So last night, the club finally moved to ban The Green Brigade from all home games “until further notice.”
I have my doubts that we’re ever going to see them in their current form again. That’s the move I’ve been predicting for a while, since the pyro debate erupted but particularly in the last few weeks as the rhetoric has been ramped up and up.
The club was never going to stand for some of what these guys have done.
It couldn’t.
Aside from not wanting to ignore blatant hooliganism, no organisation like Celtic can permit, within its walls, a small group which grows ever more extreme and which believes that it does not have to obey the rules of the house, especially when that extends to the breaking of the law.
Confrontation is unhealthy. Nobody sane enjoys it.
Institutions tolerate much more than they should at times from unruly elements and that sometimes has terrible consequences.
The Republican Party should have had a reckoning with the Trumpers long before those people acquired the strength they have now. The moderate wing of the Tory Party is learning the same lesson as their own lunatic fringe tightens its grip.
The Labour Party still has two factions permanently at odds with one another and one has been on top recently and now the other is … the left lacked the backbone (or had too much moral fibre, you decide) to rid itself of its enemies. The right has no such qualms. Ask Jeremy Corbyn.
In 64 BC, whilst running for the Roman Consulship, Marcus Tulius Cicero used a speech in the Senate to launch an astonishing attack on two of his electoral rivals, Gaius Antonius Hybrida and Lucius Sergius Catilina, in which he accused them of a variety of crimes and misdemeanours, and in which he made specific reference to Catilinia’s character and in particular to his recent trial and acquittal on charges of corruption for his time as a governor in Africa.
Catilina was one of the populares.
They espoused policies which appeared to favour the citizens and their rights over those of the optimates, the land-owning rulers, from which the Senate had drawn much of its strength. In fact, the leaders of the populares faction were financed by Marcus Lucinius Crassus, the richest man in Rome, and many of the policies they wanted to enact, including their notorious agrarian land reform bill, which was supposed to grant land to poor and homeless families, were actually designed to concentrate power in ever fewer hands. Their own.
In supporting the candidacy of anyone the populares thought could command support amongst the electorate, they were willing to tolerate virtually anything, and thus they became associated with one of the greatest attempted crimes in history; the Catiline Conspiracy.
That day, in the Senate house, Cicero turned on his rivals.
Protesting his “innocence” as proclaimed by a court which everyone in Rome knew had been bought, Catilina provoked the masterful Cicero to some of his most scornful invective. Addressing the rest of the Senate first, he rejected utterly the very idea that his rival should wear the verdict as some badge of honour, or some shield against the facts as that trial laid them out.
“He disgraced himself by every sort of lewdness and profligacy; he dyed his hands in impious murder, he plundered the allies, he violated the laws and the courts of justice.”
Then, turning to Catilina himself, Cicero delivered one of the greatest passages of his long career as a public speaker.
“I imagine that Roman knights must have been liars; that the documentary evidence of a most honourable city was false; that Quintus Metellus Pius told lies; that Africa told lies. I suppose that those judges who decided that you were innocent saw something or other. O wretched man, not to see that you were not acquitted by that decision, but only reserved for some more severe tribunal, some more fearful punishment!”
I thought of that speech prior to the Atletico Madrid game, when Celtic released their statement announcing the Green Brigade’s away match ticket ban.
There were those who thought the slap on the wrist signified a victory for the fan group, and that the events of that night would signify a further and greater one, but Celtic faced a difficult decision in relation to that game and they wanted the focus on the football.
For a club eschewing politics, they played it beautifully. They allowed that game to go on as planned … and only when it was out of the way did they move.
Further breaches of the regulations that night – none of them to do with Palestine flags – and at Easter Road, simply made easier a decision that was in effect made already.
Celtic was always going to move.
That “more severe tribunal” was already in the offing. That the club didn’t enact it prior to the Madrid game was only because The Green Brigade would have used the situation in Palestine to claim that their voices had been silenced. Celtic wanted to deny them that.
No-one should have missed the significance of the away ticket ban.
Far too many did.
