James Bisgrove is not a smart man, and in any country but this one I suspect he would already have been hunted in relation to his club’s stance over the ticketing situation with Celtic.
He has basically told the press a pack of lies, which they have swallowed, but he is now on a PR offensive. The media is pretending not to notice that his new comments contradict Ibrox’s previous statements.
Ibrox and its directors are incapable of acting with honesty and integrity here.
They have not done so since this manufactured crisis began in the first place, and I very much doubt that they are going to do so now. Last night, as the club struggled to comprehend the opening day reversal at Kilmarnock and as their fans unleashed fury on everyone from the players to the boardroom, Bisgrove decided to get himself in front of the media with a grubby PR stunt.
Yes, he says, they want tickets for Celtic Park, as if these were ever going to be denied to them. They are perfectly welcome to them, all 700 of them, for all the good it will do them.
The battle over this is at an end.
Celtic now has the moral high ground which people keep telling us to take. We have refused to take tickets for their ground because we believe their decision to limit our fans to 700 places us in harm’s way. That’s a massive statement and it should be enough. There is little doubt that we’re going to come out of this with a win.
Because our stance makes their position utterly untenable, and as per usual their own stupidity is what guarantees us an eventual settlement on our terms.
We ought to send them their 700 tickets in a gift box with a gold ribbon on the top of it, in thanks for their handing us the initiative. They have admitted that their fans are safe at Celtic Park and as long as that remains their public position, this is no longer a plague on both our houses.
This is a plague on theirs, created in theirs, and being spread by theirs. We’ve already gone over the numerous ways that this has done collateral damage to their club, with the way other sides are now restricting the number of tickets their fans get. They have created this situation, now we are all living with the consequences of it. But not for long.
Because every single news report about the game next month will say that no Celtic fans are in the ground and they will have to explain why; our club rejected them because our fans would not have been safe there. Sponsors, advertisers and the watching world will be horrified, especially as their club is basically saying they have no such concerns at Celtic Park.
Their club has consistently lied about its “inability” to offer us more because of season ticket sales. The season ticket I have for Celtic Park comes with every game on it except for the two against them; I have to buy those separately because there’s a chance that this issue is resolved one day, and that’s how easy resolving it would be; their club sells season tickets for that end of the ground with every game guaranteed except for those two.
Celtic is now fully entitled to lean on both the SPFL and the SFA over this matter, as they should have done in the beginning. Bisgrove’s disingenuous nonsense about the club’s security officials having met with ours to put new arrangements in place has been rejected utterly by our board, who don’t feel that a single assurance has been given which makes our fans safer.
The media should be all over this guy and the way he’s willing to use our fans and his own as pawns.
The bottom line here is that his club has created a dangerous situation and having had our fans experience the full horror of it we’ve made a decision to reject their phony offer and call them out on it.
A media which wasn’t so brazenly partisan or gutless would support us and put the safety of our supporters first.
Because that is now all this is about and in taking tickets for Celtic Park their club has admitted that they’ve already lied to the media and their own supporters over the reasons they turned down tickets for the same fixture last season.
As this site wrote at the time, they made the deliberate decision to disenfranchise their own fans because they weren’t willing to live with the PR horror show of having to explain why their ground was considered too dangerous for our supporters to visit.
They have now freely admitted that Celtic Park poses no such risks, and it never did.
So the PR horror show they wanted to avoid is on its way, and all their desperate spinning will not hide that fact and it will not change that fact.
And so finally there is clarity and Celtic’s stance is all the more credible and logical because of it. Indeed, we’re now holding all the cards. It is now up to others to recognise this for what it is. Ibrox wants to have this debate on their terms, but their position is basically a fraud. Celtic has already won this, and Bisgrove is too daft to recognise that.
The media will have to recognise it. Because the watching world will not so readily hand-wave our club’s legitimate concern for our fans.
This situation just became untenable, and so yes, they’ll get their tickets. On a silver platter with our warmest regards. Because the minute they take them the stink of their hypocrisy will be too much even for some in our media to stomach.
Celtic needs to get right in front of this now, and make sure that our case is being put across. The win is now within our grasp. We only need to reach out and take it.
I will only believe that when I see it. Fingers crossed
The gutless media will do what they usually do nothing. The same club lie is proof of that.
Their season tickets amount to 45000. The capacity is around 50k.
This fallacy that they are looking aftr their own is nonsense.
How can a club that went into liquidation run the sfa and the spfl , a complete joke as for tickets I would give them none , what if we do and they cause damage to our ground or any of our furnishings who will pay?
Never heard so much ” take the higher ground” ? in all my life !! They won’t give a feck what people think of them they never have . If Celtic back down and give them tickets it’s time to close the doors and never open them up again. We have let them walk all over us for years , it’s time to take them head on . Explain why we call it the Glasgow derby , correct any reporter or reports that call it otherwise. Starting to sound like your after Brennans puppy status !!!
