In the middle of last month, the media were told that a deal had been reached between Celtic and the Ibrox club over the return of away fans to the fixture as of next season; around 2500-3000 will be available for the games apiece; it was hailed as a breakthrough.
In fact, if you read the small print, it was only one up to a point, and there was to be a determination from Celtic as to whether certain of our club’s concerns were being taken seriously before we would proceed to offer them an allocation for our ground and accept one for theirs.
Yesterday, John Kennedy was hit by objects thrown at the Celtic dugout. Now we see footage showing that Matt O’Riley was also targeted. The Ibrox club has been far too lax in protecting our people up until now; nobody should believe them when they talk about the safety of our supporters. It is inconceivable that we would subject our fans to that sort of thing.
Celtic are more than a little concerned at this, and we should be. It is out of control over there. That is not a safe stadium for our team to visit, let alone our fans. Next season’s ticket settlement depends on the safety of the fans; I would not be surprised if we added the safety of our players and staff to the growing list of concerns. This is, after all, not a first offence.
“It has been confirmed today that a glass bottle was thrown at Matt at yesterday’s match. The repeated targeting of our players and staff with missiles is quite appalling and completely unacceptable. We have already raised our serious concerns with Rangers and understand that police are investigating the matter,” said Celtic’s second statement of the weekend.
“Appalling and completely unacceptable.” Those are the words that jump out. But so too is the reference to “serious concerns.” A Celtic staff member was hit on the head with a bottle a couple of years ago. We cannot allow this to become the new normal there.
On 29 March last year, one of their fans, Alan Crawford, was jailed for 12 months for launching the bottle that struck Daniel Friel, our physio. It required four stitches and left a permanent scar. This is what the sherif said at the time;
“This was an attack on a man in the course of his employment. The throwing of a bottle was not only an act of mindless violence but it had significant consequences for the person you injured and will stay with him for the rest of his life. The court must ensure that this grave conduct at events such as this is discouraged and the public protected. A custodial sentence is the only appropriate method to deal with you due to the gravity of the offence and the use of a bottle as a weapon.”
Here is what is astonishing about that incident; Crawford was sitting in the “corporate seats” when he did this. This was one of the upper crust, a guy sitting in the high value seats, a guy who had probably hobnobbed with the top brass.
The case of Lee Findlay is at the other end of the scale; he was 17 when he hit a Celtic fan on the head with a bottle that he found lying on the ground inside the stadium; he picked it up and launched it into our supporters without a second’s thought, and it hit a fan on the head. He escaped a custodial sentence because of his age, but he got a five-year banning order.
The situation at that ground is serious. The impulse that compels both young kids and guys in the rich seats to do these things is the same one. It’s the same one that saw our assistant manager and one of our players targeted yesterday, and these are the incidents which we know about, the ones that are of a high enough profile to get headlines.
If you look at social media, you’ll know that there was severe disorder in the Gallowgate on Saturday night, and a cache of weapons was found in Glasgow Green. This is a Celtic area, filled with our fans, which was attacked by their supporters.
That’s what we’re talking about here, although the media has done its best to dance around that fact and called it an “Old Firm” fight. But that’s not what it was, of course; this was a deliberate attack on a Celtic fan area and people out for a Saturday night drink being forced to defend themselves. Again, this is not an isolated incident.
Celtic will take a long hard look at what Ibrox does about this, if anything. And we will base and future decision to take tickets for that ground – and thus whether to give any for ours – on what the response to this will be. If our fans are to be truly protected then every supporter who enters that ground for one of these games should be searched by police; yes, that will entail fans arriving long before games kick off, but that’s just too bad.
The SPFL should also start sanctioning clubs for this stuff. Ibrox’s previous history with it cannot be ignored, nor is it possible to suggest they are doing everything they can to assure the safety of our coaches and players, or our fans when they attend games there.
It is clear that Ibrox is a manifestly unsafe place for anyone of a Celtic persuasion. They even told a senior broadcast journalist – Chris Sutton – that they could not guarantee his safety there, a quite extraordinary claim and one that should have seen the SPFL step in immediately. But as usual they chose not to bother … and that’s part of why we’re here.
