Sevco Sites And Sympathisers Get “The Violins” Out As Celtic Vows To Play On.

What a couple of days it has been for the purveyors of lies and conspiracy theories, those at Ibrox and those Sevco sympathisers who circle them like flies around a steaming pile of shit. Even with a six point lead the wailing is reaching torture chamber proportions.

It is a tedious task to go through their assorted moans; what they all boil down to is that they think we’ve conspired to get out from under an injury crisis. It’s an amazing accusation when you consider this from our point of view.

The media won’t, so let’s for a moment try that.

Celtic had three basic problems with this. The first is that the government has acted illogically. The second is that there are sporting integrity questions which arise from playing games around the current schedule. Third is that the club, like all clubs, faces not only a financial penalty from playing games in empty grounds but that intrinsically it just feels wrong.

Start from the first issue. We know the government has acted illogically. Pubs are still open, and the bulk of fans who couldn’t attend the games would have been filling them or private homes, where the potential for spreading this thing is vastly greater than in outdoor arenas. Not that there is no risk in outdoor arenas, but it’s certainly greatly less.

There’s a larger piece to be done on the statements from government officials yesterday about how the 500 fan limit is an arbitrary number plucked out of thin air; this is a quite disgraceful admission from someone in responsibility, an open admission that they “did not follow science” and just made it up as it went along.

It swings a sledgehammer at the credibility of the entire support structure on which public confidence is based.

I was staggered to read that yesterday.

Jason Leitch should lose his job for publicly undermining the government’s guidance in such a blatant way.

He should also be commended for stating the fact so bluntly and demonstrating the complete lack of thought and coherence behind the decision.

But one act does not cancel out the other.

So when you look at it like that, Celtic is entirely right to be concerned with the decision making and the way it will have a serious impact on the club.

The thing is, nobody is really arguing with Celtic’s concerns here, they are shared by every club in the land, including the one at Ibrox, which knows as well as we do that this is a decision made more for PR reasons than for any potential impact on the health and well-being of the public.

The second issue Celtic had with it was sporting integrity.

I really don’t need to go over the ways in which it disadvantages clubs who have home games coming up against sides who are either bitter rivals or involved in dog-fights over European places or the relegation zone.

Which is to say nothing of the vast fortune waiting for whoever wins the league.

There is not a single coherent argument which can be mustered against the idea that this violates the very principles of sporting integrity.

Not one.

The pro-Sevco media is bleating about “the Dundee vote” to end the league two years ago as if it was the only one cast.

That situation has been explained and explained and explained over and over again, and still desperate people cling to their discredited conspiracy theory and willingly distort the facts.

The clubs as a whole voted to end the season. It was judged on games already played.

That, whatever way they want to look at it, is fair and just.

There was no sporting integrity issue to be had.

There would have been had certain people who wanted to just declare the season null and void had gotten their way. Clubs would have gone to the wall had the season continued.

What happened that year happened for the long-term good of the sport.

Was it ideal? God no, none of this is ideal.

But it was certainly not some great injustice any more than this is a great injustice. Celtic acted in concert with the other clubs, this was not some great single club conspiracy for our own benefit, no matter what these loonies think.

The league was brought to a close last time because clubs could not see a realistic way of completing the campaign. This time we’ve brought forward an already scheduled break for one week, to see if the three-week window buys us a change in circumstances.

This is not an outrageous position. On the very day that this was announced we got good news on this variants ability to make people seriously ill. It’s much less, even with the vaccine escape properties it has, than Delta. New drugs are coming into the NHS, and should be largely available by February.

The time we’ve bought might well swing it.

Which is why our third argument – that clubs should not have to suffer these financial penalties unless it’s necessary- is such a compelling one. Why put clubs through the impact of this, even for two or three games, if there is a possible way out of it?

Why not give fans every opportunity to support their clubs and get value for the money they have already sunk in? That is a perfectly logical and valid position to take.

It is, in fact, less harsh than the stance their own club took on the issue of playing games in front of no fans during the last enforced shutdown of football, and this before a single vaccine or treatment was available.

The decision yesterday disadvantaged nobody. It harmed nobody.

What it did do was deprive Sevco of a chance to roll into Parkhead and Pittodrie with a full strength squad, in front of no home fans and because they quite fancied that every other club in the league was expected to put aside their own, very real concerns.

Now, as Ange puts it, “the violins are out” because their club might have to play that game in February minus some players. Well guess what? So do we.

But Ange says we’ll just get on with it.

As we will get on with it if this three week break changes nothing, if it doesn’t allow fans in grounds at all, if the Scottish Government sticks to its preposterous policy of making it up as they go along.

And I am glad that Ange has pointed this out.

We’ll not be seeking any special dispensation for our players either current or incoming. We will not moan and wail or cry.

The big man himself expressed our intention to face the games as they came, whether they were coming up hard on us or not, with injuries if that’s what it took, with or without fans.

For anyone to claim we have manufactured this is loony-land. Hidden Hills beckons for all who even try to muster that pitiful argument with all the dishonesty it carries.

They talk of sporting integrity and the good of the game … but what they mean is the precise opposite of those things. Self interest is all that drives them, as it has driven every decision and statement they’ve made and stance they’ve taken since this crisis began. In that, they have put themselves on the outside of opinion across the rest of the game.

And that is something that will haunt them long after this season and this crisis is over.

If they want to get the violins out, I suggest they do it for that, for their own lack of credibility, for their own isolation.