“We were eyeball to eyeball,” Dean Rusk said to McGeorge Bundy at the crucial moment of the Cuban Missile Crisis, “and I think the other guy just blinked.” It was Wednesday, 24 October 1962 and the first Soviet ships had approached the American naval vessels enforcing Kennedy’s blockade of Cuba, and as the world held its breath some of them turned back.
Some of them. Not all of them. Khrushchev didn’t withdraw the missiles that day, and a handful of boats kept on sailing towards port, but history remembers it as a turning point, as the moment the Soviet leader sent a message to his American counterpart which basically boiled down to “The world is depending on us not to go nuts here. Let’s not do this, eah?”
And maybe that’s what diplomacy really is; both sides realising the futility of burning everything down just to get your point across.
Whenever I think about mutually assured destruction, I think about a cartoon I saw once of two guys sitting in the wreckage of a collapsed building, in a shattered city, with a starless sky behind them and fires raging in the distance, and one is saying to the other “So, do you think we’ve won?”
At one point over the last week or so, after it became clear that Celtic intended to go hard today and head into the Rodgers hearing armed to the teeth, someone at the SFA must have wanted to reach out and say to us, “Maybe we shouldn’t do this. Is there some way we can all get out of it having saved face, and where everybody is sort of happy with the outcome?”
Today’s verdict, where Rodgers gets a one match ban with another suspended, is the sort of fudge that they might have come up with. A little bit like Kennedy agreed to remove an obsolete missile system from Turkey in exchange for the Soviets taking their nukes out of Cuba; a way for everyone to get a little of what they wanted and for each side to go back to their people and say “We saved the world and it didn’t even cost us that much.”
But let’s be honest; everybody who knows anything about it at all knows who “won” the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy famously told his staff and his congressional allies that “it was just as much a victory for them as it was for us” but he knew different. He’d shown strength and grit and he’d played his cards well. He knew that Khrushchev, who had thought him a bit of a wimp, had backed away and settled for an outcome that left him looking foolish and wrongfooted.
And we know who won this today, and that was us. Half a win is more than they ever intended to give us. They scheduled the hearing to ban Rodgers from Ibrox, I don’t doubt that for even one second, and I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that Crawford Allan was told to pack up his pencils in the interim. We got tough. We went on the offensive in that way we do, behind the scenes, but this time one Hell of a lot more convincingly than usual, and when you look at the events of the last few days you can actually see that they knew how they were going to end this when you see Don Robertson given the game against us this weekend.
That makes perfect sense now, when you look at it in context; it was their cack-handed and clumsy way of trying to look tough whilst behind the scenes they’d already decided on their cowardly strategy of backing away from the fight that they had provoked.
The minute Rodgers doubled down on his criticism the following week and basically told the SFA that “we’ll see you at the hearing” they developed a severe case of the two-bob-bits and started looking for a way to get out of this without looking ridiculous.
The SFA is a spinless and inept bunch. As I said last night, a plain text reading of the rules and we were bang to rights here.
They had no intention of letting Rodgers off lightly in this case, and they had fully intended to keep him in the stand until he had skelves in his backside, but then we wheeled out the heavy artillery, and when we told them who was representing us that was our equivalent of Kennedy going on TV and making his “full retaliatory response against the Soviet Union” speech. When we made sure the press knew about that yesterday that was our nod and wink to the wise, our way of saying, “We’ve got this lot by the short ones and they know it.”
That proves that we knew the outcome in advance as well, because we wouldn’t have put that info out there if we weren’t pretty sure that we’d get a favourable settlement. It’s likely that this was all done away from the hearing, the way these things sometimes are.
I can attest to that myself having once lost my job for a less than civilised response to something a workmate said to me at a staff meeting. That ended up at an appeal hearing where all the groundwork for my reinstatement was laid well beforehand, thanks to some allies and friends who I had on the council. It’s how this stuff works sometimes.
A little word or two in the background, you make sure that everyone knows the stakes and you do a little side-deal and it all goes away, nice and neat. Celtic got what they wanted, which was Rodgers spared for the big game, and the SFA got to look like they’d stuck by their guns. Just for fun, though, Celtic threw in a “we are disappointed we didn’t force a complete capitulation” for good measure in their statement confirming the outcome.