The police are going to have to step up to the plate too here, as they are clearly not performing as they should. Celtic is right to be concerned right across the boards. We cannot accept tickets for that ground, in whatever number, until this stuff is stamped out.
I agree 100%, we should not accept any ticket deal with them under these circumstances for they will never be able to eradicate the violence that is endemic in their fans kultcher. They are hateful to the very core of their being and their violent attacks on our own will never cease. We as fans have always known that and we cope and manage it for the love of our team, but when our players and ground staff become the targets then there should be sanctions. Stadium closures, their own fans banned form their ground or points deductions are called for, it will either stop the continued and worsening attacks or, hell mend them, it will destroy their rabid Club who encourage it. When did orange become part of their club colours, who at Ibrox encourages the morons by having that colour on every piece of their kit and consequently their witless manager gets sucked into that same bigoted dress sense. They are, every one of them, steeped in hatred and they love that feeling. It has got to be stopped now, Celtic FC has got to take a stance, we have tolerated their loathing for far too long and enough is enough.
Bottle and coin throwing, the vile song book Ally Mcoist will be devastated for missing this Hun hate Fest.
Alan Crawford? Is that really his name?
Thoroughly agree, James. Although I’d hope (if not expect) that the board would lay it on thick as to why we would not be taking tickets – this secondary Lie has gone on far too long already.
Incidentally, the broken bottle thrown onto big Joe’s goal area was another shocker – maybe they should have no fans at all at ibrox. (Although I’ll miss the hilarious half-time booing!)
Deduct them points every time there’s an incident, see what happens then.
Celtic, never mind the “appalled” statement because Sevco, the SFA, the SPFL and the police will do nothing about it. The media will do their usual and ignore it or claim it’s an old firm problem because they can’t blame them for anything without any whataboutery. I wish the board would start to look after the safety of our players and staff by telling them to shove their tickets for Ipox and give them none for Parkhead. I haven’t missed them in our stadium.
Celtic should now refuse to play at Poundland. We could suggest playing them at say,
Hampden. That park is further away from the field of play.
We should refuse to play them at the toilet until they respond appropriately towards their own fanbase
I have a relative in Belfast who is a Rangers supporter. All she wants is “for things to go back to the way they were.” Meaning ‘Rangers’ back permanently as the top club in Scotland. Pedro and the Celtic Board are certainly giving it their best shot shot to make her wish come true and now they intend to have ‘Rangers fans’ in Celtic Park next season wrecking the bogs etc. to their hearts content. I almost feel sorry for Brendan Rodgers having to deal with the Board. It must be akin to fucking a porcupine…. “one prick against thousands.” About 20 years ago I worked in Brown Thomas multi-story car park in Dublin. The great and good in Irish society shopped there. At this time Dermot Desmond and his family lived in Dublin South. Most days Desmond’s wife drove into the carpark, did some shopping and had a coffee in the restaurant. Every time, without fail, she stopped at the exit of the carpark and complained to the staff about “how narrow the parking bays were.” The lads I worked with reckoned that it probably the only interaction she had with ‘ordinary people’ each day apart from the Filipino servants at home. None of us envied her that lifestyle in spite of all the wealth she had access to. The Great Desmondo himself will probably surface in Augusta next week for the Masters alongside that dopey cunt McIlroy. He’s welcome to that shitshow. I’m pissed off watching the ‘bould Rory’ telling everyone that he’s going to win the tournament… he just can’t name the year yet. The price of a pint of Guinness in Temple Bar, in Dublin, on St. Patrick’s Day topped £16 Euro…. I reckon it’s gonna be cheaper at the Masters.
There should be no season tickets bought until this disgraceful situation is resolved.
I’d love to see Lawwell and Nicholson squirm on the end of that one.
Celtic shouldn’t have any discussions with them or the SFA over future ticket for the “Derby” We don’t owe them anything. Give them what they deserve, nothing. It’s our park and it’s a better place without them on Derby Day. Animals are better behaved. Yesterday The camera zoomed in on an old woman who you would have thought would have known better. No she gave the two finger sign right into the camera. Sums them up – thugs If the staff and players are not safe from harm I would worry about our support.
i thought i was the only one who seen that never mind she will be the highlight down at the orange halls ,,,,, aye never need to buy a drink again and her weans will be so proud of her and the in-bread grandweans .
