Ibrox Confirms The Appalling Fixture Will Take Place Whilst Celtic Remains Silent.

With Celtic utterly silent at the time of writing this, Ibrox has gone first and confirmed that the so-called “international friendly” will take place in Australia. As you might expect, they are talking up the financial benefits of the game.

They are even calling it an “Old Firm fixture.”

So Ange’s proud home-coming has now been utterly commandeered for the purposes of promoting an idea that our fans have been dead-set against for years.

So congratulations, Celtic, on bringing the full-on shit-show to bear.

You have used the manager in a disgraceful and cynical fashion and cast a dark cloud over what should have been a great occasion for him. You have allowed one of his proudest moments to become a show-case for a hate-fest.

In doing so you have not only insulted him but you have insulted the collective Celtic family.

You, our own board of directors. You should be ashamed.

Hide as you will.

Or release the details now that Ibrox has done it already.

It doesn’t matter. The damage is done and the scandal of it is profound.

The announcement yesterday was a piece of gutless perfidy.

With-holding the names bore all the hallmarks of a naughty child being caught doing something they knew was wrong.

Perhaps the worst thing about this is that you are not in the least bit unaware that this will go down like a lead weight.

You just don’t give a shit but were still too gutless to front up.

This stinks, all of it, from the cynical exploitation of a good man to the shoddy way you’ve gone about doing it.

Over there they are boasting about “sizeable financial benefits.”

Well, if that’s what this comes down to – the shameless grubbing after money – then we’ll just have to see what we can do on this end.

The match is eight months away.

That’s a long time for Celtic fans to have the opportunity to pull back from their spending on club merchandise.

It’s a long time for Celtic fans to eschew any commercial “offers” that the club makes.

If enough of us are sufficiently moved to do it, I am betting we could cost the club at least what it is making out of this despicable exercise, rendering the whole reason for it moot.

And that, you know, is exactly what Celtic fans should now vow to do.

Which is to say nothing for any “promotion” of the game itself, which as far as I’m concerned might as well involve two totally different clubs as I won’t watch it, won’t endorse it and won’t publicise it in the final weeks except to urge everyone to do something else that day.

Protest in front of the stadium maybe. That’s where I want to be.

The club has known for years that this was not on, that fans would not tolerate it, that it was the one commercial move which you were not to make under any circumstances.

Not only have you utterly ignored that but you’ve done so in a way that will cast a dark cloud over the homecoming of our good and decent manager and that, as much as the contempt for the fans themselves, is what stings the most here and crosses the line in the worst way.

This is giving Ange Postecoglou a using.

Shame on every single one of you for that.