But I said this at the time;
“The relationship between The Green Brigade and the club is effectively at an end. There is no going back to the way things were. There’s no trust, there’s no respect, there’s not even the tiniest semblance of goodwill any longer. It’s open hostility. And that can only end one way. There’s no fixing what’s been broken here and if you believe the club’s version of events – and I know that 95% of it is true and assume the other 5% is as well based on that – then you must know how this has to go. And I suspect that the vast, vast majority of our fans will support that outcome.”
Cicero was right about Catilina.
There were already rumours that he had conspired to murder the sitting Consuls, and was weaving all sorts of mischief.
Punishment for the corruption in Africa would probably have resulted in his banishment from Rome and his retirement as a private citizen somewhere far from the city he sought to rule. But in buying that verdict and placing himself on a collision course with the state he had, as Cicero pointed out, saved himself for that “more fearful punishment” which he would later earn.
I warned The Green Brigade on the night the club announced the away ban that their presence at the Madrid game should not be taken as meaning that the club was in an egalitarian mood … rather, I said, they should consider that the club might be giving them the rope to hang themselves with.
I’ll cover that later on today; the issue of the PFLP flag in particular.
Cicero won his election for the Consulship.
The other elected Consul for that year was Hybrida, who Cicero would make his peace with in order to thwart Catilina’s far more serious attempt at taking power, the Catiline Conspiracy, which amongst other things would have involved the murder of Cicero himself and an attack on the city by Catilina’s armed insurrectionists.
The plot came to light when several other senators visited Cicero and handed him unsigned letters inviting them to join the plot.
At their head was Crassus; too late, he realised he had helped create a monster who threatened the stability of the whole system.
A week or so later, Cicero was informed of a meeting that had taken place at Catilina’s home, in which the deadly plans had been outlined to the other plotters, including plans to attack him at his residence.
Early the following morning, a mob attempted to storm Cicero’s house; his allies rallied and they were able to see the mob off.
That afternoon, the Senate called a meeting to discuss Catilina’s treason. To the astonishment of the entire gathering, Catilina took his place in his usual seat in spite of all of Rome being familiar with the details of what he had planned to do.
The historical record shows that Cicero turned to him in weary disgust.
“In the name of heaven, Catilina, how long do you propose to exploit our patience? Do you really suppose that your lunatic activities are going to escape our retaliation for evermore? Are there to be no limits to this audacious, uncontrollable swaggering? Look at the garrison of our Roman nation which guards the Palatine by night, look at the patrols ranging the city, the whole population gripped by terror, the entire body of loyal citizens massing at one single spot! Look at this meeting of our Senate behind strongly fortified defences, see the expressions on the countenances of every one of these men who are here! Have none of these sights made the smallest impact on your heart? You must be well aware that your plot has been detected. Now that every single person in this place knows all about your conspiracy, you cannot fail to realize it is doomed. Do you suppose there is a single individual here who has not got the very fullest information about what you were doing last night and the night before, where you went, the men you summoned, the plans you concocted?”
The translation of the next part varies; “O tempora, o mores!” It is widely regarded to mean “Oh what times and their morals!” But in his opening, in his exasperated fury, I hear the anger of a great many of our own fans.
“The Senate understands these things, the Consul sees them; yet this man still lives. Indeed, he even comes into the Senate, he takes part in public debate, he notes and marks out with his eyes each one of us for slaughter … Catilina, I bid you; pursue the course you have begun. Quit Rome at last and soon; the city gates are open; depart at once: your command has too long been awaiting with anxiety the arrival of its general. Take with you all your associates; or, at least, take as many as you can. Free the city from the infection of their presence … you cannot possibly remain in our society any longer. I will not bear it; I will not endure it; I will not allow it.”
Celtic faces an insurrection of its own, and that has been made clear.
These guys are open about wishing for a confrontation with Police Scotland, UEFA, the Celtic board and whomever else is up for the fight. Celtic has told them, “Enough is enough, take your show on the road and if you want to mount your challenge then the public space outside the stadium is yours to use as you wish … but we will not permit any more of this from inside our house.”
Up until now we have tolerated flares and smoke bombs.
These things are illegal.
These things present a safety risk to our fans and the working people inside the stadiums where they have let them off.
