they went on to record the first ever treble, victorious in the League, the Scottish Cup and the new League Cup.

Rangers were incredibly successful in the post-war years, largely thanks to their defence which became known as the "iron curtain". 1954 saw a change of management and Scot Symon took over from Struth. He won six Championships, five Cups and four League Cups including the Double in 1962/63 and the Treble the following campaign a season in which they lost just four games.

The years that followed saw Rangers lose their crown to rivals Celtic. It was 11 years before they triumphed in the league after that triumphant Treble winning season. Success flitted between Rangers and Celtic and has done ever since, and will no doubt continue to do so.

Tragedy struck the club during the Old Firm derby in January 1971. The game looked to be heading for a 0-0 draw until two goals in the dying moments secured a victory for Rangers. As the fans celebrated wildly and started to leave, some fell and became crushed as a tidal wave of supporters descended the steps at staircase 13. 66 people were killed among them 31 teenagers - and 140 were injured.

Willie Waddell was charged with reviving the club's fortunes after that, and although he struggled at first, Waddell was ambitious and played around with the team a lot, looking for a new Rangers style. They still struggled in the League but in 1973 Gers reached the European Cup Winners Cup final and after disposing of Rennes, Sporting Lisbon, Torino and Bayern Munich they booked a final tie with Moscow Dynamo and finally won the trophy, on their third attempt. The traveling fans were ecstatic, although too much so, as they invaded the pitch and consequently, Rangers were banned from European football for a year.

Rangers finally got the better of their rivals and won the last ever First Division Championship in the 1974/75 season. The following season, they won the first new Scottish Premier League title echoing their success in the first season of the old top flight, all those years before.

The following years saw Rangers often empty handed, but it was the arrival of Liverpool and Sampdoria star Graeme Souness as player/manager and Walter Smith as his assistant for the 1985/86 campaign which saw the glory days return. Their partnership at the help became revolution in the dressing room but it was the combination of their partnership alongside a new owner of the club which really propelled the club to success.

In 1988 David Murray arrived in the boardroom, becoming chairman of the club the following year. He invested millions in both the team and the stadium and it paid off as Gers cruised to nine consecutive League titles. Souness stood down in April 1991 and Smith assumed full control. Triumphant during his seven-year spell, he won more trophies than any other manager in such a short space of time.

Dick Advocaat was the next big change and he really made his mark after taking over from Smith in July 1998 as he dramatically transformed the team by completely changing the squad. Even though Rangers were knocked out of the UEFA Cup in his first season, the Little General led his new-look team to a remarkable domestic Treble.

Martin O'Neill's arrival at Celtic ended Rangers dominance and since then trophies have been distributed between the two sides as well as, on occasion, other clubs in the SPL. Advocaat finally quit the club in November 2002 to manage Holland, after a temporary spell as the club's director of football. He will be remembered for his unique style and setting up Rangers state of the art training facility at Murray Park.

Alex McLeish guided Rangers to title triumphs in 2003 and 2005 and has certainly stepped up the rivalry with Celtic.

The Old Firm and Sectarianism

Rangers' most distinct rivalry is with Celtic, the other major football club based in Glasgow; the two clubs are collectively known as the Old Firm. Rangers' traditional support has largely come from the Protestant community, while Celtic's has come from the Roman Catholic community. Consequently, the rivalry between the two clubs has often been characterised along sectarian lines. Both Rangers and Celtic now accept that they have a problem with sectarianism, and both admit that a proportion of their supporters have been, and continue to be, guilty of perpetuating partisan, sectarian beliefs as well as cultural intolerance.

During the late 19th century, many immigrants came to Glasgow from Ireland. This was around the same time that both Old Firm clubs were founded (Rangers in 1873 and Celtic in 1888). Celtic grew out of the Irish Catholic community and Rangers came to be identified with the Protestant community. Until Graeme Souness signed former Celtic player Mo Johnston, in 1989, Rangers were said by him to have had an "unwritten policy"^[13] of not signing any player who was Catholic ^[14]; although Johnston was by no means the first Catholic to sign for the club,^[15] he was the first openly Catholic player to sign for them since World War I.^[16]

In recent times, both Rangers and Celtic have taken measures to combat sectarianism. Working alongside the Scottish Parliament, church groups, schools and community organisations, the Old Firm has made efforts to clamp down on sectarian songs, inflammatory flag-waving, and troublesome supporters, using increased levels of policing and surveillance.^[17]

On 12 April 2006, following an investigation into the conduct of Rangers supporters at both legs of their UEFA Champions League tie against Villarreal CF, the Control and Disciplinary Body of UEFA declared the Rangers fans not guilty of alleged discriminatory chants.^[18] UEFA challenged the ruling, and their Appeals Body partially upheld it,^[19] fining the Ibrox club £13,500 and warning them as to their responsibility for any future misconduct.

On 9 June 2006, Rangers, in conjunction with representatives from several supporters clubs, announced that they would comply with three UEFA directives:

The club is "ordered to announce measurable targets in order to reduce sectarian behaviour amongst its supporters".
The club is "to control their anti-sectarian activities by producing comprehensive statistics that are communicated to the public".
The club is "to make a public address announcement at every official fixture, be it international or domestic, stating that any sectarian chanting and any form of the song 'Billy Boys' is strictly prohibited".^[20]

Despite these measures, UEFA indicated that they will launch another investigation after Rangers fans clashed with riot police and were filmed making sectarian chants during the defeat by Osasuna in their UEFA Cup match in 2007. The Rangers Supporters Association secretary indicated his belief that a small minority of fans are to blame, suggesting "it doesn't matter how often they are told [to stop sectarian chanting], some people will just not listen."