From Manchester to Milan, Istanbul to Rome, few things stir primal passions quite like a local derby, the name given to soccer matches between bitter geographic rivals like Arsenal and Tottenham, who contest the North London Derby, or River Plate and Boca Juniors in Buenos Aires’s Superclásico. Fewer still incite the level of sectarian hatred and violence of Britain’s greatest rivalry, the Old Firm derby between Glasgow rivals Celtic and Rangers, which made its return to the top flight of Scottish football on September 10th after a four-year absence.
The origins of the name Old Firm are unclear, but the results (and the hatred) are not. The two teams have maintained a dual hegemony over Scottish football since inception, winning a combined 101 of 120 league titles, including the last 31 titles.
They say familiarity breeds contempt, and the crosstown rivals are certainly no strangers, but the roots of animosity go much deeper than that. Rangers’ identity as an establishment Scottish, largely Protestant, club was already largely developed when Celtic was founded in 1888 as a way of raising money for East Glasgow’s relatively poor Irish Catholic immigrant population.
The rivalry increasingly took on a political and religious sectarian dimension in the early 20th century, as the Catholic-Protestant, Irish-British, and Irish Republican-Ulster Loyalist identities all became entrenched in respective club identity. Celtic supporters often brandish the Irish flag and sing songs in support of a united Ireland and sometimes even the IRA, while their Rangers supporting counterparts wave the Union Jack and Ulster flag, deride the pope and express support for Northern Ireland.
This deeply entrenched divide has made the Old Firm a natural battleground, both literally and figuratively, in the ever-ongoing religious and political sectarianism in Glasgow, even after the end of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Rangers famously maintained an unwritten rule not to sign Catholic players, finally broken in 1989, and violence at Old Firm matches between the two groups of supporters is the norm. As recently as 2011, Celtic’s Northern Irish Catholic manager Neil Lennon and a number of players were mailed bullets by Rangers supporters. Likewise, a number of high profile murders and assaults in Glasgow, often before or after Old Firm matches, have been linked to sectarianism.
Tensions have been somewhat quelled in recent years, thanks in part to Rangers’ bankruptcy and subsequent relegation to the lowest tier of the Scottish football hierarchy in 2012. After Rangers finally won promotion back to the Scottish Premier League last season, the Old Firm finally met in the league last Saturday at Celtic Park in East Glasgow.
Despite an energized crowd and a roaring rendition of their signature pre-match anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (a tune more famously employed by Liverpool supporters, mind you), the action on the pitch was relatively listless. Rangers sat deep early to absorb pressure and were punished again and again by an incisive Celtic attack, who cruised to a 5-1 drubbing of the crosstown rivals. New Celtic signing Moussa Dembélé, just 19 years old, dazzled with a perfect hat-trick, the first in an Old Firm league match since 1966. Celtic captain Scott Brown accurately summed it up when he said, “It was men versus boys.”
It is a bit ironic that, as much as supporters of Glasgow’s Green and White might hate to admit it, Celtic and Rangers need each other now more than ever. Without Rangers in the top-flight, the last four seasons in the Scottish Premiership have been marked by Celtic dominance and four consecutive titles. For comparison, last year’s upstart darlings Aberdeen finished a full fifteen points off the pace. The lack of parity and competition at the top has meant a similar lack of interest in the Scottish league. Viewership figures and TV revenues have remained flat, all while Scotland’s neighbor to the south has seen the value of the English Premier League’s TV deals explode to the point where even the worst Premier League clubs are among the richest in Europe.
A resurgent Rangers back in the Scottish Prem to challenge Celtic hegemony means increased interest and more cash for both. To illustrate, last year’s Scottish Cup tie between the two sides drew 100 million viewers globally, and Celtic’s chief exec Peter Lawwell has recently admitted that Rangers’ absence from the top flight has cost Celtic upwards of $50 million. It should be in everyone’s interest then, whether your allegiance is Celtic, Rangers or neutral, to see the Old Firm resume one of the world’s most bitter and storied rivalries back in the top flight of Scottish football.