{"id":42424,"date":"2025-04-23T00:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T00:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/42424\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T00:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T00:14:09","slug":"rangers-fans-mock-popes-death-with-vile-graffiti-as-celtic-supporters-make-instant-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/42424\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers fans mock Pope’s death with vile graffiti as Celtic supporters make instant response"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rangers ultras sparked outrage by painting anti-Pope graffiti in Glasgow just hours after Pope Francis’s death on Easter Monday.<\/p>\n

Members of the Union Bears group defaced a building visible from the M8 and M77 motorways with messages reading “No Pope of Rome” and “Papa Francesco is Dead”.<\/p>\n

The controversial display was painted in Rangers’ red, white and blue colours on the wall of a building on MacLellan Street.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis passed away peacefully at 7:35am after suffering a cerebral stroke and subsequent heart failure, according to his doctors. He was 88 years old.<\/p>\n

\"Rangers<\/p>\n

Rangers fans posted anti-Pope graffiti after his death on Monday<\/p>\n

Reuters\/X<\/p>\n

Celtic ultras retaliated by making their own display on the same wall, using green, white and orange colours.<\/p>\n

Their message read “No Flags or Drums” – reportedly referencing claims that they had stolen equipment from their Rangers rivals.<\/p>\n

The building on MacLellan Street is regularly used by fans of both Rangers and Celtic for graffiti messages due to its prominent location.<\/p>\n

The incident has heightened tensions between the two clubs, which have historically been divided along sectarian lines, with Rangers traditionally seen as Protestant and Celtic as Catholic.<\/p>\n

Rangers supporters took to social media platform X to condemn the graffiti display by their own ultras group.<\/p>\n

“As a Rangers fan this disgusts me. How many of our own players are we offending here? I have no religious beliefs but I respect those who do. Keep it out of football,” wrote one supporter.<\/p>\n

JUST IN:<\/strong>Gary Lineker swipes at BBC for ‘forcing him to quit’ and vows he has ‘no regrets’ in free speech row<\/a><\/p>\n

Another fan called the act “disgraceful, disgusting, and disrespectful.”<\/p>\n

“Only thing they can celebrate this season is an 88 year old Argentinian man living in Rome dying. Bit depressing,” commented a third.<\/p>\n

Others questioned the club’s inclusive values, with one simply asking: “A club for everyone?”<\/p>\n

The incident follows a pattern of sectarian tensions being expressed through public displays, with similar incidents reported elsewhere in the country.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>John Higgins holds back tears and consoled by BBC host after Joe O’Conner victory<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Rangers\"\/<\/p>\n

Rangers fans caused fury with their graffiti messages after the Pope’s death<\/p>\n

X<\/p>\n

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers and a delegation from Celtic had previously met Pope Francis in 2023, when they were granted a private audience at the Vatican.<\/p>\n

Before that meeting, Rodgers had expressed his excitement, saying: “That will be absolutely amazing. We would be blessed to do that, it would be a real privilege.”<\/p>\n

The two Glasgow rivals are set to meet for their final clash of the season on May 4.<\/p>\n

LATEST SPORT NEWS:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rangers ultras sparked outrage by painting anti-Pope graffiti in Glasgow just hours after Pope Francis’s death on Easter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,512,93,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-42424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sgg","10":"tag-sport","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114384395777607096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}