Gonna get some hate for this one as it’s probably been done about a 100 times already but I’m from Belfast, grew up in a nationalist community (Catholic community) I’ve been over to Swansea numerous times to support my club as I’ve been supporting Swansea City since 2012. But noticed there are a minority of supporters who have some loyalist viewpoints. I’m not talking about people who like to be British and have union jacks or whatever but there is a section of this fanbase who also support Rangers. Posting anti Catholic/Irish rhetoric online to the point I don’t even feel welcome at this club at times. I feel like it’s getting worse. I’ve got family members killed by loyalist paramilitaries and to see it online and in person makes me uncomfortable coming to support. Some people tell me I’m supporting the Welsh Rangers. Are people like me not welcome there anymore or am just overthinking it? What are your views?
This is really sad to read and I'm sorry you have to experience this.
This minority aren't mentally well and clearly have issues.
The term Dic Siôn Dafydd springs to mind when I see these gimps.
To add, it is like 20 on them in the core group.
I feel like the only time I ever see or hear about them it's one of our supporters telling them to fuck off.
Didn’t one of them get beat up in the stands at a home game a couple of years ago?
Yes we were singing Land of my Father's and they tried to snatch a Welsh Flag down.
They’re just an obnoxiously loud minority and have zero clout in the fanbase. Irish fans will always be welcome at the club
The vast majority of our fanbase despise this lot and know better than to support an ideology that would happily suppress Welsh culture if it was actually prevalent within Welsh society itself.
Keep coming over to watch the swans and remember to join in with lizzy’s in a box or the welsh national anthem as a response to GSTQ
Why is this being tolerated at the grounds? Surely the stewards should be confiscating overtly political flags?
Honestly this couldn’t be further from our principles as a club. It’s a tiny minority and most of our fans wish that lot would support another club.
Look, I don't live in Swansea either (or the UK for that matter) but given every time I've heard an away end sing God Save the Queen/King it's been booed, I can't imagine this group has massive support
Surprised they have so many Instagram followers. No reason or place for it in the game. Wouldn't call them jacks. Looks like theyre just wanting attention.
Probably full of bots mate
Twenty or so tossers that drink out of the shit hole pub The full moon on the high street. One of them posts on X and takes some kind of personal joy from "winding people up" They're so annoying and just give our friends east and up north all the ammo they need.
There is plenty of us 2nd generation Irish who give them shit all the time, they are a bit of a meme tbh. When I ran Jackarmy.net I had an individual (who is a prominent member of them) who used to give me loads of shit for my heritage, until I was introduced to them outside the Vetch. Dude went meek when he realised, all bluster ex-squaddies with a chip on their shoulder!
If you're ever looking to come over and watch the game with like minded people give us a shout!
They really will put any language before Welsh…
Them cunts only go to like one or two awaydays a season with their shitty flags and it's always the really far games for some reason
no they were out in force at Ashton Gate last season as well - half cut i nearly got started on by one of the apes by booing the union flag when i saw it in the concourse.
How many did you see
probably a good dozen flaunting the butcher's apron in the middle of the concourse trying to intimidate and provoke, that is their tactic
Absolute trumpets, the lot of them. But yeah, they are very few in number. Doesn't make it any less annoying though, and I really hope they fuck off soon - what are they actually trying to achieve I wonder?
Does anyone know how long they've been around for?
They've been around in some form since the early 00s at least, if not earlier. First time I remember seeing them was Shrewsbury away around then.
Odd. Yeah, I don't remember ever seeing anything of this sort at the vetch, but memory isn't great... Anyway, they can fuck off and be 'loyal' somewhere else. Pricks.
They were around in the 90s also
They're absolute belters and only there to kick off best I can tell. One of the games 3 years back, I can't remember which, they properly kicked off in the NE stand and the stewards had to open the gates to let the normal supporters out to avoid the fighting. Only time I've ever felt properly uncomfortable in there, wrecked the last 15 minutes of the game
Its a small group of idiots thankfully. Wouldn't surprise me if its more of an anti Cardiff thing more than anything
Honestly, huge over representation from a (very) small handful. Very much doubt any hangers on even understand it.
I’ve never even seen them or known of their existence until now they definitely don’t represent the club. But football attracts idiots I imaging there are people like this in most clubs one way or another bar Celtic. If it bothers you that much, and you can’t ignore it. You’re probably best supporting them.
No thanks
I’m an “each to their own” kind of person, but I find the loyalist/Rangers angle very strange. Union Jack is divisive but at least I can see some kind of logic in that one.
My take? It’s more about being a part of a subculture of fans, setting themselves apart. As Swans supporters we don’t really have a casual element and we are a relatively tame bunch. I guess this is a way to be a part of something and latching onto that side of being a supporter. I doubt there’s any real “feeling” behind it at all. But I can understand totally how it would make you feel uneasy.
I think it started to build up during the Potter era, I remember seeing that flag over in the South West corner a few games and seeing more of it online. It got worse over covid and particularly under Martin, but since then it is much less prominent. Other than the Cardiff games those cretins stay home, because ultimately they're Rangers fans based in Swansea rather than supporters of both teams, and lacking the ability to go and spread hate in Glasgow or Belfast, they're trying to import it on us. They got bored of watching the Swans because they don't care about the Swans, so now they don't turn up.