Great Article,James ,I Agree 100%….The SFA MUST Step in here & take action now…I will share this,if that’s OK….
The second statement is a wee bitty more like it from Celtic not that Sevco will pay one single iota of heed to it anyway…
But it’s a wee tad better than ‘surprised and disappointed’ –
Some guy called Rodger Hannet (whoever he is) on Clyde Superscoreboard tonight giving it to Sevco big time about about the missiles – The guy that takes the calls said he had text from Sevco fans saying Celtic supporters do it as well…
He wasn’t able to say the date and time but still got the ‘whataboutery defence’ of Sevco in though !
A reasonable person could only conclude that the ibrox club simply
cannot ‘competently’ manage safety & security in its own stadium.
Any assurances or guarantees from the ibrox club about future home
games with CFC are both pointless and worthless.
Now, a third party has to be engaged to sort this out,
and provide our club with robust reassurances,
BEFORE our club even considers sending our team, staff
or supporters back to ibrox.
And that’s a reasonable expectation?
Our board are responsible for the protection of their employees and supporters [or customers, as we are to them] they must start taking this more seriously. Lawell,Nicolson and Desmond should be putting pressure on the SFA and the SPFL to act.
The near silence of the media on this country is also a disgrace.
If Desmond doesn’t take a bit more interest in the club then maybe he would be better selling his large shareholding to someone, who is more interested. We have been the leading club both on the field and off the field this century, and yet The football authorities treat us like mugs and the media mostly ignore what’s been going on. Our Board have got to grow a pair.
Nothing reported in the media about the disruptions at the Celtic team hotel on Saturday night by Union Bears. Fireworks set off, bagpipes and drums played at 3.00am.
If the media can’t mitigate against the reckless behaviour displayed by Sevco fans, by bringing Celtic fans into the equation, then they ignore it.
Well you’ve changed your tune. You literally poo pooed my comment about 2,500 fans being allowed back into the midden as only an danger to an increased yet still small amount of our fans. In fact you hailed it as some sort of success for us over the SFA as part of some greater strategy and quite frankly were quite dismissive in your reply to said obvious comment.
Foresight is more important than your point scoring righteousness and clearly your hindsight. At least you can now see what was pretty damn obvious at the time. They behave like animals and that Celtic Football Club should not accept said allocation proposals from the SFA, the huns or shortsighted bloggers.
Before you say it to me look back on your comment. HH
Oh give yourself peace. I can recognise that it was a victory for our club whilst also recognising that they attached BIG conditions to it. Is that all you do? Go through everything I write looking for a contradiction?
That attitude again. I’ve read your blog for several years and contributed comments vastly in support of your interpretations and ever improving writing ability. Indeed defended them on occasions with fellow contributors that have failed to understood them or where they come from.
Some of your articles over the last year have been absolutely outstanding. Rarely do I find myself in a position of disagreement, that article I commented on I did. It was focussed purely on Celtic fans and staff safety and I believed yours wasn’t. ‘Twas rare critical appraisal. I’m not responsible for your response, short temperedness or being unable to handle that. Attack is not always the best form of defence so I shall leave on that but wish you well moving forward. Enjoy the rest of the season. I hope all our wishes come to fruition. HH
This is our title, so I have a feeling it will 🙂
It`s Glasgow Corporation who should step in and withdraw their safety certificate. Every team
could legally refuse to play in a place where the owners themselves have admitted it can be a dangerous place to be and claim the three points. The Corporation weren`t so lax when Fergus McCann had to get tarmac contractors in the middle of the night to complete the surfacing around a stanchion so that Celtic could play their first game in the refurbished stadium. Without these works there was to be no certificate.
JK and MO,R should both sue the Celtic board for unsafe working conditions.
Whole have added,then this board might get their fingers oot their arses
Should
I agree, the only thing I ask is our support don’t do as the ibrox cavemen do.
Our support need to refrain from copying any of their immature behaviour and be ambassadors for CELTIC.
Davie, I only pray that we can behave like we do in all our European games. And keep a tight lip on it when they come last Derby this season. Then again we have the GB who are the only ones who can mess it up for us. HH.