Celtic fans have always been pretty incredible, right? I don’t particularly care what the critics have to say about that, or what some other supporters believe.
It’s true just the same.
To a lot of people in Scottish football, we’re simply one side of the dreaded double-headed coin, forever connected to whatever masquerades as a football club playing out of Ibrox.
For years we’ve tried to make it clear that we want sod all to do with that. To some, we might as well have been talking in a foriegn language. Fans at other clubs still tar us with the same brush, acting as if we, too, have dumped debt, bent rules, corrupted the governing bodies and drove the Scottish game to the brink.
We did none of it. But we can’t seem to shake the stigma that comes with a decades long attachment to our one time rivals … even if few us wanted that association anyway.
We’ve talked until we’re green in the face …
Now, a group of fans from CQN have decided that talking isn’t enough. They’re taking out an ad in a national newspaper, to make it clear that we want nothing to do with the tag, or the hype that surrounds it. We don’t want an association with the Ibrox NewCo. We are, as we have ever been, a club with its own identity, and that does not depend on anyone else.
In fact, we find the whole “Old Firm” idea abhorrent.
The ad will run in The Sunday Herald, on the 25th of this month. The enterprise should be applauded by everyone who follows the Hoops. It’s a revolutionary move. No set of supporters in British football has ever placed a newspaper ad setting out the reasons it wants nothing to do with a rival side, and clarifying their thinking on that club and its history.
Some – maybe even some Celtic fans – will say this is an indulgence, and that we should concentrate on our own club, but I disagree.
This is necessary. It’s important.
Clarifying these things sends several messages.
First, it sends one to our own board of directors, to promote any “rivalry” at their peril. Celtic fans won’t wear it. The rivalry, as hateful as it was, died when the club called Rangers did.
Secondly, it responds to the shocking comments from Neil Doncaster, where he said the SPFL considers the NewCo a “continuation” of the old club. Responding to this barmy assertion is vital, because it goes to the heart of much of what is wrong – and will continue to be wrong – with Scottish football. This bizarre assertion needs to be not only challenged but crushed.
Finally, it sends a message to the other clubs, and their fans, that Celtic supporters are tired of the same old systems of governance and the awful results they produce. It announces to them that we are ready to take a lead in fighting for reform in the game here. We are not the enemy. We are allies and friends in that fight, and we do not seek to carve up the territory into something that serves ourselves and no-one else.
Those days are gone. I hope to God our own board realises the strength of feeling on this.
The supporters have taken the lead where the club would not go. That speaks volumes in and of itself, and it might well be that this is an effort to spark a reaction from them too.
One thing is clear; the days of sitting at the back of the bus are over, for good.
Sevco fans are just low life scum
And you are all gypsies tramps and thieves
So you won’t be going to the game with your giro money
Classy. You muppet.
Yeah because your club have done nothing in your past to shame you right?
That’s correct Simmo. They haven’t.
I can’t stand the term. What I would really like to see, however, would be a boycott of the sham that will take place at Hampden early February. I know this will not happen. The board and many shareholders would baulk at the idea. One can but hope though.
It is about time this fa?ce was put to bed once and for all! The club must have their reasons for keeping quiet but that has to change and hopefully this will make people come out from their uncomfortable silences. Change at the top of our game is long overdue as it is rotten to the core. Hopefully this can provide the spark required!
Can’t be sure whether you noted the comment I left on your blog “A Moment of Clarity” so I’ll repeat my suggestion:
I’ve come to appreciate the power that can lie in a petition that gets a shedload of signatures and therefore can imagine the import that such a petition with respect to the governance of Scottish football would have especially if it was made available to all Scottish fans.
Would you be able to instigate such a petition; I would think a website such as TSFM would be an ideal vehicle for that.
Keep up the good work.
Bernie, I am inclined to agree with your view.
That would certainly start the ball rolling.
Spot on James as usual. This blatant deception must be challenged at every opportunity and that includes from a shamefully and cowardly compliant media, a corrupt and partial SFA and SPL and of course the deluded ones themselves.
It is to be hoped that other clubs’ supporters groups will follow suit.
I do however find it sad that it has not met with universal approval from all Celtic blogs, with one notable blogger stating that the authors of the piece were trying to “convince” themselves of the fact that Rangers ceased to exist and are no more.
This may be to do with the fact that he was not involved in the authorship of the advert and is perhaps somehat envious of those who were.
Whilst I agree with the basic concept of distancing our club from the terminology(old firm) be sure the article is worded in such a way that it does give the bigoted, biased Scottish media a rod with which to beat our backs.The vast majority of media hacks in Scotland, have always had their own agenda and have never been well disposed to Celtic FC
Bring on the huns on the 1st of February. HAIL HAIL.
