Last night, The Daily Record published a piece on how a “ring of steel” surrounded Sevco visitors last night as their fans arrived at the ground.
The article was almost wholly negative about the Spartak fans, detailing their grisly catalogue of offences on the road.
Nowhere in the article were Chelsea fans blamed, or supporters of other clubs.
When someone outside of Ibrox does it, then that’s the fault of the club in question.
There are no alibis for the guilty. Blame was apportioned where it belonged.
Now, before anyone starts whingeing I am neither denying that the Russian boyos behave badly on their travels nor pretending that the fixture wasn’t a high risk one. It certainly was, but it also takes two to tango and if Spartak had been visiting Celtic Park I do not believe there would have been as much negativity surrounding the game.
A high risk fixture is one where the threat of violence is equally true of one side as the other.
And indeed, both sets of fans exchanged the traditional greetings of throwing objects at one another across the police lines.
Both sets of fans.
Yet the article was focussed only on the sins of one group of them, and it wasn’t the home crowd, as I’m sure you could have guessed.
Hilariously, though, the article went even further and publicised the moaning of Sevco fans who said there were some unsavoury incidents on Paisley Road which the authorities failed to get under control; frankly I wonder why they are so surprised.
This is not a new development, the only difference being that it’s usually their own supporters who are the cause of the trouble.
The invective showered on the Spartak fans for the incidents described has turned Sevco’s baying horde into victims.
The ticket allocation for the away supporters was cut because Sevco admitted to UEFA that their stewarding was not up to the task of separating the rivals if things kicked off … in other words, they cut the allocation for the Spartak fans safety.
That fact was curiously absent from The Record’s report.
That newspaper would do better if it focussed on the elements in the home support who have consistently shamed this country abroad. Instead, the paper published an entire article about the fans of a visiting club. It shows they can research this stuff when they want.
Except when the story is literally staring them in the face.
In the meantime, Celtic’s travelling away support, the best in Europe by miles, was drawing more praise from all over the continent.
We are recognised for it.
Except here at home.
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