The other day, one of the tabloid websites did a piece on how Celtic’s season ticket reimbursement policy has provoked some anger amongst the support. If that’s true it’s a very modest, minor, number of fans who are up in arms over it.
Where there was no discussion in the media was over the policy that Sevco is following in relation to the same issue.
I wrote the other day that they were giving their fans a modest £25 voucher which could only be spent on club merchandise … it is not, in any way, an answer to the issue.
Sevco did, in fact, change that policy recently.
But the emotional blackmail which they levelled at their supporters over it is so callous and grotesque that they should be ashamed. Robertson has as good as accused those fans who ask for a refund of harming the club, and their SLO has been retweeting plenty of people who claim asking for one is “an embarrassment.”
Their supporters “leaders” are asking fans not to apply.
The forums and message boards are full of hatred directed at the handful who have publicly said they will.
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And all of this comes as the club asks them to pay not only for this year’s season tickets – with no reimbursement guarantee in them, unlike with nearly every other club in the land – but also to put money behind this myGers scheme, which many of their supporter’s view as nothing more than financial blackmail.
I actually have a great deal of sympathy for their fans right now.
Celtic introduced the refund scheme and have never tried to suggest that fans not take it up.
We are open about understanding that this is a uniquely difficult time for people; some of those still lucky enough to have jobs to do are working on reduced salaries. Others have been furloughed. Some have no jobs to go to now.
Uncertainty hangs in the air. People are under real pressure out there.
Celtic gets this and has acted accordingly.
At Sevco the emphasis is on “you can have the money but be aware that you are damaging the club.”
It is callous. It is shameful.
Our club’s decision to offer fans refunds on last season, and to put the refund pledge in this season’s tickets, is principled and egalitarian. To be frank, the way we’ve handled this crisis at every level has been pretty exemplary.
That it took Sevco so long to get this policy up and running is telling.
That they never offered a ticket guarantee for last season, and won’t do it for the next campaign, is equally grim. But at a time like this, to tell supporters that they should endure hardship so a group of loser footballers gets to roll around in the clover … too much even by their standards.
That so many of their fans are willing to demonise other supporters is also pretty shameful … but that’s a club without shame, a club with no morals at all.
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