The Media Bears A Lot Of The Responsibility In This Celtic-Ibrox Ticketing Row.

The news has barely sunk in yet about how no away fans will be at Celtic Park or Ibrox but the media is indulging in its usual games. Sky Sports Scotland lies about incidents at our ground. Football Scotland reports on how both clubs are acting like children. McManus shrieks about how it is ruining the spectacle. Other voices, talking the same nonsense, will follow.

What none of these people want to accept is that this crisis was caused by Ibrox, and everything that has happened since has been the inevitable consequences of their initial spiteful act. We would not be in this position but for that, and whilst Celtic has tried everything to get us back to where we were, Ibrox has escalated this matter at every turn.

Back at the start of this, when discussions were taking place between the Ibrox fan groups and their board, and their board told Celtic that this was being requested, almost as if they wanted to hold it over us, our club informed them that if they did any such thing that we would mirror that action. Their own allocation would be immediately slashed.

They did it anyway, and we simply followed through on our stated policy.

The media freaked out and blamed both clubs. But it’s like blaming both parties in a fight although one attacked the other and the one who got attacked merely defended himself. It is not just dishonest; it is blatantly biased.

The media just didn’t want to criticise Ibrox.

Ibrox then sold season tickets for their end. Celtic sold the season tickets for the end which would have gone to the Ibrox club but with one important caveat. I know that because I sit in that end and to this day I still have to pay for that seat separately, in games against them, as though I didn’t have a season book at all.

The terms and conditions make it perfectly clear that the ticket isn’t valid for those games, with the inference being that they would give back those seats to their supporters if this matter was resolved.

In the meantime, I have to purchase them.

There is no reason why they couldn’t sell season tickets for our end of their ground with the same basic compromise.

To claim that Celtic is in any way responsible for this mess is simply a lie, and it is a lie that the media has continued to push all the way through this. And this is one of the reasons why we cannot find a solution to it.

Had the media been upfront about this from the off and placed the blame squarely where it belongs even this shameless Ibrox board might have changed course.

Yet the media was still putting part of the blame on Celtic when, last season, the Ibrox club cancelled our allocation for Ibrox at the last minute and we responded by telling them that their own fans would not be welcome at Celtic Park for the corresponding fixture.

That was one of the most egregious examples of their club trying to capitalise on the Covid crisis.

It was an utterly shameful and exploitative act using a national emergency as a means of sticking our club and I cannot put it more bluntly than to say that Celtic were outraged by the cynicism of it.

But again, the media decided to act as if this was simply two clubs locked together in a spiteful pissing contest. It was nothing of the kind. We were on the end of a screwing.

All we did was what we have said from the start that we would do; we responded in kind.

This was not any kind of knee jerk reaction.

They knew this beforehand and did it anyway.

The media has consistently tried to portray this as a two sided affair. There is only one side to this, one party to this, the whole thing happened because of the actions of one club and it continues to escalate because of the actions of one club.

I have some knowledge of the atrocious excuses and shoddy, half-hearted proposals which have characterised the Ibrox’s club’s responses to Celtic’s very real, very legitimate concerns about the safety and well-being of our fans. To call the Ibrox attitude dismissive would be to give them more credit than they are due. They simply do not care at all.

Ibrox websites are tonight writing about how the clubs are “looking for a solution” to these problems, which goes to show two things; how gullible they are and how completely the media has sold this garbage about this being a two-way street.

But in truth, their club is not in the least bit interested in resolving this matter, and their CEO publicly said so, in January last year.

“The challenge with actually changing that at the moment is both teams will have sold season tickets in those areas. How do you change that back? Those supporters have renewal rights. You have a challenge there in changing that,” he said, which as I’ve already pointed out is blatantly untrue. This would require a change to just one element of the season ticket; it is not valid for games against Celtic. That could be accomplished easily. “It’s not something I see changing in the short term, I certainly don’t see it changing in the short term.”

He went on to use a familiar phrase.

“The vast majority (of our fans) don’t (want it to change). They’re comfortable with it. I don’t know about the other side of the city, but from our supporters’ perspective, they’re quite comfortable with it.”

What he means is that he and his directors do not care what our fans think of it, and that’s the way they’ve acted throughout this. Hell they don’t even care if our fans are safe when we visit their stadium.

That’s a bigger concern for Celtic.

Celtic, behind the scenes, know that it’s not going to change in the medium term either.

The utter dishonesty of what Robertson said is just part of the PR campaign to spin this as something that’s out of their hands, which of course allows halfwits the opportunity to urge Celtic to “be the bigger club” and basically disenfranchise our own fans to nobody’s benefit.

As one of the guys who would be done over in that scenario, I am glad the club refuses to budge.

But the media needs to start taking this seriously.

Our club has pulled the plug on those tickets because our fans are in danger at that stadium, and we are in danger precisely because of the conditions which Ibrox’s directors have created and which we predicted, and warned about, from day one of this.

The utter irresponsibility of the press in this issue is hard to credit.