Alex Rae Has Slandered Celtic And Expressed Contempt For The Safety Of Our Fans.

Alex Rae is in the papers today, because it’s been a wee while since he was in the papers.

And the reason he’s there is that he wants to push the tired old line that the Celtic Park game this weekend will not be the same match without away fans.

We’ll see if he’s still singing that tune by the time we roll into Ibrox. One would think not.

On the same day he does so, an Ibrox fan site has published an article full of the most dishonest spin it has been my misfortune to read about the reasons why there will be no away fans tomorrow or at Celtic’s visit to their ground. In an article that tries to blame our club for the situation are lurid claims that it is The Green Brigade who are the issue.

The writer of that piece is either a brazen lair or he is being fed, and is swallowing, pure bullshit by his own club.

Because whilst he claims some knowledge of this situation I know for a fact that my own information is accurate and grossly contradicts what he has written today. I’ll talk about the situation facing Celtic in another article, but the claim that it is safety issues at Parkhead which are the cause of this standoff is a complete fabrication.

He opens that piece by suggesting that Celtic’s media friends – as well as the bloggers – are engaged in spreading disinformation about this. This is a clear example of the incredible levels of paranoia which are fostered on their sites.

The media actually is engaged in the spreading of disinformation here, but it’s got a pro-Ibrox slant on it, because their coverage of this matter has tried to paint it as a joint decision when it absolutely isn’t one.

Celtic turned down tickets to Ibrox because of safety concerns.

Their club turned down tickets to Celtic Park because they knew that to have that on the record would be devastating, and so they told the media that they were not accepting tickets from Parkhead out of similar concerns; in short, they spun a dishonest narrative to the media and their own fans and based on the piece I read today their fans are now amplifying that.

Which brings us to Alex Rae who has said that he personally isn’t buying that any of this is about the well-being of fans. “The whole argument about safety doesn’t really stack up for me,” this absolute cretin told Grosvenor Sport.

Well, to me that is one of the most irresponsible things that anyone in the media has said throughout this. He condemns the attitude of the clubs as “unhealthy” and longs for the return of the old atmosphere.

I mean, how stupid can you get?

Because Celtic fans have, for many years, understood full well that it’s the atmosphere around these games which is, and has always been, manifestly unhealthy both in terms of how the clubs are perceived but also in terms of the way this game is marketed to the rest of the world; we are the hosts of the most hate-filled derby on the planet.

Who in their right mind would ever want to be associated with that?

Not Celtic, which is why we don’t want the Old Firm tag used in part because it presents us an equal partner in the festival of hatred, which we recognise we’re well shot of.

As far as I’m concerned, Rae has slandered our club and his comments, which minimise the risks to our fans, are reprehensible. He doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about any more than the Ibrox blogger does.

Both of them are pretending not to know what happened to our fans when we visited that ground earlier in the season.

They should be ashamed of themselves.