Freedom Of Information Request About Celtic’s Treble Party Reveals … Nothing At All.

On the day when an SNP councillor’s comments about our fans are doing the rounds, there was another bizarre story to consider when the news aggregators popped our name up for a second time in a political context; this time a Freedom of Information request.

Entitled “Correspondence with Celtic FC regarding their title and treble celebrations in Glasgow: FOI release”, the Scottish Government put this out this afternoon.

The request came from someone whose information is obviously not disclosed, and they were seeking to have a copy of the following released to the public record;

“All correspondence between Celtic FC and the Scottish Government between April 1 2023 and the date of this FOI regarding their title and treble celebrations in Glasgow. All briefing notes and internal correspondence regarding Celtic FC and their title and treble celebrations in Glasgow between April 1 2023 and the date of this FOI. All meetings held between officials from Celtic FC and officials from the Scottish Government between the same dates and minutes from them.”

They must have been hoping for a treasure trove of goodies, perhaps even the current or former First Minister breaking into song and doing The Fields Of Athenry in the middle of the meeting.

Sadly, for them, those hopes were in vain. The paltry amount of information released to the public basically amounts to a press release and a bunch of people confirming it.

The real sting for whoever made that request was the accompanying statement;

“I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. For points 1 and 3, we have not been able to identify any relevant documents.

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because there was no correspondence and no meetings between the Scottish Government and Celtic Football Club between the dates set out. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.”

In short, whoever you are, that was a waste of time, effort and money wasn’t it?

Whatever you thought you had on your hands, no such meetings or correspondence could be had because none took place. The Unseen Hand did not pull any official strings for this one, this would have been the council and Police Scotland and not the Scottish Government.

We did however, get some insight into the nutter brigade; both of Scotland’s far right rags, The Daily Mail and The Daily Express – two of the most moon howling publications which don’t actually form part of the Ibrox fan media nexus – both basically lobbied for comments from The First Minister explicitly and insisted upon it when the Scottish government itself released a stock statement.

In short, they wanted Humza Yousef to slag us on the record.

Here’s what he actually said in response.

“The vast majority of football supporters are well-behaved; however, I condemn the incidents of anti-social behaviour that took place Saturday afternoon by a small minority of Celtic fans. I fully support Police Scotland in taking appropriate and proportionate action in response to any act of anti-social behaviour.”

Simple stuff, and a perfect answer. Condemned a small minority and then moved on. But of course, that’s never enough for the lunatic fringe on the far-right of Scottish politics who hate our club and our support more than they ever have, and this gave them a chance to hate on the Scottish Government at the same time which they were never going to turn down.

Somebody, sure as Hell, was stirring the soup and getting the mainstream media to write garbage about that event. This site and others responded to the frankly ridiculous headlines which were generated in the aftermath about the cleansing department having to clean up rubbish.

Imagine that. Large gathering generates Stuff.

You would think it was the only time in the year that happened; in fact, it happens every July but the right-wing press isn’t banging the drum then, although I would be willing to bet that some of their staff are literally banging drums on the days in question.

I am a big fan of Freedom of Information, it’s good that we can find out what’s going on behind closed doors within government.

But I never cease to be amazed at some of the petty, small-minded stuff people assume is going on behind those doors … and this is a superb example of that, and I’m glad that whoever sunk time and effort and a few quid into submitting this request got so little back for their trouble. I found that amusing.