Today, Nicola Sturgeon continued to posture on behalf of her government with a continued threat to call off the weekend’s game at Celtic Park. This was devoid of credibility when she made it; there’s certainly no way that it can be taken seriously now.
There was never any prospect of this game being called off, and everyone involved knew it.
Our club had go through the charade of holding and attending meetings to settle an issue that had already been determined.
I understand why we did it.
It’s harder to understand why the Scottish Government continues to persist with it though.
Some say it’s a measure designed to convince fans that there will be no repeat of the scenes from the weekend before last. But guess what? As long as the police do their jobs there won’t be and that would have been true without all this foot stomping.
I can’t help but think some of this is to cover up the national embarrassment of some of those scenes, especially the police having selfies and giving crowds they should have been dispersing an escort.
They made a decision not to uphold the law. I can see why the Scottish Government would want to change the narrative, and move the discussion on to something else.
But threats to the national sport are not constructive or helpful, and especially now when the next week will be dominated by them.
That most of the English media thinks there’s a threat to this game is damaging to the game here and the image of the country as a whole; what are we, some lawless hellhole perched on the brink of anarchy?
It’s ridiculous. Whose interests does that serve?
What kind of picture does it paint of modern Scotland?
This is why Celtic fans plainly loathed the Old Firm tag even before it was made redundant with the liquidation of Rangers. We want no part in this tribal lunacy, and we’ve made it clear.
Two institutions keep it going; the media and the club at Ibrox.
It’s time for the government to confirm what we all know; that this game is going ahead and that Police Scotland will do the job they are supposed to.
It’s time to stop making Scotland look backward.
The game was never in danger, so surely it’s time to stop messing about and let everyone get on with preparing for instead of pretending to wait?
[snack-countdown title=”Celtic’s Countdown To Champions League Disaster” date=”06/20/2021″ time=”00:00:00″ colour=”#000″ textColour=”#FFF”]