Up until now Celtic has tolerated threats and intimidation against our own supporters, our own staff and the staff at other grounds.
It has tolerated Pig Watch.
It has tolerated unacceptable songs.
It has tolerated UEFA fines.
And through all of it, although much of this is known, these people turn up at Celtic Park every week, and like Catilina protest their innocence and even point to the good they do as though one justified the other.
Food bank campaigns and agrarian land reforms …
I mean, “look how public spirited we are!”
Yes, they create a spectacle. Noise. Drama.
But we tolerate, for those things, far too much. They are no longer worth the immense grief and they never were.
The Green Brigade act only as the organisers of those charitable drives.
Those drives need not vanish without them; the need for them certainly won’t. The donations still come from the ordinary Celtic fans, who give tremendously to those less fortunate and we always have and we always will and so others will step forward to fill that gap, just as 12,000 fans on the waiting list will hope for a letter through the door offering them a seat in the stadium.
One singing section will be retired. Others will appear.
Celtic is forever evolving. Celtic is not one thing.
The letters Celtic released yesterday are depressing.
None of us wants to think that our club has fans like this amongst their number, fans who attack stewards and threaten people and behave like the most degenerate neds.
It is shameful.
Our support had a magnificent reputation, and this does not represent our best selves.
So, so far from it.
There is so much detail as to the many offences of The Green Brigade that the club very obviously has the right to do as it has done … and the responsibility to do it as well.
Because otherwise we’re only waiting for the next outrage, and it will come, as surely as the next scandalous confrontation between Ibrox and the rest of the game will be provoked by that club because it’s in their DNA to behave wantonly.
And because so much has been tolerated up until now that these guys think they’re bigger than the club itself is.
Cicero’s speech to the Senate in front of Catilina that day, in which he flayed his one-time opponent, had the desired effect up to a point.
Catilina did leave the city that afternoon, and as Cicero had urged, he joined up with his rebel band and continued to plot whilst the Senate fought and bickered over other matters, and eventually the crisis came.
By then, Cicero had proof that several sitting senators were involved in the plot; Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, one of the elected praetors, had attempted to engage a Gallic tribe to attack the city and cause mayhem which Catilina would take advantage of.
He and his co-conspirators were arrested and when Cicero demanded that the Senate finally bring matters to a head, with their executions for treason, the final attempt to thwart him was made by Julius Caesar who suggested that the death penalty be disregarded in favour of life imprisonment.
He further suggested that a trial be held where the people would decide the fates of the plotters … a dangerous move as Cicero was aware.
Caeser’s proposal met with great support in the Senate house, much as suggestions that the club sit down with The Green Brigade and attempt to resolve this short of the ultimate sanction would win the support of a lot of our fans.
Cicero was unable to turn the tide in spite of his brilliant oratory; it was Cato the Younger, soon to be the scourge of Caeser in the Senate in all that was to follow, who made the searing, startling, speech which assured the outcome.
Scorning the idea that because the crimes were “unproven” without a trial, he reminded the Senate that the only reason many of its members still lived is that the greater crime had been prevented and that further proof might have meant their deaths; so too might delay.
“Other crimes you may punish after they have been committed; but as to this, unless you prevent its commission, you will, when it has once taken effect, have nought but a vain appeal to justice. When the city is taken, no power is left to the vanquished.”
Turning to Caesar, he brutally dismantled his argument in favour of clemency, and some of what he said rings out in the suggestion that The Green Brigade are young men in need of a good talking to and setting on the right path.
“Certain citizens, of the highest rank, have conspired to ruin their country; they are engaging the Gauls, the bitterest foes of the Roman name, to join in a war against us; the leader of the enemy is ready to make a descent upon us; and you hesitate, even in such circumstances, with how to treat armed incendiaries arrested within your walls?”
Mockingly, he threw Caesar’s suggestion back at him.
“I advise you to have mercy upon them; they are young men who have been led astray by ambition; send them away, even with arms in their hands …”
He turned to his Senate brethren again.
