Rivalries of Epic Proportions

Escape From IV: Extreme Edition

Let’s talk about the football. As you probably know, soccer — or as the rest of the world more logically calls it, football — is the biggest sport in the world outside of the United States. The passion for it varies between countries. In South Africa, for example, it is one of several sports that dominate the country. Compare this with England and Scotland, where the world’s best players come to compete in the two top tier leagues of Britain, the English and Scottish Premier Leagues.

There are two teams in Scotland that play in the Magners League, one of three professional rugby leagues in Europe. However, they are massively under appreciated and practically ignored by the Scots. The real king of the sporting world in Scotland is football and the Scottish Premier League. Everyone in Scotland seems to have an incredibly opinionated stance as a supporter of some team, whether they be one of the big two, Rangers and Celtic, or a smaller club like Kilmarnock FC or Dundee United.

There are two teams with an incredible rivalry, sort of akin to the Yankees and Red Sox, that dominate the League. These two teams, both located on the south side of Glasgow, have bred one of the most divisive rivalries in sporting anywhere around the world. From the beginning of my time here in Glasgow everyone has quizzed me about which team I support. The diplomatic (and safe thing) to say is that you support neither and are but a naïve foreigner, though this hardly holds true for anyone who stays in Scotland long enough to see a team play. It seems like it’s a sort of first love situation. The foreigners that saw a Celtic match first tend to follow Celtic over Rangers, and vice versa.

One of the most controversial things about this rivalry that sets it apart from most other sport rivalries is the introduction of sectarianism. A word most commonly heard in relation to Iraqi politics, most people aren’t accustomed to hearing it in relation to football. The story is that the two teams started around the same time, challenging each other at the first ever game on Glasgow Green. The Irish Catholic community created Celtic as an effort to eliminate poverty in the East End and the club has been associated with Irish Catholics since. Rangers on the other hand had traditionally been associated with Protestant Unionists and supporters clashed with Celtic fans every time the two met. Violence and rioting was a fairly common sight at “Auld Firm” games between the two clubs and the issue continues up to this day. This has led both teams to try to escape their less than savory pasts by discouraging sectarianism and promoting campaigns to “follow with pride.”

So what are games like? One of the biggest differences is that they don’t seem as family oriented as you might expect. Compared to baseball where fans intermingle with their families without fear of clashes, these games are primarily dominated by men. Another big difference is the ban of alcohol at the game. One of the biggest sources of revenue for food stands at American sporting events are the thousands of people trying to celebrate or drown their sorrows in a $9 beer. This is completely different in Scotland where the food and beverages generally take a back seat to the game. There is one exception: the pies. Scotland is huge on their pies and most teams sell some sort of “football” pie at their games.

The atmosphere is a tad bit more, shall I say, serious. Sitting in the front row at Ibrox stadium, where Rangers play, I heard all kinds of obscenities and threats issued toward the field from behind me. Let’s just say that I wouldn’t relish the idea of being a referee in the SPL. Grown men live, die, and weep along with the success and failure of their teams.

Does this mean that the game isn’t fun? No. It usually means that the people willing to shell out enough cash to land in these seats are going to be diehard fans who will sing and shout their way through the match, pulling you into it with them if you let them. If you are lucky enough to be at a close game where the team you are rooting for suddenly scores to win, don’t be surprised to find yourself pulled into a bear hug by some huge Glaswegian who will immediately pull you into singing along from the stands.