SIMON JORDAN’S RANGERS COMMENTS: IGNORANT IN THE EXTREME
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Mar 27
- 3 min read
If there was an Olympic medal for manufacturing controversy, Simon Jordan and TalkSport would be gold medal contenders.
The Latest in a Long Line of Stupid Statements
I’m all for people outside of Scottish football expressing an opinion about our game. Anyone who wants to give our game more coverage, I welcome. After all, I live in Japan and yet I write about Celtic every day. So, it would disingenuous of me to say anything otherwise.
However, all I ask is that people commenting on issues in Scottish football, and indeed wider Scottish society, take a little time to understand what they are talking about before they go off on a rant.
Simon Jordan’s Rangers comments this week showed, once again, that he is unwilling or unable to do that. Perhaps it’s a side effect of spending too much time with Jim White?
“Nothing Racist or Discriminatory”
Jordan spoke on TalkSport yesterday in response to Rangers being fined by UEFA for the Racist and Discriminatory Banner displayed by their fans at the recent Fenerbahce game.
Jordan ranted about the injustice of it all for several minutes, but perhaps the most damning quote to leave his over-privileged, gaping chasm of a mouth was: “There’s nothing racist or discriminatory about what that banner suggested.”
There you have it folks, straight from the horse’s a*se.
Even Rangers Admitted the Banner was Indefensible
I have a wee reminder for Jordan and anyone else who is hard of thinking. Even Rangers themselves came out and condemned this banner.
Their own club statement read, in reference to the banner, following UEFA’s declaration on Monday said: “It is deeply saddening and frankly embarrassing that the club is now set to face significant sanctions for the actions of a very small minority.”
We all know its not a “small minority” but let’s set that aside for now.
Rangers Recent Efforts Drew the Expected Response
The banner, which demanded Rangers “keep foreign, woke ideologies out, and defend Europe”, was a clear response to Rangers recent attempts to cosy up to potential investors, by, all of a sudden, developing a social conscience.
First, they flew a pride flag at Ibrox, which inevitably caused an absolute meltdown online amongst the ever loyal, true-blue cousin-courters.
Then, Rangers followed this up with a celebration of the Muslim festival of Iftar at the stadium.
As I said at the time, if these initiatives were done out of a genuine desire to shed the club’s toxic baggage of bigotry then I applaud them for it.
We all know that’s not why Rangers did any of this though.
Simon Jordan’s Rangers Comments Borne Out of Self-Confessed Ignorance
Jordan continued to rant on: “We’ve got football lecturing everybody, all day, every bloody day about every single cause. And when the fans have an opinion, all of a sudden it’s sit down, shut up, you can’t have one.”
Jordan himself didn’t actually seem to have any idea what he was getting so wound up about.
His co-host Danny Murphy, perhaps in an attempt to salvage this absolute car crash, tried to offer Jordan the chance to clarify his comments. The former Liverpool and England star asked Jordan if he knew what the banner was referring to.
“I have no idea.” Was Jordan’s response. After that he went off on a tangent about Arab States, homosexuality and the wider concept of “woke”. Like most people who love to get angry about such things, he seems completely unable to actually define what they are.
Ignorant, Sad, But Exactly What We Expect From TalkSport
Jordan’s comments are sad and pathetic. The ramblings of a willfully ignorant fool so desperate for attention that his only means of getting any is by being deliberately inciteful, confrontational and controversial.
It’s hardly surprising though. Afterall, this is the same outlet that allowed Ally McCoist to call for Vaclav Cerny to be knighted after nearly causing a riot at the last Glasgow Derby.
TalkSport is a Continual Embarrassment
It frustrates me to see people being paid to spread such stupidity. Now, I’m a Celtic fan and I don’t pretend to be anything else. And you all probably knew that before coming here.
But this is supposed to be independent, unbiased punditry. Jordan is never slow to take a pop at Celtic either, and he seems to have some kind of grudge against Brendan Rodgers, though much like his views on “woke” nobody seems to know why...