“But such mercy, and such clemency, if they turn those arms against you, will end in misery to yourselves. The case is, assuredly, dangerous, but (Ceasar) says do not fear it; yes, you fear it greatly, but you hesitate how to act, through weakness and want of spirit, waiting one for another, and trusting to the immortal gods, who have so often preserved your country in the greatest dangers. But the protection of the gods is not obtained by vows and effeminate supplications; it is by vigilance, activity, and prudent measures, that general welfare is secured.”
His peroration ended with a reminder that although they had not committed capital offences it was only because their worst acts had been prevented and the Senate should not hold back from imposing the ultimate punishment. It sealed the vote.
“Whereas by the criminal designs of wicked citizens the republic has been subjected to serious danger; and whereas, by testimony and confession, the accused stand convicted of planning massacre, arson and other foul atrocities against their fellow citizens: that, having admitted their criminal intention … they should be put to death as if they had been caught in the actual commission of capital offences, in accordance with ancient custom.”
The Green Brigade charge sheet is long enough, and detailed enough, that the club needs no further justification to act as it has already endeavoured to do and so what good would further talks do now, except to forgive the sort of behaviour any of us would be banned from Celtic indefinitely for.
Those who want to join them in their martyrdom, the club will sell their tickets just as readily as the 200 which have just become available.
To fight Celtic when Celtic is so obviously in the right would be a pointless exercise when all most folk want to do is follow their club and will only end in their own bans and restrictions, and for what?
To defend the rights of fans to behave like thugs.
It would be senseless to go down that road; nevertheless, I fully expect some people to choose that path. Their own fate is as certain as Catilina’s was on that day during the election campaign when Cicero warned him that the road he was on led to only one place, and it wasn’t the Consul’s chair.
Lentulus, Cethegus, Statilius, Gabinius, and Caeparius, the senators who were charged of aiding Catilina, were executed without formal trial, on the orders of Cicero and the Senate. Catilina himself continued to grow his army until legions commanded by Marcus Petreius met his forces in battle and he was killed, fulfilling Cicero’s prophecy.
In the end, it’s not going to matter what side of this people are on; the deed is done, as Caesar himself was famously to say as his own rebel army crossed the Rubicon and into civil war, “alia iacta est” – the die is cast.
The Green Brigade can only return if they accept Celtic’s dominion over them and recognise the club’s right to impose its rules as it sees fit … and even then, I think most inside Celtic accept we’d only be developing the next crisis.
This is an ugly episode in our club’s recent history, and the best thing the rest of us can do is to accept that the club has the prerogative to act as it has, and to recognise that it has exhausted every avenue prior to making this call.
Celtic has not done this recklessly or out of spite, but only after long, painstaking deliberation and with much regret.
On the night he ordered the executions of the Catiline conspirators, Cicero faced a gathered throng of Roman citizens who were scared by the rumours of revolution and wanted to know the fates of the men who had been arrested.
Cicero, like many Romans, was a superstitious man and he believed that it was bad luck to use the words “dead” or “died” … and so instead he addressed the crowd thus; “They have lived.” Everyone got the message.
I trust that everyone got Celtic’s yesterday.
It was exactly what I thought they would do. As the Senate learned, almost to its cost, there’s no choice like having all your other options stripped away one by one by one.
where did they get the tickets for easter road if celtic had put a ban on them getting any ?. i spoke to a fan who was at the game and he told me the way the police organised the entry to the ground was a disgrace.
Too many Italian players in your piece today James -but spot on with your central point GB have become self appointed guardians of Celtic-ordinary fans were giving to charity long before GB existed and will continue to do so- witness what the Celtic Foundation has achieved
As Christy Moore put in North and South of the river ”there are some old songs not worth singing”
And we dont need crude, rude or sectarian chants to promote who we are
Here’s a suggestion which might appeal to the MAJORITY of Celtic supporters,
and which would provide the club with a fresh start?
OK then, let the Board disband the GB… but with one caveat.
The Board itself has to be cleared out as well, [aka clean the Augean stable?]
Maybe the GB shouldn’t have behaved in certain ways?
But, what is certain is that the Board has wholly mismanaged the situation:
the Board is paid handsomely to NOT let this type of scenario develop.
Fighting – and publicly – with your paying customers is never a good look. 🙁
With this ban, the Board is admitting it is not in control – and not fit for purpose.
