The Daily Record’s Hatchet Job On The Green Brigade Is Designed To Split Celtic.

Now that The Green Brigade and the club have come to an accommodation, and the club is satisfied with the assurances that it has been given, the niggling battle between the fan group and those running things at Celtic is over. For now. If there are major violations there will certainly be major repercussions, but at the moment everything is calm.

Which of course, the Daily Record does not intend to allow.

Which is why tonight they’ve basically attempted to re-open the battle by accusing the Green Brigade of mocking the board and of acts of defiance.

There were no such acts. It is rubbish.

The Green Brigade put up a banner thanking their fellow fan group The Bhoys for standing alongside them during the dispute. The “Football without fans” slogan was not intended as a dig at the director’s box, but an expression of solidarity between two groups who have been rivals.

To try and turn that into more is pathetic.

They sang political songs, sure. But only the same ones they’ve been singing for years without them and the club coming into conflict with another. They flew a Palestinian flag, which isn’t exactly new; they’ve had one of them in their section since it was opened.

Yes they put up a banner about the plight of Gaza; who in God’s name could possibly have been offended by the wording on that? It was nothing but factual, and the stats on it should sicken every right-thinking person.

The club would have known about that banner in advance and they would have given it the nod.

Even if they didn’t, so what?

It still doesn’t come near to violating the new regulations for that section.

The Record will have to do a lot better than this if they want to create problems where there are none.

Celtic’s primary concerns were to do with behaviour that had nothing do with the politics or the songs or the banners. Those things have happened as Celtic for as long as I’ve been alive and fans never got banned for them. Other issues were of greater concern and since tthose issues are resolved Celtic will rightly consider this matter closed.

This was never about politics.

As this blog has repeatedly written, this was never about the songs or the Palestinian flag.

The club had very specific complaints, very specific concerns and whilst The Green Brigade did their level best to deny that in public, behind the scenes they’ve obviously been much more willing to discuss what the real issues were and they’ve given assurances on them.

That settles it. The club is not trying to silence fans, it never has.

The Record is playing games, that’s all. It is having a go at the club and using The Green Brigade as the stick to beat them with, but that’s not going to wash at all.

As long as there is no lateral movement risking blockades to fire exits, as long as there’s no pyro, as long as our stewards and club officials are paid the proper respect for the hard work they do, as long tickets and seats are going to the people allowed in them and The Green Brigade isn’t using Celtic Park to broadcast extremist political views – and neither Irish Republicanism nor standing up for Gaza come even close to meeting that standard – the club will quite literally be happy to “let the people sing.”

I know that bothers people in our media.

Tough.

I know that gets up the noses of large parts of this country.

Hard lines.

The Record isn’t going to achieve anything with this except to make itself look foolish.

This is a complete non-story.