You might have seen a story doing the rounds tonight, about Celtic having sent a letter to supporters on the subject of their personal hygiene.
The media has had a ball with this one, with even The Washington Post commenting on it. It must be a slow news day over there, what with the NFL, the NBA, MLS, US presidential primaries and the fact that one unarmed person has been killed by the police every three days in 2015 so far.
As you can imagine, this story has also gone down rather well in Sevconia.
The trouble is, this ain’t a new story.
It looks like it’s not even a true story.
I wonder just how much research the hacks here did before they put this reeking piece of what is almost certainly fiction online.
Why do I say almost certainly fiction?
Because the same story has done the rounds at clubs all across the UK for a while now.
And it’s been fictitious everywhere else.
Right now, as I write this, the same letter – word for word, signed off by the “Supporter Liaison” – is doing the rounds at Stockport County.
So, do we have the same PR department, or what? Or is this what it looks like?
A joke. One the media bought into lock, stock and barrel.
I saw this “letter to the Celtic fans” doing the rounds on Facebook a fortnight ago, and what comes across most in it is that it looks, and reads, like a fake, like something someone put together in five minutes with some Photoshop.
One look at it could have told you that. A read of the wording would have done the rest.
Something stinks here. And it ain’t the Celtic supporters.
It’s the media’s lack of any scruples and love of simply jumping into something without getting the facts right. This one is a source of special pleasure up here though, because it’s the supporters of our own club. Except, once again, it’s not.
Amongst the many “serious” news organisations which has published this transparent guff is Sky Sports, The Telegraph, Bleachers Report and our own home-grown rags, The Daily Record, The Daily Mail and The Sun. Not one of them contacted Celtic first … it’s publish first, and the facts be damned.
Especially when the “facts” are so juicy.
Shame on the lot of them.
When Celtic confirms what a lot of us already know – that this is utterly fictional, nothing more than someone’s idea of a joke which has gone viral – I trust they’ll all have the good grace to apologise and set the record straight.
Aye, but I won’t be holding my breath.
This one smelled from the start.
But what really reeks here is an entire, shameless industry, existing on fiction and lies.
See this letter is very much real. Confirmed by celticfcslo
Really? I’d double check that if I were you.
Unless he’s also the SLO at Stockport.
You should probably double check John Pauls twitter…he confirms it.
Do you have a link for that? The SLO will need to keep his head down ‘IF’ this is true. I can’t imagine people in employment of Celtic would go out of their way to kick the club when it’s taking all sort of flak for the on/off field issues. This is the same SLO who didn’t know the difference between ‘Res 12’ and the fraudulent ‘LNS decision’. HH
Check the most recent Stockport County general meeting minutes – Paul Charnock is their community liaison officer – which means he must be ‘moonlighting’ in the same role at Celtic !
It is well over time that our board started taking some action against the Hun driven media in this country. Do not know about the rest but I am getting a little annoyed and feel like punching out. Get it sorted Lawell a the rest of the Board.
Hi James
Seems like a slow news day for you as well!
Iain
Why do you say so?
You don’t think almost the entirety of the UK media running with a transparently fictional story is new?
Not worth writing about? Setting the record straight?
they sit on their hands week in week out as the sfa cheats us via the refs, They sat on their hands through the sevco debacle and then release this nonsense. Board of fools.
K
WELL stop buying all the rags no use moaning about and continuing buying this shit HH
Well if as you say it’s all nonsense and the letters are fake then Celtic must release a statement saying so and DEMAND a retraction and an apology from all who printed or reported this without confirming it’s authenticity. It’s not only deeply insulting to portray Celtic fans this way but it’s malicious and defamatory.
If, and it’s a big if, this is genuine then what the hell was Peter Lawell thinking about approving such action, all he had to do was instruct the PR dept to write a discreet letter to the fan concerned instead of sending them out on mass to a whole section of the support. How did he think this was going to be reported?
Either Lawell needs to come out and demand an apology or he has to give one to the Celtic support.
This is my valid email.
Surely if it was real the club would have the “seat occupant’s” details on file and would be addressed to them
That fckn waste of space Durham ran with this,at the top of his programme, on Talksport today. The fella has a massive problem, and never misses a chance to put the boot into Celtic.
The record has also said that it was confirmed by celtic
Seat occupier I’m sure it would read Season Ticket holder would it not. I would put money on it being a lot of pish
The only way the media will change is if it’s publicly punished. That means Celtic, Sockport and anyone else must take papers to court, complain public ally and force the media to check sources
If its true then it just sums up what that mob think about us, theyve managed to take us from a last 16 Champions League outfit to a shambles in Europe, now we can look forward to having the pish ripped out of us at every away ground as well as giving that press division a field day. Great PR
i confess its me thats stinkin..reekin of urine i am…because ive been pishin myself laughing at the deid club for over 3 years now. hail hail
I hope Ajax doesn’t take our supporters to the cleaners!!!!
So even when it’s confirmed by a Celtic source it’s still fake? There is in insider now – the conspiracy runs deeper than you thought. Better double up your tinfoil hat.
Of course it’s a wind up and a good laugh.
The original blogger had hmfc as his email, enough said.
Celtic spokesperson of course has replied with comic satire.
Maybe that’s lost and too clever for the Klan.
Some people really need to lighten up.
Hope the green brigade add soap on a rope to their classic discoland.
Keep the faith and scrub up Hail Hail
True about Durham on talk sport an avid secco fan with a hateful agenda against celtic since poppygate yrs ago a real nasty pice of work utter filth .. Station shud pull him up & ask him to tone it down but won’t hold my breath can’t listen to the man Scottish football gets no coverage on station but celtic get it all the time from him .. I wud pay good money to visit this vermin
If any zombie tries to wind you up on this, just tell them nothing smells like the corpse of diedco, end of conversation !
I cant believe Celtic do not contact talksport, sky. the lying and dying record ,and DEMAND an apology at this insult. Our board are moral cowards on all the main issues that have blighted our game in the last 10 years!