Vino I couldn’t agree more mate bring on the Huns on the 1st of february
Every Celtic supporter should get behind this initiative, the masquerade has to be stopped once and for all. HH
i was at the agm when celtic fans asked the board to drop the old firm tag and this is before they died. Peter lawell visibly turned chalk white at the suggestion and the group of fans that asked the question where shot down in flames
Everything should be done that can be to dis-associate ourselves from our former rivals and their ‘traditions’. I hope our club never attempts to cash in in the old rivalry ever again.
I totally agree with your support of the CQN initiative. Celtic must be made to see that the fans will not allow Doncaster’s counter intuitive nonsense to pass unchallenged. If Celtic think that doing nothing wil be financially rewarding by presuming the Celtic support will see the Ibrox chimera as the same old club, then they are in for a rude awakening. For every fan who would return to the stands because of “a renewed rivalry”, there are a dozen who will not renew season tickets. The fans will simply not subscribe to this lie to assist with marketing.
The undeniable truth, one I hope to see included in the CQN advert, is that RFC became RFC Ltd in 1899 through the legal process of incorporation. This was never rescinded. There never was a seperate company running the club. No one buys it and it will cost Celtic dear if they expect us to buy into it.
Hail hail.
I’m all in favour of the principle of advertising the fact that numerous Celtic fans have had it up to here with lies and dishonesty from the football governing bodies and the media.
I just hope that it’s worded in such a way that it doesn’t alienate the supporters of the other clubs.
Make no mistake about it; post-liquidation, Charles Green’s Continuity Rangers would have started life in the SPL without missing a beat had it not been for fans of 10 other clubs focussing their chairmen’s minds on the dire consequences of acquiescing to the fix that was being contemplated. The same scenario was repeated in the SFL to scupper the outrageous Plan B of offering NewHuns a place in the 2nd tier. There’s widespread consensus on the salient issues at stake here and that must not be undermined.
It’s not nicknamed the “Gold Firm” for nothing Pistol Pete & the Irish Tory absent Landlord need to perpetuate the myth to make money. It’s all about the money, it doesn’t really matter to them if a Celtic fan gets butchered at Bridgeton Cross as the Polis look on, they don’t have to walk the gauntlet of hate risking their lives to get home, their lives go on & we’re collateral damage. Yes they might turn up at your funeral & send a few first team players as a gesture of solidarity, but they’re kidding no one, they don’t give a flying fuck about me or you it’s all about the money and if that means making it out of Bigotry & blood then so be it, the Old Firm must be brought back from the dead & quickly. Absolutely sickening what some people would do for money, but it won’t be in my name i’m out, sack the board & give us our club back as your dragging it down into the gutter you reptiles!
Agree 100% that the phrase old firm is now obsolete , since the 2nd part of the old slogan no longer exist , the old Co were terminated in may of 2012, and are now represented by the newco/sevco 2012 brand , officially registered as R.I.F.C, the best way of avoiding any confusion is to ignore applications for tickets to the farce about to take place on , 1st Feb, 2015 , as we Don, t need the revenue or the hassle that lunar event , so we would expected to purchase them to finance the newco circus , and that, s a no, no , for me as a season book member , and would not be at the potential armageddon to light the riot fuse of hateful cretins dresses in Battle dress to run amok in the city under the guise of sso called football ???
My only worry is that I work for a large “TV company” that sponsors football and have seen documents around the possible demise of the old firm and it scared the living shit out iof me as we’re not rated as a single entity. Big business doesn’t give a toss about anything other than the 2. It’s disparate to get it back and if it doesn’t happen then we’re screwed, and our board know it. This is the truth I’ve seen it in black and white
Whatever your thoughts on old co / new co, the rivalry between Rangers and Celtic is what keeps Scottish football ticking. The only reason that there is any media money still rolling in (albeit reduced) is in anticipation that Rangers will again return and eventually pose a credible challenge. Whether they care to admit it the bussiness plan of every club in the premier league is based on Rangers returning next season, as professional game in this country is hanging by its fingernails. Yes there is a more level playing field, but this is not due to other teams upping their game, simply the deterioration of Celtic, I mean let’s be honest in days gone by Ronnie Delia wouldn’t have even got a job as the kit man and many of the current squad would struggle to get a game in a Martin O’Neill reserve team.
If Rangers were to go into Admin again or fail to get promotion then make no bones about it big money media will withdraw and we’re left with two Bob and a burst ballon from BBC Alba and simple economics will push some clubs out the game or to part time and the steady decline in quality will accelerate, as nobody outside Scotland and very few within will pay a Sky subscription to watch St Johnstone v Inverness Caley and the like.
The whole sevco thing is good banter on the shop floor, but the last few years has been poor, our league has no credibility, there is no challenge, no passion and if folk think that’s been a good thing for the Scottish game and Celtic FC then more fool you, and an increasingly empty Celtic Park awaits.
Anyone looking for a great group on Facebook for all Celtic Fans, look no further – http://www.facebook.com/groups/celticfcsupportersandfollowers1888/ Enjoy as almost 9000 others do.