Clear out Section 111 – and clear out the Board.
I enjoy reading your articles although I don’t always agree with your views. However, your persistent use of analogies, is in my opinion, becoming tiresome.
What a shame.
Shameful response.
Lol shameful? I suggest you go and lie down, you are becoming hysterical.
Totally agree, we read Celtic blogs to read about Celtic whether we agree with the writer or not, not to read paragraph after paragraph of copied and pasted extracts from history books which have very little significance to current events. Personally I skip past them until I see a relevant word again but would prefer not to. If I want to learn about Roman or any other history then I can read up about it myself.
I like to offer more than just the standard fare. I make no apology for it.
As much as I agree that Celtic have to do something about safety concerns or aggressive behaviour I would have thought these things would Ve dealt with by police at the time and attributed the individual responsible and not a whole group. I don’t think this will play out well for Celtic as they have been providing a poor product on the pitch for years and happily had gb to divert attention.
The green brigade have embarrassed my club for too long and action had to be taken as they were getting out of control and our board who I have no time for had no other option but to ban them. We all enjoyed the GB in their early days so what happened since then is they got too much power and thought they were elite and I would ask them to come back and support THE TEAM ONLY and we can be a happy family again please.
Well done the Celtic board. It was always going to happen as the GB completely ignored the messages coming from the Club. They always think that they are the “dogs bollocks”and that they are bigger than the Club itself. Whoever is behind them is obviously lacking in brain cells if they really expected the club to just watch the deteriorating behaviour of this group and continue to pay out fines because of that behaviour. I presume that most of that behaviour was influenced by either an excess of alcohol and or drugs, as they continually refused to acknowledge the danger their pyrotechnics were causing to other spectators. Good riddance, learn respect for others, keep politics out of the stadium and accept that the club are bigger than you. You may then be allowed to return, although I won’t hold my breath that you will change your loutish behaviour.
Not sure that I totally agree on this one but I guess mostly. The most important trigger for me is the fear that EUFA would in some greater way sanction us, close us partly or fully down for a period of time. So and mainly for that reason, I believe, we jumped first to show our intent to shut down the rebels within. Thus EUFA will see this action and therefore our club with a more positive outlook as a club proactively taking action against the mob. Though there are so many other clubs football associations and fans here and in Europe that have serious issues too.
Whilst I do on the whole welcome this announcement, the outcome or final resolution is not clear. Is this a permanent action or a temporary suspension?
Is this a probationary period from which an almost total GB submission to Celtic’s terms and conditions with regard to anti social behaviour is the only route back?
The Celtic board, where it has the power, decided to enact it on the Green Brigade, their unconditional surrender is necessary if their survival in Paradise is to become possible. No more pyros, no more harassment or intimidation and am I to assume no more political posturings. That final condition is where I struggle to a degree.
I think it’s fair to say, and I believe have the right to say, that some will and do argue that there’s no place for politics in football or in this case at our club. From my perspective I think that’s cobblers. There’s little or no part of life that isn’t determined by politics, even the simple things in life that we take for granted here like freedom of speech particularly where you mean no harm to others, only good, such as support for charities. That too is a result of politics.
EUFA took a political stance re Ukraine, a stance that feeds into the GB’s psychi with regards to Palestine and the oppression of a people. I’m meaning and talking about innocent civilians here, not Hamas, and in the same way the innocent civilians of Israel, not the Israeli state.
Subtle differences come into play with even that though. I mean who votes these party political people into power? How innocent or divorced from their decisions does that then make you?
Equally, there are those innocents that don’t vote and simply say they just want to be left alone to get on with their lives peacefully. How innocent does that make them? When by not voting it could be argued that they allow the Netanyahu’s of this world into power.
