Celtic Is Entirely Correct To Stand Firm On The Green Brigade Situation.

Celtic sent a very clear message to The Green Brigade last night, and in particular in light of their latest attention-seeking “release”. And the message is this; if they want their money back, they can have it. But if they want to return to Celtic Park that is going to mean abiding by the rules of the house.

All of them. Not just the ones that suit them.

And Celtic is entirely right to do this. There is more at stake here than the atmosphere in the stadium, and I never cease to be amazed by the number of people who think that’s the only consideration. It is not, and nor should it be.

The door to a return is open, but just a crack.

That, frankly, is more than I ever expected. These guys should be on their knees thanking people that the door hasn’t been closed firmly in their face already because their conduct towards club staff and fellow fans, their complete refusal to toe the line and obey the rules and their arrogance towards those at the club whose responsibilities they clearly cannot even fathom defies belief.

I don’t know whether The Green Brigade is really this stupid, or whether, as some seem to believe, they have been co-opted by radical elements who couldn’t give a toss about Celtic and only want to promote their own extremist causes, and you know what? I really don’t care any longer.

The sooner this matter is resolved permanently, and I don’t care how that’s done, whether it’s with them making a return or being shown the door for good, the better for Celtic … but that doesn’t and shouldn’t mean that it needs settled at all costs.

The club cannot afford to back down. It either imposes its conditions and enforces them or we’ll have anarchy in the stands. It’s that simple. Perhaps there are people amongst our support who would not mind that. They are in a very small minority.

I do not want a renegade fan group having the run of Celtic Park, and I don’t believe many people in the support do. Their posturing doesn’t impress me one bit. Their tactic of ignoring the club’s stated reasons for the ban, and making themselves out as though they are being persecuted doesn’t wash for one second with those of us who know the facts, and those facts are in the public domain.

People say they don’t believe the club. Well, that’s up to them.

When it comes to backing the manager, I’ll trust them when they do it.

When it comes to running this club on merit instead of using it to inflate the egos of various families, I’ll believe it when I see it.

Today there’s a report that says we’re looking for buyers for Gustaf Lagerbeilke in the January window; I’ll be posting on that later, because if it’s true that’s shambolic and plainly ridiculous.

But those are issues of policy and the club and I are at odds on that … in this case the club cannot allow some of the conduct that has taken place and they are entirely right to act.

I keep on seeing this “suggestion” that the club should “sort this out.”

Some of these people sound like mainstream hacks trying to blame us for the Ibrox ticket standoff; we keep getting told we need to sort that out too, but in both of these cases Celtic is in the right, Celtic has set conditions for a return to what there was before and Celtic will not budge until those conditions are met, it’s that simple.

The Green Brigade knows what it has to do just as the Ibrox club knows what it has to do. The door is open for a settlement of these matters … but that’s up to others to step up to the mark. Celtic’s position is crystal clear and in neither case is that position unreasonable.

I read a handful of comments yesterday from people who were at the game the other night bemoaning the lack of an atmosphere and demanding that the club basically back down over this matter just to get singing back at Celtic Park.

And the question that automatically comes to mind here for me is “What the Hell were you doing all night?”

The issue I have with this is the utter abrogation of any responsibility here.

They want the club to allow anti-social behaviour to go unpunished because they personally can’t be bothered to start a song. They want The Green Brigade in the ground to do what they aren’t prepared to do themselves and they don’t care what the impact is on Celtic itself.

And ultimately, the people making this demand aren’t accountable. They don’t have to deal with the consequences, not in any literal sense.

They don’t have to comfort members of our staff who’ve felt threatened at times.

They don’t have to worry about whether the club’s liability insurance will be needed if someone is hurt by a firework. They don’t have to field calls from the media and others asking if the club has any comment about fans flying flags supporting the PFLP.

If a section of the stadium is shut because of what goes on in the stands these same people will be screaming at the club not to take that lying down.

The same people already want us to pick a fight with UEFA and why? Because they’ve swallowed, hook, line and sinker the blatant lie that we were fined for flying the Palestinian flag.

UEFA itself has denied this and the blogs have covered it, yet to those people our club has behaved badly and shown weakness.

Instead of what? Telling them to piss off and inviting a major sanction that does real harm? I mean, how many braincells do you need in your head to know that’s utter madness even on the Ibrox Moon Howler scale?

To me this is like an expended version of the pyro debate, since it is in part connected to the pyro debate. That’s also one characterised by people saying the club has to “work with these guys to find a solution.”

Unless the club can change the law of the land, what exactly do people think the solution to this is? Are Celtic actually being asked to – and expected to – assist people in breaking the law? How can anybody think that’s a credible point of view?

The accusation that this is about flags – specifically that it’s about Palestine – doesn’t stand up for even one second of scrutiny. Just for the record, by the way, we’re not the only club whose directors are a bit leery of having this issue in their stadium.

No club on this island would want any part of this debate in their stands, and for a good reason; this is not one of those black and white issues, there is nuance here, there are issues peripheral to this which cannot easily be seperated from it, and the Cliff Notes “understanding” of this … it’s just not good enough.

Football grounds are not the place for a debate like this. Hell, if some of the smartest people on the planet can’t agree a way forward on it, or easily navigate it, some armchair revolutionary has no chance.

For God’s sake, The Green Brigade wants to fight with St Pauli over this because their fans have expressed some sensitivity to the plight of the Jewish people. To criticise them for that, to hold that against them, is both tone deaf and moronic, and emblematic of how extreme their position has become.

Bear in mind that not once have they expressed the slightest regret for that banner which upset many people connected to Celtic including one of our own players, and led so many, many of us to believe they endorsed that atrocity.

But even that tiny number in our support who would be perfectly prepared to do that should at least draw the line at the physical intimidation of our own club staff, because every one of us would be beyond pissed off if we found out that visiting supporters had treated Celtic stewards like that, and anyone who would condemn that and excuse this isn’t playing for the right team.

Celtic will get its way here because it has to.

When this game kicks off today there will be 50,000 of our fans inside the ground, and so any talk at all that the board has compromised the team by banning 200 or so … it’s absurd, absolutely absurd.

If the tens of thousands of us who are there can’t muster up the enthusiasm to get behind this team properly, then maybe we’re the problem, not the men and women at the club who had to take this difficult, but correct, decision and now have no option but to see it through.