We have marked their card, and everyone watching and who views this through the right lens knows that we have. We threatened to really brew them up some trouble if they went ahead and sent Rodgers to the stand for too many matches whilst the Ibrox club got away with murder. That they are the opponent this outcome was supposed to benefit would have been lost on nobody at all. Celtic may even have threatened to take all their concerns public.
It doesn’t matter how it’s come about. We got right in their faces, but we allowed them to slink away from the fight they’d started rather than subject them to the full humiliation of a good kicking. Why did we do that? Well, because this is a close title race and we need Rodgers in the dugout and not the stand and had this become the full scale rammy it’s not unlikely that he’d have been there until somebody was putting coloured ribbons on the trophy.
So mutually assured destruction, then.
That would have been the threat. Eyeball to eyeball, and the other guy blinked. They blinked because as an organisation they are yellow from the tips of the toes to the roots of their hair. They’ve gotten so used to us playing nice and being the “bigger man” in these affairs that they thought they could get away with murder here … and they were wrong, just as Nikita Khrushchev was wrong when, having bullied Kennedy during their first meeting, in Vienna, in June of 1961, he thought he was facing a wimp who would let him away with anything.
Over the course of 13 days in October the following year, he found out just how wrong he was, and we’re all pretty lucky that he turned out to be the one with the feet of clay. Or maybe not … maybe Kennedy’s words to his staff weren’t really ersatz self-deprecation but a sincerely held view that in any dispute where both sides dig their heels in that there has to be a little give and there has to be a little take. Nevertheless, over the course of that crisis he made his point and everyone got it, and that’s why history remembers it as his triumph.
The decision today will not echo through the ages. We do not owe everything we have to its successful, and peaceful, conclusion … but it may decide this title and not in the way some of those at Hampden very obviously wanted, and so we did enough. We bloodied the enemy’s nose and make him retreat with less than what he came for.
Now, having won the battle, this team can go on and win the war.
That is not a victory for Celtic and for anyone to suggest it is anything close to one is just baffling !!!
Nothing at all has changed !!!
More importantly there is no disciplinary procedure for the offenders…….anything but !!
It’s nothing and will result in nothing !!
Did you read the piece? Or any of the ones that came before it?
Let me repeat; ACCORDING TO THE RULES WE WERE BANG TO RIGHTS.
Bang to rights. Rodgers broke the rules. They were getting set to boot him to the stand for the rest of the season.
We won today. So SOMETHING has changed.
@ joker. Although ah think we couldve done better tbh, it’s probably the next best thing we couldve got. And what your sayin there, is still what ahm expectin in these remainin games. Tho it’s no just in our games ahm suspectin we’re gonnae get the shaft. Ahm expectin that lot tae get all sorts of beneficial decisions whoever they’re playin.
If Celtic FC released a statement tomorrow calling out specifically the ineptitude and incompetence of the games ‘ governing bodies especially after today’s verdict ,what would happen ? Would the entire club and board be charged by Hampden humps with bringing the game into disrepute ? Would the same club and board receive the same punishment with immediate effect ? If so then the team could not play it’s next game because of the punishment handed out ..right ? The whole process is an absolute shambles of the most inadequate kind …anywhere ! Call their bluff Celtic ? Tear them down !
Never a win or 50% win back of the bus for us again.
The blue pound rules our Tory board.
Since the incident at Huncastle occurred, and BR uttered his immortal compliments about officialdom, we all felt these SFA eejits would attempt to penalise our manager and ultimately, our club.
Most of us believed that our board’s usual inertia in these matters would continue.
Then, the rumours began to circulate that DD had hired a KC and his sunshine legal band, to meet this head on, and not just give it up !
We all know that the SFA are weak, when confronted by the truth.
The fact that they’ve allowed Sevco to say and act much worse, without reprisal, could only have strengthened our case.
As a club, we first of all have a title to win, and win well.
When this season is finished, we must continue this fight against the SFA, biased referees and blatant favouritism towards one club.
Clean up our game, and get proper officials in, that will officiate, and operate VAR, as it should be.
Let’s ensure that those who are corrupt, keep getting eyeballed and never stop blinking !
