Reason #643901 to hate Rangers

By: Matt | May 5th, 2009

As we move towards this weekend’s vital SPL matchup between Celtic and Rangers, if you needed one more reason to hate the blue side of Glasgow, other than the usual scummy players, hate filled fans, and terrible front office, then I’ve got a story for you. It’s been about a year since the tragic passing of Tommy Burns. It was really touching to see not only people from all over the Celtic family, but people from all over Scottish football honoring the great Tommy Burns. Tommy Burns touched so many lives all across Scotland and we saw Rangers fans and people from the club coming to pay their respect to Tommy Burns. However, it seems for some part of the Rangers support, this good will has worn away. I will first preface this by saying that while I am sure that this is a minority of the Rangers support (unlike some other problems I have with the Rangers support, but that is another story for another day), however it is just as shameful. The Daily Record is reporting that the banner honoring Tommy Burns outside of St. Mary’s Church in Calton has been torn down and is currently making its way around Ranger friendly pubs. The Daily Record writes, “SICK thieves have stolen a fans’ memorial to Celtic legend Tommy Burns, a fortnight before the first anniversary of his death.
The “God Bless Tommy Burns” banner has been torn down from outside the Glasgow church where his funeral was held.
We can reveal that the green and white sign – put up by fans after the 51-year-old lost his battle with cancer on May 15 last year – is being hawked around east end pubs.
The poignant tribute had been fitted to a billboard next to St Mary’s RC church in Abercromby Street in Calton, where thousands of fans joined football heroes at Burns’s funeral.
It’s understood it was paid for by a local supporters’ group. All that remains now are the severed ropes used to hang it and a tattered corner from where it was ripped down.
The Record has been passed a photograph of it being shown off in a Gallowgate bar.
An underworld source who watched it being passed around one pub said: “The guys who nicked the sign have been parading it around several bars over the last few days as some kind of trophy.”

This is truly a scummy act by a group that are below the threshold of human. The fact that they are parading around a banner is the worst part. I am hoping that Celtic and the team have heard about this story. It was widely known that Tommy was really close with the entire team and it seemed like the squad’s performance was twice as good to play in honor of Tommy Burns last season. Hopefully they can be encouraged to play in honor of Tommy again to spite the scum that stole this banner.

TAL!