The ‘Old Firm Derby’ between Scottish giants Celtic and Rangers has a reputation for being one of the most intense matches in the world. The two teams can’t stand each other and have completely different philosophies as well. Celtic are considered as the ‘outsiders’, because of their Irish heritage – with many Rangers fans having hatred towards the Celtic fans for being immigrants.
Unfortunately for Rangers, Celtic are playing at a much higher level than them right now. The Bhoys are poised to win the Scottish Premiership for the second consecutive season. In an insult to injury, Celtic also picked up a 1-0 win over Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final clash on April 30.
Despite Rangers having the home support going into this, they still fell short and saw their hopes of winning the cup go in smokes. The match itself was intense and fiery, just like any Old Firm Derby can be expected to be.
But something truly sickening was caught on camera towards the end of the match. In the 86th minute, when Celtic were taking a throw-in, the cameras caught a disturbing flag put on display by some Rangers fans in the stands.
The flag was coloured blue, which clearly indicates that it was the home fans who put it up. The blue flag had a large white cross-like symbol that separated it into four ‘parts’. This flag had a drawing of an ugly human skull on the lower right part of it.
Besides the famous Rangers motto ‘NO SURRENDER’ written in large in the middle of it, there was also a caption written that read ‘Expand or Perish’ on the upper right-hand side. For those unknowing, there is an extremely dark meaning and history behind some of the symbols on display.
Firstly, the human skull symbol on the flag resembles the symbol of the 3rd SS Panzer Division Tottenkopf, an elite division of the Nazi party during World War II. The name ‘Tottenkopf’ stands for ‘death’s head’ – which also referred to the group as ‘Death’s Head Division’. This division earned a reputation for its gruesome crimes and brutality, committing several awful crimes during World War II.
Not just this, but the Rangers supporters also showed their admiration for another fascist in the form of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini through this flag. The words ‘Expand or Perish’ were used by the inventor of fascism to inspire his troops in Italy.
Those surprised at a Nazi banner in The Rangers end at Hampden haven't been paying attention. There are active Fascists in their support. pic.twitter.com/WF7fC55wvo
— T H E ~ S H A M R O C K ☘️ (@TheShamrock1888) May 1, 2023
This awful flag has attracted a lot of bad criticism towards Scottish football supporters, with some even adding the Celtic fans in the same category for being involved in support of fascists and Nazis. However, the Celtic supporters have made it clear that it’s quite clearly a section of Rangers fans who are obsessed with supporting fascism and have done it previously too.
Indeed, there have been sightings of some Rangers fans even doing the Nazi salute in fan gatherings before some matches over the past few years. However, it must be noted that not at all are most of the Rangers fans fine with Nazi symbols or fascist quotes being on display in their games.
As much as Arron wants to paint this something the entire support endorses, he knows he’s wrong.
Believe it or not, most Rangers fans do not think it’s ok to print Nazi slogans and logos on flags. Use it to pathetically point score all you want though. https://t.co/a3UUF96yKy
It’s quite clear that only a certain few fans are still entangled with their backwards mentality and ruining the reputation of the entire Rangers fanbase with their actions. The Scottish club will probably look to avoid these scenes going forward and ban these disgusting supporters from tarnishing their name with their actions.
