Biggest Rivalries In Football: Rangers Vs Celtic

The Old Firm goes beyond just football; it’s one of the biggest rivalries in the world, a duel between the hated clubs of Glasgow, Celtic, and Rangers. It’s much more than a game.

Their rivalry is deeply rooted in the culture of Scotland, part of Great Britain. The two clubs’ supporters hold differing political and religious views. 

You live for victory against an angry rival, you hate your opponent as much as you love your club.

Rangers fans consider themselves “united”; they advocate for the unity of Great Britain, so the flags of the United Kingdom often fly in their stands, while the symbols of the Republic of Ireland are on the opposite side. 

Celtic supporters are predominantly Catholic, while Rangers supporters are mainly Protestant.

Rangers’ fans are historically native to Scotland and Ulster Scots, while bitter rivals are Irish Scots. Rangers did not sign a Catholic player for a long time, but legendary manager Graeme Souness stopped that when he brought in former Celtic striker Maurice Johnston in 1989.  Today, it is not strict.

This rivalry has raged since 1888, when a match between these two Scottish giants was played for the first time on May 28. 

The exact origin of the term “Old Firm” remains unclear. Still, it may have come from the first match between the two clubs in which the commentators referred to the teams as “like two old, firm friends.” Or it may have originated from a satirical cartoon published in the sports newspaper The Scottish Referee before the 1904 Scottish Cup final between the two teams, showing an elderly man with a sandwich billboard reading “Patronise The Old Firm: Rangers, Celtic Ltd,” highlighting the mutual commercial benefits of their matches. 

The name may also reference these two teams being among the original 11 members of the Scottish Football League formed in 1890.

Celtic and Rangers are by far Scotland’s two most successful teams, having won over 200 domestic trophies together, and there have been few interruptions to their domestic dominance: the last such example was in the 1984–85 season when Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen were champions, finishing ahead of Celtic. 

Rangers’ bankruptcy in 2012 and the subsequent re-establishment of the club from Scottish League Two (fourth division) meant that the Old Firm was not played for around three years; the two teams met again on 1 February 2015 in the semi-finals of the Scottish League Cup. 

The rivalry between the two teams goes deeper than a simple sporting contest.

Complex religious and political disputes fuel the rivalry (the Catholicism of the Celtic fans versus the Protestantism of the Rangers fans) and politics (the Unionism under the British Crown of the Rangers fans versus the independence struggle of Celtic fans).

All of this has led to an ongoing animosity between the two fan groups, which has now expanded beyond the normal rivalry between two teams from the same city; this has manifested itself in a history full of sectarian violence, sometimes leading to deadly clashes.

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