So, my brother-in-law and I heard back from Celtic today on the situation with the Feyenoord fans who were prominent last night in certain parts of the ground.
Now, whilst I appreciate their swift response and I understand the point that the club is making in this regard, I feel a little flash of … distaste at the suggestion that it was partly down to our own supporters that this came about.
The security operation was caused by large numbers of away fans who somehow obtained tickets. Celtic should, in my view, be trying to find out how that happened and whether fans who had their own tickets have sold them to rival supporters; that’s a pretty big issue as I’m sure you’ll agree.
But that’s kind of beside the point.
According to Celtic, these fans obtained entry wearing no club colours and only when inside did they congregate in certain areas; which means that this was well-thought out and planned in advance. Celtic was then put in an invidious position.
Do they wade in there with the heavy hand and risk major trouble, or do they police it discreetly and see that it all goes off without a hitch? I understand the argument for doing it the way they did, but when Celtic fans are being ordered out of the seats they’ve paid for I can’t help but think that it’s a surrender to mob mentality at the expense of our fans.
If Ibrox fans did that or we did that at their ground, how do you think that would go?
The police should have dealt with that instead of allowing it.
That sets a dangerous precedent, and one nobody will be particuarly happy with.
The general point, that Celtic fans didn’t buy enough tickets to prevent this – making it, in fact, our own fault that this happened – is one I find annoying. Tell that to the guys who did buy their tickets and still didn’t get to watch the game from their assigned vantage point.
A lot of fans who took the decision not to go last night probably did so because the club was asking for big money for those tickets when it had done nothing to strengthen the starting eleven in preparation for this tournament.
If the ground was less than full last night, who do we hold responsible for that?
The fans, who were given exactly no incentive to turn up, to watch a game which meant nothing in terms of the competition we were in and where there wasn’t even the possibility of a third place in the group, or the people who hamstrung the manager by signing ten project players, just one of whom is good enough to be a regular starter in the squad, against the clearly expressed wishes of the man in charge of the team?
This club talks about Champions League aspirations and asks fans to pay Champions League prices but won’t even show Pot 3 level ambition, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people were done paying for that.
This season and those to come, unless the club shows a commitment to this competition which stands up to scrutiny, unless it starts purchasing footballers based on the needs of the manager instead of wild punts to prop up the strategy, I can see why a lot of folks might choose to spend guaranteed money on domestic football only.
I don’t know how many seats were available last night, but there was a spell not that long ago when we were shutting top tiers in the stands for European games.
The fans know when they are being made mugs of, and the fans are entitled to vote with their feet, or at least to be selective about what exactly it is that they end up paying for.
It doesn’t help, of course, when some of those who did attend were told to shift by away fans who were allowed to get away with that. That’s a great selling point isn’t it?
“Your tickets are guaranteed … unless a large group who aren’t allocated to your section happen to want to sit in that area, then we’ll move you.”
If the board continues to act as it does, this will not be the last time large numbers of tickets are available for what should be a Celtic Park showpiece evening and whilst I fully appreciate that the club answered this query quickly and that their answer seems reasonable and their position is one I can see most people agreeing with, it was a bad situation and it had the potential to end very badly.
Security at our games needs to be better than that. UEFA has its eyes on Celtic Park, as we’re all well aware, and all the ingredients for a very ugly incident were there last night. We’ve dodged a bullet here.