The simple facts are that Swansea and Cardiff's rivalry is not cross-city and isn't based on religious lines (Wales is mostly agnostic and has never been particularly Catholic, so there's never been real sectarianism here). Politically, Cardiff and Swansea are not different enough as cities to merit a rivalry on political lines, Swansea is a working class city which leans left, just like Cardiff and we have a portion of people who get swept up in right wing populism, like Cardiff. Our rivalry is based on local political grudges that emerge between a capitol and its second city over time, but mostly it's based on football. Swansea and Cardiff hate each other because a generation ago we hated them and a generation before too. To call Swansea the Welsh Rangers is to misunderstand Scottish football, Welsh football, Scottish culture, Welsh culture and people as a whole, and those flagshaggers don't care because they just want to look hard for other "firms". Fortunately, you can go to any away game that isn't Cardiff and only meet a few headers looking for a scrap with everyone else being sound.
9/10 times when there's been a Rangers based flag, it's been taken down within minutes. I remember a Cardiff game under Martin where 30 minutes before kick off a Swans fan clouted a Rangers flag after taking his flag down, and most in the East stand at that point were applauding him for it. They remain an unpopular minority and they're far less loud than they used to be
The loyalist/nationalist element of the fan base is just a hangover from the 90's. Britpop and Rangers were massive, and lots of tinpot lower league clubs got swept up in British nationalism.
This behaviour is only confined to a minority ex-hooligan/ casual element of the fan base which is why it hasn't been stamped out as the average fan doesn't want to risk getting their head kicked in.
You will never see families or ‘scarfers’ taking a union jack or loyalist flags to games, it's exclusively middle aged men and a few impressionable teenagers.
I'm sure a few of them do it for political beliefs, but most of them think taking a union jack to a game is part of being a ‘casual’ like wearing a stone island jacket. It really is that shallow.
If the ex-hooligan's from the 90's were Welsh nationalists you would never see a union jack down the liberty.
I think part of the reason it feels like it is on the increase, is actually because a lot of younger Swans fans are questioning it and rightly calling it out. Those loyalists/nationalist are on the defensive which causes them to take more flags to games etc.
I lived in Swansea 20 years ago and back then there was a pub, The Builders Arms, near the old Vetch Field stadium and it had Glasgow Rangers flags and merchandise up on the walls which you could as soon as you walk in the door
Seeing these pictures on social media a few years ago did make me question thr club ive always supported, but i quickly realised it was a very small minority and most of the pics with these nonsense flags are in isolated places like infront of a bus or a local pub. It seems like a growing trend but its not at all. Seeing the vast majority of swans fans have no tine for it is great to see, and confirms its notjing to do with us as a club.
Theres no history of secreterianism in Wales. No real history of mass Catholic migration into South Wales like there is in Scotland. They sre trying to create an identity for the club that doesnt match the supporters, the city or the area or the rivalry with Cardiff.
Il always remeber a group of them waving thr union jack towards the Millwall fans at the end of the game to try and get approval lol.
As a proud Welsh man i dont know why anyone would go out of thier way to fly a union jack any where but each to thier own, people have different beleifs. But i do think the club should take a stand on the loyalist nonsense if seen. Your not a fan of Swansea if you can fly another clubs badge on your flag.
We should keep religion and politics out of football. I know easier said then done.
It is far-right agitation simple as that, very much politically motivated - but frankly i know Swansea well enough to know these morons wouldn't even clock your accent or truly give a shit if you were Catholic or not. The sectarian element is an excuse as much as anything, it's basically one of two god awful pubs where these lot emerge from and they may happen to support Rangers for some asinine reason as well. Ulster unionists are around the UK continuing to agitate but really you'd be in a lot more danger if you were brown I'm sad to say - it's a manifestation more of general bigotry than any pointedly anti-Catholic sentiment, Wales is not like Scotland or Ireland in that way
pigs.
Weird cunts
We dont associate with these kind of people, the arent real swans fans
You're just overthinking it. I haven't ever encountered it at games or on the terraces. I stopped seeing any content around this when I came off twitter. Purely an online problem imo.
That’s a massive downgrade on a half and half scarf
Likely love Yaxley-Lennox too.
Didn't help when McBurnie and Byers were very vocal about being Rangers fans, and very much Anglo-Scottish.
And there will be people who have family members killed by the IRA who find it annoying to see Celtic badges.
What's your solution?
Well said mate
But Celtic doesn't = IRA does it lmao
And Rangers doesn't = UVF does it?
I'm glad you see my point...
This whole argument is stupid on a South Wales team football board. It’s got no place being a conversation here. The people waving the loyalist flags are idiots, and OP is no better bringing the other side in to it
That's fair - trying to make that point in my response really.
Something very odd about importing other peoples sectarianism.
Yeah I get it the point. But the whole thing ridiculous and both sides are as bad as each other. It just doesn’t have a place in Swansea. I don’t think OP is listening, he hasn’t responded to one post he’s probably karma farming.
No rangers doesn't = UVF
But the flag displaying Quis Separabit is a UDA slogan. But I suspect you already know that...
Did the UVF/UDA write the bible like?
What does that even mean?
Its a quote from the bible...
If you are saying you want the club to ban any fan displays linked to politics - fair enough.
My point is you can't pick and choose sides.
Yep hundred percent you can't.
But you can condemn the flying of paramilitary flags without resorting to what-aboutery.
Ensuring that you can apply laws equally and fairly to people on different sides of the spectrum isn't what-aboutery.
I'm sure OP gets his knickers in a twist whenever you see anyone vaguely allude to the IRA.
It's OK, you don't have to condemn it. Thats your right.
Instead of making assumptions and bringing Celtic into, and linking them to the IRA when he doesn't mention being a Celtic fan whatsoever, you could have just said that there shouldn't be any paramilitary flags at a Swansea game.
The fact that you chose to bring what aboutery into it says more about you and where you stand on the issue.
Musk fanz
is it legal?