The Celtic board have had enough with the GB clearly but not enough it would appear as they quietly sit back on issues that impact on our football club and fans such as bigotry, how the SFA and EUFA address that and our homegrown referee decision making. I haven’t even mentioned the behaviour of a certain club across the city, that of their so-called fans, SFA and EUFA responses to them. HH
The issue is not about politics/views and peoples rights to express them – its where they do it that’s the issue! When you go to the cinema, the theatre, the circus with the kids etc etc I assume your reason for going is to watch a film, watch a show, laugh at the clowns etc etc and that’s it – when people go to a football match they go to watch the match and that’s it. A football stadium is the same as the theatre, the same as the cinema, the same as the big top etc etc it’s for people to watch (and hopefully enjoy) the show in front of them, its not to listen to/watch whatever causes/atrocities the GB want to highlight even if what they’re demonstrating about is usually perfectly valid – the place for that is OUTSIDE the stadium!
Best news I’ve heard coming out of Celtic for a while , I believe the board are correct in what they have done , hopefully there’s no going back , great piece of writing again James , always well informed, ( somehow I don’t think it will end there ) but it’s a step in the right direction.
Another great article James.
Pity the situation has come to this but the Celtic Board had no alternative.
The Green Brigade, how pretentious is that, they have brought it on themselves.
Safety for ALL inside Celtic Park is the Board’s Institutional, Fiscal and Moral responsibility.
There was always only going to be one survivor in this battle of wits and it was self evident that it was going to be the Club.
The ‘House Rules’ underpin the ‘Club open to All’ ethos by providing a safe, egalitarian, and inclusive atmosphere for ALL.
Just as your Mum & Dad set the rules, if you don’t like them, then there’s the door.
You didn’t have to go back to ancient Rome to find an example of leadership silencing it’s critics. The Night of the Long Knives is much more recent. Desmond and Lawwell are right wing cancerous parasites. But yeah take the side of authority.
I’m allowing this comment because it’s so very obviously absurd.
For Christ sake. Get a grip of yourself.
You are comparing the celtic board to Nazis while defending the GB, who has yet to utter a single empathetic word in relation to the 1400 innocent jewish men, women and children that Hamas attacked?
Oh aye Lawell and Desmond “are right wing cancerous parasites”. Who just happen to have led celtic to record profits and one of the most successful periods in the clubs history. Sit down you clown.
So how long have you been in the Green Brigade btw and which internet site did you buy your faux degrees in Business Management, Middle Eastern Geopolitical Politics and play-doh socialism?
Take your extremism and ridiculous statements and do one.
Nicely done.
Oh dear, disgruntled right enough. Bit rude too.
Any kind of socialist, Play-Doh or not, would recognise Desmond and Lawwell for the rightists they are.
But “record profits” though. Brother Walfrid’s dream realised!
It was always going to come to a head at some point,no business is going to sit on its hands forever and no customer either,it makes me think what would the little Canadian bunnet!!! I think we all know the answer to that one,
I follow you most days, James, and agree with much of what you say. At last the Celtic Board has acted against the so-called Green Brigade. They have become an embarrassment, only they don’t realize it. However, I agree with Phil, your analogies are way too long winded, skipped most of your article today, though great stuff on GB
Haha as if your right my friend!
I love Cicero. I recently read one of the really good histories on him – Sallut’s treatsie on the Cateline Conspiracy, and his speeches mesmerised me. I saw a lot of parralels with where we are now.
I enjoy weaving political and historical analogy into my stuff, it helps clarify my thinking and creates a nice context.
But you have the right to skip as you see fit my man.
Excellent article. Club did right thing by binning them
Love a bit of Roman analogy. We could remake this story as a sword and sandal epic allegory….
I put it in simpler terms for those who didn’t benefit from any study of the classics:
Imagine for a minute that Celtic Park is a pub, not a football ground.
The pub is viable, but a bit dull. It used to be a lot livelier than it is now.
Suddenly, a new group of punters start attending. They sing and dance a lot. Every time they are in, it’s a big party. The atmosphere is improved and for a while, everything is great.
Then the regulars, who’ve drank there for years, begin to notice that this new group are dominating everything in the pub. Only they can play on the pool table. Only they can put records on the jukebox. Only their opinions count. But the atmosphere is still pretty good, so they let it slide. Mostly.