Great and different opinions above were a great read. My humble opinion is it is something that I would have taken prior to yesterday. Brendan on the touchline in govan is very important allowing him to get his messages across. Huge weeks ahead so everything crossed for the outcomes we are hoping for.
James, it’s a pyrrhic victory in my opinion, we had a chance yesterday to go into Hampden and tear it down. Rodgers said the referees were incompetent and he was right they are. The fact we didn’t call for real reform of Var, the referees and the SFA shows me that our board are incompetent also. Every club insist that our referees are dire, yet still, after every ‘honest mistake’ there’s no sanctions brought on any of them, they’re still going to get a game the following week and until they do get sanctioned nothing will change.
A dishonnerable draw, I do get your point but when will Celtic take the Sfa on ? or is it we have a few masons in the higherarky ourselves. After all every business no matter what it is……has them.
I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I actually am, at the nonsense in some of these replies. Talk about missing the big picture. Talk about not being able to see the woods for the trees. Honestly, I have do a seperate article on this now, just to explain what’s actually happened here and why we won. Some people … I dunno. Stop hating the board for TWO SECONDS some of you and recognise that we’ve got the important result.
Your one of the biggest moaners of
Board
I’m what? Yeah, I slag the board. Of course I do. When they get stuff wrong.
But that’s not the case here, not even close.
Ok James only your opinion counts which is fair enough its your blog.
In no way did we win anything today in my opinion we lost massively.
James like you I cannot get the comments not wanting to be rode are they really that fxxcn thick
The board have done their usual which amounts to virtually nothing. Their statement is a waste of time. They should have come out all guns blazing but there’s no way Liewwell and Nicholson would do that to their SFA buddies. You called the SFA spineless. I know who is spineless. It’s our so called custodians.
We did get some satisfaction, even tho the whole thing has been farcical from the start, it does send out the message that we’re no gonnae be a push over. Tho we’ll see what still materialises in these remainin games for us and the ibrox club. These officials still have a big part tae play in this.
I think the clearest indication that Celtic came out on the better half of this result today will be when WC is appointed in some capacity to a Rangers game in the next 2-3 games.
That would confirm to me that Celtic have placed some “fear” in the SFA & reminded them we do have teeth despite how reluctant we can be to show them at times.
We have won F all, all we have is back to what it was for them to go again. No sanctions against corrupt officials of a corrupt organisation, nothing has changed, the shit decisions will continue. They shouldn’t have been allowed to save face, their bare arse should have been exposed to the world. When it happens again, and it will, what next Rodgers biting his lip. Any way you wrap this we’ve let them off the hook !!!
Did we actually pay a lawyer for that pish today james??? Beaton and his gang must be fkn terrified fkn spineless thats what our board are its aw about the blue pound
I don’t believe justice was done at the hearing for Brendan Rodgers. He commented on a case of blatant cheating and actually toned it down by calling Beaton incompetent rather than a cheat. To me it’s like witnessing a crime and reporting it. In this case the perpetrator of the crime gets off scott free and the person who called it out gets the punishment. Yes, Brendan Rodgers is back in the dugout for the Glasgow derby but that could be more to do with his safety if he was in the stand at Ibrox. Imagine the football world seeing the Celtic manager being attacked while serving his ban in the Ibrox stand. All the SFA have done is avoid a world wide deluge of bad publicity. Don’t think it wouldn’t happen. Remember what happened to Neil Lennon at Tynecastle. Also note how the attacker was let off due to so called police incompetence. There’s that word again, incompetence! It seems to cover a multitude of crimes in Scottish football. Meanwhile as Celtic “celebrate” a victory in this case remind yourself what happened when the rangers attacked Willie Colour. Absolutely nothing. No charges, no hearing and Willie Collum continuously absent from Ibrox. What happened in Celtic’s case, Don Robertson is appointed for the Livingston game before the Rodgers hearing had taken place. Now, that was undoubtedly an intended insult and shows what contempt Celtic are held in by the Scottish football authorities. It feels like they have stolen a tenner off us but given three pounds back to avoid us making a fuss. Victory, I certainly don’t think it was. Let’s hope we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg and the real victory is yet to be seen.
Agreed. Any “win” we got out of that hearing is more about avoiding trouble in the Ibrox stands that damages the image. I predict that Willie Collum will be nowhere near a sevco game before the start of next season, wouldn’t even be terribly surprised by Beaton ref, Dallas VAR for the derby at Ibrokes.
