Today there are one or two people who should know better leaping off the highest springboard and into the deepest part of the hysteria pool because Hamza Youssef has issued a tweet warning fans on both sides of the Glasgow divide not to test the police at the weekend.
Amidst the ranting and raving about how he didn’t do this last week, there’s a sense that this is somehow attacking Celtic fans. A lot of folk should be ashamed for promoting such irresponsible rubbish.
What happened last weekend is done.
If Scottish football is to avoid resembling a lawless frontier town where the bandits rule the roost we should all be more concerned about what happens a week from now, and a lot of us are.
I am not interested in raking over the coals from last weekend.
I’ve done all that.
Ibrox is left stained and disgraced by the actions of its yob supporters.
So I am glad to see Celtic take this seriously by putting up the fences again.
I am glad to hear that Police Scotland have vowed that they will not allow groups to gather or congregate.
Yes, this is what they should have done last week but that’s by the by.
This situation calls for enforcement and that’s what it’s going to get. I applaud it.
It does not mean that I’ve forgotten all the questions I asked over the last few days. It does not mean that I am not furious at Police Scotland and the Government for allowing last weekend’s scenes to take place. There are serious questions that need to be answered in relation to those events and Ibrox’s lunatic statement cannot be allowed to fudge this issue.
The SFA should be opening a case against the club for bringing the game into disrepute too.
There’s no way that they should be allowed to get away with the role they played in creating those shocking, law breaking scenes.
We’ll see if Maxwell has a yard of guts.
I think talk of cancelling the match is idiotic, and those who run the country should show some responsibility in the way they portray football.
The image of our game and our nation is damaged by such irresponsible chatter … this is a simple matter of getting the policing right and there’s nothing to worry about.
Still, it is good to see them get serious.
The principle concern for everyone here is public safety first.
If that basic objective is met and crowds are kept off the streets most of us will be reasonably pleased with that. For now. Because as the deranged communique out of Ibrox makes clear, their fans expect to be celebrating a few other things in the last few weeks of the campaign … which is an open declaration to the police and the politicians to expect more carnage and destruction.
There was no excuse for the lack of effective policing last weekend.
If they are getting their act together for the coming game there will be no excuses for any future lack of effective policing as we head towards the final day of this horrific season.
Once again, I’d ask my fellow Celtic fans to respect the law and put the reputation of your club first.
If the other lot are hell bent on disgracing themselves yet again let them and the police battle it out.
Leave them to scramble about in their own filth.
Do not make any effort to make their shame ours.
Do not let their disgrace become our disgrace.
We know we have enemies who would love nothing more.
The Justice Minister is not one of them. He’s a man finally waking up to the need to do his damned job. All he’s done today is announce that the law will be upheld and the public order maintained.
That’s all we want from him.
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