Then the new group start imposing their political views on everyone in the pub. A lot of the regulars broadly agreed with these politics to begin with, but after a while it became a bit extreme. Some of the regulars had been burned before with this sort of thing, knew that posturing and flag-waving was ultimately futile and didn’t want any part of it. Worse still, it started attracting a lot of unwanted attention – from plod to the regulars, and the licensing authorities to the landlord. Neither cared for this, they preferred to be low-key and didn’t have a burning need for confrontation.
Then the regulars began to notice that the new group were demanding preferential treatment from the landlord and staff, and if it wasn’t forthcoming, they just elbowed the regulars out the way, and got rather confrontational with it too. Some of the regulars took umbrage at this, but the new group didn’t care. They were unrepentant revolutionaries after all.
Before long, the pub began to get a dodgy reputation it hadn’t suffered from before. Everyone who drank in the place was considered to be a troublemaker and not welcome in other pubs, regardless of whether they were one of the new group or one of the more genial old regulars.
And when the landlord, who is just trying to run a business providing hospitality and entertainment to his customers rather than to overthrow the established order, decides – perhaps rather late in the day – that the new group are a bunch of pantomime revolutionaries and way more bother than they are worth and bars the lot of them.
The new group howl and wail that they ARE the pub and that it will never survive without them, that it will be nothing without them.
But they are totally wrong. Because the pub was there before them, and it will be there long after everyone has forgotten all about them.
And on that note, anyone up for a lunchtime ‘livener’????
A stupendous analogy 🙂 Bravo!
Brilliant post, Captain.
Hail Hail.
I would like to see all Celtic supporters concentrating on only Celtic when at the game. Celtic flags and Celtic songs only. No politics, nationalism or religion, these can be practiced without any problems elsewhere by those who have a need for this. The GB have bit the hand that fed them and unless they can change (which they probably can’t), there should be no way back for them. Re-seat the North Curve and sell the seats to those on the waiting list.
“When you commit the crime, then be prepared to do the time”
That’s how I’m viewing the current situation between the GB and the board.
The GB are certainly guilty of there actions against our football club, regardless of the good work they have carried out in the name of Celtic football club imo.
The good work carried out by the GB only bought themselves time, yet there actions and getting more extreme, only reduced there time allowed in acceptable tolerance levels.
That time has finally run out thankfully.
The board could play the waiting game, and the GB were quite happy to fall into the trap set.
See this Palestine flag protest, didn’t generate enough support to keep the GB relevant as such imo, so far easier for the club to take action upon them, especially with there crimes against the club mounting by the match currently.
Not a huge fan of the board either, but actually support them on the decision taken, especially with so little choices available to them either.
The GB like to think they can act like a bunch of rebels, who they seem to idolise, and also believe it’s acceptable to do so within the Celtic name?
Well it’s not, especially as only really a shower of gobshites, who try to keep themselves relevant in picking battles, all without any chance of winning either?
There cause might get a bit of support in the short term, but won’t in the longer term, that I remain very confident about.
As Celtic supporters, we have had to defend our club against many forms of attack within our history.
The GB have done nothing more of late, than trying to cause a split within the Celtic support, the biggest crime they could ever commit against our club, and couldn’t be allowed to continue in doing so either.
Glad they are banned, and wouldn’t be to welcoming of the likes within our club either.
“Celtic is more than a football club”
Shame the gobshites within in GB forget about that, in the manner they conduct themselves within the Celtic name?
Won’t be missed, and still believe the atmosphere will actually improve without them also imo.
There will be genuine fans amongst them who enjoy creating the atmosphere we all love so much, but how do we separate the good from the bad? Some of them will wish they never got a place in the curve and these will be the one’s I will feel for. Ps great article.
James. Whilst I don’t disagree with your detailing of facts re GB actions, I will always register my concerns over the power imbalance in this debate – the board may or may not have played a long game here but let’s not be so naive as to dismiss political (and financial) elements in the board’s decisions here
This is a slippery slope – whether you agree with the board or not – and may well be used against other individual fans or groups in future
I dont want to misquote Pastor Neimoller but his words are a cautionary note not to be dismissed
Another oath, James. Deary, dearly me. Calm down a wee bit, get yourself out and about and see the world where there are real worries. This storm in an egg cup is no more worthy of debate than the results of a tug-of-war in a nursery.