If I’m wrong I’m happy, but I’m not optimistic. The SFA are cowards, yes. But they’re petulant cowards which makes them dangerous.
Why would we need to hire a nickel & dime or not even a nickel and dime lawyer when we allegedly have one as our CEO taking a helluva annual wedge outta the club’s coffers…
Aye – I don’t label him as Lord Lucan-Nicholson for nothing !
But we still have Robertson at Livi and possibly Cheetin Beaton at the cesspit in the debtdome.
Allan is still pulling the strings behind the referees & VAR so we are not home and dry yet.
What a fuckin Country, 21st Century and we have to put up with all this bigoted, sectarian shoite.
I think that they will be happy but kid on that they’re not and Celtic will be happy and perhaps say a bit less than The SFA might well do…
I also think that they might well try to ‘annoy’ Brendan v Livingston and that The Scummy Scottish Football Media will try to trap him into words that might see him suspended from Liebrox but this time Brendan will be too clever for them…
However – The Red Hot Danger comes at Liebrox from The Cheats with Whistles, Flags and Monitors on the day…
They ABSOLUTELY WILL make Brendan speak out with their ideology on the day and the suspension might well be triggered with the hearing timed to fall just before the final Glasgow Derby at Parkhead –
There again Lord Lucan-Nicholson could always speak out on behalf of Brendan…
But when was the last time that you heard Lord Lucan speak !!!
Time will tell. We`ll know by the amount of “honest mistakes”, penalty kicks for or against, and red cards issued, including the same for PHILLIPE (as Neil Lennon calls him) and his men. If Celtic gets a fairer deal from now on and Rangers get only what they are entitled to, then I will say it was a victory today. Meanwhile, I still have to be convinced that it wan`t a severe kicking they got. It was such a great victory that Robertson is still in charge on Sunday and you can be sure he won`t be the Celtic fans` favourite at full time. NIck De Marco: they would have been as well having Danny De Vito.
I would love to see the transcript of today’s hearing to ascertain exactly how strongly our club and our manager was represented.
I simply can’t take it in good faith when good faith is no longer what I and a great many Celtic fans no longer have.
Today’s verdict was not a win in any shape or form. It could at best be viewed as damage limitation if you can’t see the wider context, if you can only contain yourself to the narrow perimeter set by the SFA. It was a threat and we either shut up and put up or rebel against them and withdraw funding of VAR. If we don’t have confidence in refereeing, VAR representatives or SFA standards and regulations then we go to war. If Brendan dare complain about dodgy incompetent ref decisions this week then the bullets will be fired by the SFA.
We the fans don’t matter a jot in any of this. We don’t know what was said in that hearing, we’re brushed aside and treated like nobody’s until it’s time for ST renewal fees, or to purchase club goods. The fans are certainly not the most important aspect in any way shape or form.
It’s a rigged ball game that Celtic and it’s board accept. Just when we need to show some bollocks we accept this Billy Bollocks.
Weak, weak, weak
We spent big money on hiring the best man possible.
We didn’t do that to throw up our hands in a “mea culpa.”
It seems to me that the SFA & Huns had to reach this agreement or they would have had to take extraordinary steps to keep Rodgers safe in their cesspit. No other Celtic fans in ground so they would have had to clear an area bigger than the 700 seats we refused to keep him safe in their stands
I’m very sure that this was one of the points we made, and it’s more than possible that we even threatened to go public with those concerns.
The SFA really did make one godawful mess of this 🙂
James I completely agree with your piece, some of the comments on here are village idiot stuff. Brendan broke the rules, so he was reprimanded and it is a victory to only get a one game ban , as it could have been far more. Sometimes people on here just like to hear the sound of their own voice, with their stupidity. If you break rules in anything in everyday life there is a consequence, whether people like it or not, this is a normal everyday democratic society.
Yes, we did make them back down and the so called compromise didn’t hurt us too much, dignity intact somewhat for both sides.
The only thing that irks me though is that Beaton, a cheating hun bar steward, once again gets away scot free and left to do more damage whenever he gets the chance. Hopefully not this season as he may well have been advised to tone his hatred down a bit, but nevertheless he still got away with it. It does my heid in big time.