Two things happened yesterday which didn’t surprise me one bit.
The first was that the authorities at Hampden released a new set of regulations governing what fans can bring to the game on Sunday. The second was that a Celtic supporter’s organisation promptly told its social media followers to defy the stadium regulations.
This morning, at least one Celtic site has wholeheartedly agreed with them.
So this is what cup semi-final day has become to some people; a showdown with The Man.
Is this what we’re turning into now?
People who can’t wait to get waded into a fight?
The way the system works is that if you want to do a tifo you make a proposal and supply information on it and those who run the stadium get to decide if you can do it. Hampden looked at the proposal and said no. It’s that simple.
This did not have to provoke an argument.
Most normal people shrug their shoulders and move on.
But a section of our support wants to turn this into a showdown. They then told fans to bring as many flags as they could, and again Hampden’s bosses have imposed restrictions.
Even this isn’t enough to make people just attend the football and leave it at that.
Now ordinary supporters are being urged to break stadium regulations and some will.
It’s as if those regulations are optional. It’s as if the rules themselves are optional. It’s as if the rules are arbitrary and stupid and meaningless and exist just to inconvenience people.
But stadium regulations exist for a reason.
Most football grounds across Europe have, at one time or another, imposed limits on flags. Celtic have done it.
So there’s nothing exceptional about this.
Flags can be used for all manner of purposes, and people in our support have used them to smuggle pyrotechnics and what-not into stadiums. And flags, to be frank, are a pain in the arse.
I don’t know about you, but I attend games to actually watch the football, not the back of a big bit of canvas.
One of the reasons for the restrictions is just that simple; when hundreds of people are using them thousands aren’t seeing the pitch.
The simple fact of it is, Celtic’s tolerance of certain activities is on the wane and Hampden’s is non-existent.
We’re guests in their house this weekend and some folk want to piss in the sink and up the back of the curtains.
And sadly, like I said, I’m not even surprised by that.
It’s an element of our support that does a lot of good but let’s themselves down in so many other ways We talk about the scum at Ipox we need to get rid of an element in our support as well You wonder sometimes if they are even interested in the football
Be interesting to see if the same rules apply to the union jacks flown by our opponents and defaced with club names and sectarian bile.
Get as many tricolours into hampden as possible. F@ck the game. We can watch it on the telly later. HH
We are falling into their trap, being anti Scottish with Irish flags & no Scottish which turns the rest of UK against us, you might not care about that but others do.
If you want to make a political statement join a political party.
Its the only way to make a difference, not getting pissed and give my football club a bad name.
I am getting increasingly concerned about the path some of our so called supporters are taking.
There seems to be growing number within our support who tend to think that attending one of our games is to be used for confrontation with either our board or governing authorities.
By all means we have the right to protest grievances with whatever party we disagree with at the time.
I want to attend a football match and support our team,also want to be able to see the game without obstruction or thin I’m attending a call to arms rally HH.
I was at hampden a couple of year’s ago to watch the final and never hardly saw any of the game due to the massive tri colour being up for the whole/majority of the game.Im all for flying flags, tifos etc and think the green brigade are great.I just think they should be flown at the start,half time etc so we can actually watch the match. I said after that game I’d never go back to hampden again. Just my opinion.
So the SFA are banning flags in Hampden Park because
they may impair people’s view.
Will flags be banned sine die ?
Does that ban include the Ukranian flag if I want to show
my solidarity?
I hope the irony in your article was your attempt at a
Chris Morris sketch.
I like, like the Catalonians only go to Celtic to see the football!!!
Please don’t insult my intelligence!
Hunnish behaviour is NOT welcome in the Celtic support, unfortunately this falls into that category.
FFS can we not just watch the fitba, this is roping all sorts of unnecessary nonsense, let’s try and just support Celtic on the field WITHOUT commotion.
Do the GB realise that their thoughts are exactly that, ‘their’ thoughts
And it doesn’t make it compulsory to comply with ‘their’ thoughts,
I think you are bang out of order on this. Flags are a big part of who we are remember it was illegal to fly the tricolour in NI up until a few decades ago. An it’s just another way of the S,F,A an Scottish authorities doing their best to keep the celtic faithful down.
This is not Northern Ireland, despite the best efforts of some of the more stupid members of our support, and a larger number of theirs; nor is it a war under the tricolour, or any other flag. IT IS A GAME OF FOOTBALL.
Another very worthy and excellent article James, with which I entirely agree. Like you I go to watch the football.
I believe that the GB have developed their own sense of entitlement. This should not be further encouraged as eventually it will get more and more out of hand. It is time to show respect to the the rest of the Celtic support rather than attempt to tell them what they can and have to do. The Celtic support is multilingual, multicultural, multi-political, a mix of many religions and none; something which they seem to forget or ignore.
Fans should always be aware that they represent the club and should do this with enthusiasm, but within the bounds of respect and tolerance (where it is due). There are rules and they should be followed by ALL. Just because one particular club and their fans don’t follow the rules does not mean any of us have to be like them. We are different from them and we should clearly show this., as the majority of our fans do.
Well said, James.
Unfortunately some of the commenters on here have IQs below room temperature.
I get what your saying James, of course. In an IDEAL WORLD its obviously the correct approach. We all know the filth on some of their banners and flags and the absolute bile and hate filled bigotry that comes from their supporters as a collective, not just a few idiots as press media and rankers report/lie repeatedly about.
The first question is what is done about and to their rule breakers for their abuse, individually and the collective abuse from every part of their ground?
The second is what can we do when the answer to the first question is repeatedly next to zero?
The third is what’s the point to these rules if they’re not actioned by the governing bodies? Rules should apply to all and we know they don’t. Right Boris?
Trouble is the apathy eventually increases the hate and resolve turns to action. We will be very fortunate if this apathy and this repeated lack of care by authorities results in a weekend of extreme violence not just naughty flags. Personally I hope we can get through it without the troubles but if not, not. Be nice to see some green saltires flying too, after all we are a Scottish club.
Of course I meant to write, does not result in a weekend of extreme violence
Her opinions are not what this is about
Her opinions are not what this is about.
Whilst I strongly disagree with a tricolour demonstration, I hope the SFA are not discriminating on the use of a particular flag when all other flags are permitted.
Flags are one thing, if people want to bring them, fair enough(so long as they’re used responsibly and not interfering with other supporters view of the match, as per the articles point).
The Hampden beaks, and more importantly, their security staff, should be more concerned with glass bottles (and other potential projectiles) and possible pitch invasions after that fiasco at Ibrox!
I was gonna suggest bringing back the seating areas again.That said at the St Johnstone semi as soon as the match started not a single supporter remained in there seats. Also if Hampden want to impose these rules then they better give there security staff a good talking to cause the security checks at the semi above were non-existent.
It appears that us normal supporters will need to toe the GB line as it seems they ARE the club and any constructive suggestions like in your previous blogs will simply be ignored James. I wonder how many of the potential “flag waivers” were around in the 80’s when random after match violence was a common occurrence.
I agree with the majority of the comments on this thread. The GB were once totally about supporting Celtic but increasingly over the last few years have become more and more political with the songs and banners. Most fans just want to go to the game to watch the match, not attend a political rally. The go to war comments are cringeworthy imo and will probably come back to haunt us.
How you can turn fans bringing a bit of colour to the game round and into having a pop at Celtic supporters baffles me
I take it “reading and comprehension” weren’t your strongest topice before you left school aged twelve.