What To Do About The Green Brigade. A Quick Poll.

Saturday’s entertainment was not brought to you by 11 masters of the beautiful game doing their stuff on the pitch. Far from it.

It was all about those pesky kids and if you switch your mind to Scooby Doo mode you can picture Alec Salmonds and his flabby chops being unmasked as the villain after a slap dash chase and some buffoonery.

There seems to be two distinct camps when it comes to the GB. Those who see them as needy adolescents who need the rush of self publicity and are a disgrace to the club they claim to love and those who love what they do but have reservations about their choice of songbook.

Update: It seems that there is a third distinct group. Let’s call them the Partisans who are calling for nothing to change and for the GB to carry on as they are. 

I never put this group in as before now, and maybe in the aftermath of such a show, they have been silent in any on-line or off-line discussion that has taken place. They are the vocal majority at the moment.   

Salmond’s Law has been discussed and even those with damaged grey matter can grasp that the law is being changed to ensure that we can be tagged the same as them. It’s been admitted to in that expensive house in Embra. It will also capture other fans of the self titled Family Clubs who have a snobby view of us and think that their $h*ts don’t smell.

I have no faith in the justice system to enforce the law. Neither do those that need to enforce it.

The banner above sums it up our situation perfectly but the protest failed to take into account the growing number – I think it is a growing number – of Celtic fans who want certain songs or slogans dropped from the repertoire not because they are illegal but because it’s time to move on.

My take is this. We will lose nothing from our identity if we stop singing certain songs. The GB will play a major part in that.

The protest on Saturday was seen by some as a petulant and selfish act. I fully understand that view. The group could only highlight their view and the problems they face. They weren’t attempting to be a wider voice.

There was also a great deal of hypocrisy in the reaction to the protest inside the stadium. You could hear the sweetie papers rustling and the players shouting before 50mins. The stadium became all singing and all dancing afterwards. Did you not feel like singing before hand?

There also seems to be a lack of understanding about the reason they have been asked to stop the lateral movement. The disappearance of a safety certificate could make that clearer to those who don’t grasp this. I think the GB should be using this to make a play for safe standing returning to the Scottish game. The game in this country needs a revolution.

So what do we do about the Green Brigade? The club and support have embraced them like an outcast Uncle at a family wedding. Glad to see him there but keeping a distance and ensuring he can be disowned if he soils himself and is sick down the bridesmaid.

Saturday was a watershed moment. But what way do we go? Vote in the poll.

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