Last weekend, social media was buzzing with stories of trouble when Sevco fans visited Dundee. Now, I had dismissed this initially because otherwise the home club would have issued a statement on it, right?
Because this was, of course, the club that chose to issue such a statement over misconduct by Celtic fans in 2012.
That’s not a dig; it’s simply stating a fact.
It’s a while ago, now but whilst our club accepted that a small number of supporters had misbehaved things were clearly nowhere near as bad as the media was either led to believe or simply chose to report at the time.
Similar stories are circulating over what happened last week. Some are clearly OTT but over the last few days, some have proved a little harder to shake off as simply internet tittle-tattle.
They’ve been given legs by Dundee FC itself.
According to what I’ve heard there were several troubling incidents up there, including a full-on battle between separate Sevco fan groups. That’s right, they were square-going each other, at the game and there were a few innocent people hurt, including some women. This isn’t speculative; the story started on their own forums, the incident was witnessed by a large number of people and the threads on it were pulled before they could be highlighted elsewhere.
We do know there was highly offensive signing amongst their fans before, during and after the game; that was filmed and the video of it widely circulated, including stories in the mainstream media. This signing went far beyond the usual nonsense they engage in at most away fixtures. It was vile, highly personal, shameful stuff that has no place in any football crowd anywhere. No need to go into detail on this one.
There have been stories of toilets up there being vandalised, in what’s become something of a Sevco fan tradition.
There were even said to be some pictures of that floating around on the net, but this particular rumour can’t be definitively confirmed and I have to accentuate that point.
If anyone can clear it up one way or another please feel free.
There was also some suggestion that the fans had behaved abysmally in Dundee itself, with local shops getting almost wrecked by marauding supporters in an orgy of what one person told me was “mass theft and gangster behaviour.”
None of this has been reported in the media.
Dundee themselves have not made comment on it.
But in what I’m told is a related development, Celtic supporters clubs have been informed that our allocation for the next Dundee match, on 19 March – a potential league title decider – has been cut, and the question some people have asked me to pose is this; is that decision in response to disorder caused by visiting supporters from another Glasgow club?
Since the alleged incidents in 2012 – the Quiet Riot, as someone described it to me at the time, in total disbelief at what was reported in the press – Celtic fans have visited Dens on numerous occasions without incident of any kind.
Indeed, the relationship between the two clubs has always been good, to the point where they were rumoured to be planning a friendly in the United States.
When Celtic fans visited Dens in October of last year they returned with good stories and praise for the way the home side set out their stall. I can’t remember, in all the times I’ve attended games in that city, when there was ever a cross word between the fans.
So our allocation being cut makes very little sense in the context of something we’ve done or how we’re perceived.
It’ll also prove counter-productive, as if the match turns out to be a title winning game there will be a major push from Celtic supporters to get tickets for parts of the ground where they ought not to be; it seems a bizarre – and potentially expensive – move to make in light of this certainty. If that match is going to be a clincher we could have filled every seat in the house five or six times over; instead some of the stadium will undoubtedly be empty.
If Sevco fans really did cause chaos up there as has been reported, then I understand why the club would be reticent about having them back, but 2012 is five years ago and was a one-off incident which has never been repeated.
Surely the club isn’t now buying into this “Old Firm” garbage and tarring both sets of supporters with the same brush?
In fact, if we’re being fair here, Sevco fans, to the best of my knowledge, have been pretty well behaved in their visits to that ground. We know there have been high-profile incidents at Celtic Park and Hampden, but this would be the first time I’ve heard of trouble at Dens.
The general level of mayhem surrounding them right now, and the growing frustration in their stands, was clearly a contributory factor in these events … fans don’t fight amongst themselves unless there are dire issues eating away at them, after all.
Certainly, no-one can expect a potential flag-day to turn into something that provokes disorder; Celtic fans would want to go there for a party, not a punch up.
Dundee’s decision to cut Celtic’s allocation for that match is enormously disappointing taken in and of itself, especially as our next opportunity to win the title after that would be at Tynecastle, where only a paltry number of tickets is available.
It would be even more annoying and frustrating if our club and our fans were being punished for the hooligan behaviour of others.
I sincerely hope this isn’t the case, and would welcome clarification on the matter.