Simon Jordan has hit out at UEFA following their disciplinary charge passed down to Rangers over a banner held aloft by the Union Bears.
The ultras group hoisted a banner that read: ‘Keep woke foreign. Ideologies out and defend Europe,’ during the recent Europa League match against Fenerbahce at Ibrox.
UEFA took a dim view of the messaging, branding it ‘racist and/or discriminatory’.
This has resulted in an immediate €30,000 fine, as well as a partial stadium closure suspended over a two-year period.
Rangers – who have issued two strongly-worded statements on the matter – insist they will issue lifetime bans for those responsible.
However, former Crystal Palace owner Jordan reckons there was nothing racist about the message of the banner.
He told talkSPORT: “There’s nothing racist or discriminatory about what that banner suggested.
“UEFA say there is, but that’s because UEFA are being allowed to say it.
“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’.
“UEFA are in charge. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. The fans are supposed to be the lifeblood of football. When they want to have an opinion, they can’t have one.
“When the football authorities want to tell you which particular cause you should be aligning with – whether to light up Wembley for one particular country after a terrible tragedy or whether they want to talk about taking the knee or advance an LGBT cause – then everyone’s got to listen to that.”
Danny Murphy asked: “Can you enlighten certain listeners, and even myself, as to what that’s even referring to?”
Jordan retorted: “I have no idea. But the suggestion it’s racist and discriminatory, I’d like to understand what’s racist and discriminatory about it?
“We had a discussion last week about what constitutes a woke or foreign ideology and I gave an example of one.
“The fact that the Gulf states believe homosexuality is illegal. Is that an ideology that we wouldn’t want in this country? I don’t suspect that it is.
“You can’t judge people by a set of standards that you don’t apply to yourself. You sit there applying your own wisdom i.e. which particular cause or message you wish to impart.
“When the dirty, unwashed proletariat have their opinion, out the door, we don’t want to hear from you.
“This has nothing to do with football, but it’s the same standard. So why don’t we hold UEFA in contempt when they ask people to impart messages when they feel like it?
“Don’t throw things, don’t take pyrotechnics, don’t take messages into sport. We all agree with that.
“Then why don’t you top it as well? Why don’t you set the pattern? Why don’t you set the process? Why are you judging the people who attend football matches by a different sent of standards to the messages that you wish to impart? Why are your governing messages more important than the messages of the fans?”