Excellent I agree John never used that ” o f” term in my life as no Real Celts did either never our thing no chance hate it with a passion it’s only used to validate ” Der Hun and give it some relevance, never on my watch!
Are you serious. Give them the 700 tickets for Celtic park . Give them an advantage on the field of play for there players . Knowing they have backing behind them . We already know they are a tinpot outfit. We already know the media knows why this happened in the first place. Give them nothing until this is resolved .
Spot on! I never give them any ever! Tho I rather not even play any poison from Ibrox either ever!! It’s their game their hate we need none of it!! We are a massive global club they as their own Hugh Adam told them ” we are merely a west of Scotland club unlike Celtic who have global support and also the Irish disposal connection” FACTS!
When Celtic next visit Ibrox the ground will be half empty by half time anyway.
Celtic need to be careful here. Remember the ludicrous ” disabled and elderly fans attacked” statement. I suspect they will have a similar statement already written which will be issued if so much as a paper up gets launched in either direction enabling them to claim their fans are unsafe at Celtic park etc etc
Should be easy to have drones that can pick out any individual In that area
Hello James, hello fellow Bhoys and Ghirls in the green and white. Good to be able to have our say again! Nice to be back James.
I personally think there’s more to this PR stunt than meets the eye here.
I feel when it gets closer to the time they will turn around and announce that the tickets have not been taken up by the fans due to safety concerns, of he may come back and even go back on what he has just announced and say the club is rejecting them due to safety concerns. We need to remember who we are dealing with here. All is not as it seems.
I agree totally with what you said. This is the rangers we are talking about, tax dodging, backroom dealing no goods, so I believe they have a plan as well. There’s no way they will let us just have a say and that’s if a big if the media even put the facts out.
Frankly, if Ibrox cannot guarantee the safety of visitors (fans, commentators etc.) then the points/tie should be awarded to the opposition.
I’m with John S here on this. If Ibrox can publicly state the refusal to accommodate the attendance of TV staff – whoever they are – is on the grounds of their inability to ensure their safety then why should they be permitted to operate? And why should any club’s supporters be asked to attend this self proclaimed unsafe lion’s den? Inability to ensure ANYBODY’S health and safety ought to be grounds for removal of their licence to operate.
Any other country there be outrage but in ” Brigadoon” Scotland they can’t put the new ” rainnngurz” in the dock ohhh no no no the people who patrol the streets, the media ,the SFA are steeped in their same poison! What a place!! We should left it decades ago! Celtic simply have to make a statement citing why it’s unsafe all the facts are there, of which there are plenty!
Fabulous incite to this ongoing situation. The drivel that comes out of the mouths of those in ibrox is now starting its own implosion. They have been getting away with this for far too long.
I wish I could agree with you James but I think you’re applying our integrity and thinking it’s reciprocated by the Ibrox club and its media acolytes! I don’t believe that is the case, PR is not much of a priority over the way and I don’t think that is going to change anytime soon. The governing bodies are not going to back Celtic here, that is a given, if Celtic are counting on their support I fear they will be sadly disappointed. Ibrox will happily take their tickets for Celtic Park whether or not we have taken our Ibrox allocation. They will then sell this to the their trashy support as a victory over us i.e. their team has supporter backing whilst ours has none, not hard to see how easily this will be viewed as a win for them even by some in our own support! The Ibrox chairman will simply file this under another part of their ‘score settling’ and not care a jot what sponsors, advrrtisers et al think!
The media will have to recognise it. Really? So naive.
Great article – but I’m disappointed with seeing The Sevco’s Hun fans in that photo at our Paradise…
Other than that wee constructive criticism sentence – This is an awesome blog with pure fac content !
Give Bisgrove enough rope and he will hang himself.
He is all full of his own importance, we’ve heard more from him in the last fortnight than we we have heard from Michael Nicholson since his tenure started.
Action speaks louder than words.
I’m happy for things to continue this way, sooner or later Bisgrove will trip himself up big time due to him believing his own publicity.
Well said. Beautifully scripted.
Great article James. We know, and they know, where the truth lies when it comes to dishonorable behaviour re ticket allocation. If the mssm had a shred of decency about them the sevco lies would be blown out the water a long time ago. But as we all know, the compliant biased media are spineless when it comes to the new rangers.
I truly wish I had your belief my friend but I don’t think the media will ever side with us and as for the rangers the chances that they will ever admit they are in the wrong then you’ve probably got a better chance of winning the lottery. Just look at what happened in that 1 game, a bottle broke on our goals that could of injured our keeper, then a member of our staff had a head injury and then our fans where pelted all the way through and nothing was done and the media downplayed it. The rangers don’t want our fans in number for 1 reason and that’s the team get an extra bouncing in their steps with our fans singing in large numbers and pushing the team on, we have always been this way and the rangers will tey anything to get 3 points from us. I hope you’re right but im not holding my breath.