This morning, The Sun broke the news that the Ibrox club has applied for permission to do the necessary work on the security of the away end of their ground.
They did this just this week. The paper is eager to point out that this is still four months before we have to go there, as if that somehow changes things, as if their sudden compliance—now that they’re finally willing to comply—justifies a rethink on our part.
Let me tell you, it doesn’t. It won’t. Their fans will not be at Celtic Park.
And whoever wants to cry and whinge about that, like Donald Trump on the stump, can do so to their wee heart’s content. It changes exactly nothing.
Let me share a story with you.
Twenty years ago, when I worked for Glasgow City Council as a parks department gardener, I passed the time-served threshold for five extra holiday days.
It may not surprise people to learn that my relationship with the bosses wasn’t exactly brilliant, but expecting to be treated properly and by the book, I went to my supervisor. I told him I had passed the time threshold for five extra days and asked him to look into it and get it fixed.
Although he didn’t dismiss it outright, I left that conversation with the distinct impression that he couldn’t have cared less.
Weeks went by. I asked a couple of times about the status of my request, and finally, one day, out on a job with the squad, he came over to check how we were doing. I asked him again, “What’s going on with the five days?”
This time, he was openly contemptuous and dismissive.
He said he hadn’t even bothered and might not even bother. I found that amusing since he had evidently forgotten that he was talking to a trade unionist—someone active in politics and union activity, who knew his rights inside out. I smiled, stayed calm, and at the end of the shift, I went to see the manager and instigated the grievance procedure.
Two days later, the manager called me into the office and told me, “I fixed your problem. Called personnel, got your five days for you.” He then asked if I was willing to drop the grievance.
I was actually stunned at how brazen that was.
So, I took a deep breath and said that under no circumstances would I withdraw the grievance. He had managed to sort it out with a simple phone call, something that was evidently easy to do, but my supervisor just couldn’t have given a damn.
And that’s what has happened here. That’s what this report says. It says that their club thinks it can treat ours with utter contempt, that the regulations, agreements, and negotiations don’t matter at all. They believe they can treat us however they like, doing things on their timetable—or not at all—not out of respect for any deal we’ve entered into.
Our club shouldn’t be prepared to accept that. We shouldn’t have to accept that.
The suggestion being made in the media this morning, that because they’ve now complied, because things are now proceeding along the lines of what we agreed on, we should be willing to forget that they took the piss this whole time—that they didn’t bother to do it in a timely manner as we did, and that they didn’t comply with the regulations which clearly stated that the jobs had to be done at the same time? Ahem, no. I don’t think so.
Who the article is trying to impress, I don’t know.
What narrative they think they’re trying to spin, I don’t know.
What do they expect this to change? It changes nothing. In fact, it only makes it more obvious that we were right to do what we did. They need to learn what’s permissible and what’s not. They need to learn obedience and adherence to agreements and regulations. And since our governing body won’t teach them that lesson, our club has done it instead.
I think this whole thing is pathetic on their part.
As Rodgers has said, this is not a Celtic issue—this is an Ibrox issue. They caused this, they started this, and at every single stage, they have tried to gain whatever narrow advantage they could. Only in the last couple of years has Celtic slapped them hard and put them back in their box. And that’s where they are right now, with their fans banned from Celtic Park.
They got what they deserved, and all this serves to demonstrate is just how easy it was to fix this problem in the first place—how simple it was to have made the application at the same time as us and to have done the work in the same timeframe we did.
That’s what the agreement called for. It’s not our fault that they decided not to follow it.
If there is any construction or re-modelling of area required for Celtic fans. They will have, at most, a two week window between home games to carry this out. They have a solid record of completing construction work within short windows don’t they? Or are the sevco fans sites going to be filled with screeds of posts detailing their every inconvenience just to accommodate us?
Swallow Swallow already is full of screeds about their inconvenience Jimmy R…
That said, despite the nutters that wail, bitch and moan on it I still have 100% more tolerance for it than I do for The Scummy Scottish Football Media so I do…
That said – It’s not very hard to think that way for sure !
I enjoyed your story and this is exactly that. This is a direct response to Rodgers publicly pointing the finger at them and them having no possible rebuttal. So it’s good it’s getting sorted and if you don’t mind the risk of stadium collapse Celtic fans will be back in Ibrox partying hard again.
It’s lies bullshit and bollocks, and exactly what we’ve come to expect from that bunch of chanty wrasslers at £1brox.
As usual, it’ll be built up now tae look like it’s Celtic who’re bein petty, spiteful, you name it. Twisted, tae make the ibrox club look like the ones bein ‘professional’ ! They had plenty of time tae be professional and did nothin. Celtic should stick tae their guns on this. Definitely !
Spot on James,it just proves sevcos arrogance and thinking they can bypass rules and regulations but to be fair the SFA and SPFL have given them licence to do this by treating them with kid gloves.The new William Hill sponsorship is going to be ignored by sevco same as they did with the Cinch deal but instead of punishing them,they actually allocated a share of the sponsorship money to sevco,and we wonder why they do as they please without retribution.
Aye, but these nets have been bought by sevco on AliExpress,
…and are coming from Outer Mongolia.
Might take a wee while to arrive,
but great price though!
🙂
Your supervisor sounds like the usual council employee who only got the job because his Auntie’s pet budgie was also employed there…
His mum was a councillor 🙂 Great lady! Knew her very well.
Applied for planning permission? That’s all well and good, but what happens if the building materials are delayed on their way from China? Come back to us when the work is complete.
Brendan shamed them into it last Friday .
When they can’t afford to buy players or sell the dross they’re trying to offload
Their media gimps at The Scum and The Record will try and spin anything for them
They MAY have applied for permission to erect netting. When they actually get around to doing it is anyone’s guess.
Wouldn’t surprise me to find that they think that just applying means that everything is okay, ’cause the rules don’t apply to them.
Your reference ti being a trade unionists brought back a memory.
Worked for a drilling company just short of 16 years when after a drydock they sacked me without 3 months notice and left me overseas.
19 days later on hire with another drilling company, 3 months later got my contract and hit the old one for “Unfair Dismissal”, they asked what grounds were I contesting? Told them did not know since no reason were given for my dismissal.
It where then they found out I were the Industrial liaison officer for the Union.
They settled within 3 days preferring “No court”.
Tell everyone to get in a union or association, anyone who does not belong to a union/association with their legal protection is foolish.
Glad you got your 5 days entitlement
Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t the main thrust of the Celtic statement the lack of assurance about if and where the game will be played.
That wasn’t the principle reason we withheld the tickets.
They broke the agreement. That’s been made plain by the manager and by the Celtic fan sites.
Just read the application and only mentions netting. Can somebody find out if planning permission is required for the work required outside at entrance for away fans or has that been ignored. Would put nothing by that mob
Always assuming the work completed meets our high standards. Can we dismiss that mob doing a patch up micky mouse job. All bets off hopefully until we are satisfied that the work carried out ensures our fans safety
When you have little to no money in the bank you need to be careful what you spend it on. It wouldn’t surprise me theRanjurz to the bare minimum to comply with the agreement that they made with Celtic FC & our fans are not much safer when attending Ibrokes.
According to spfl ,it was to be in place b 4 we go to the bronx ,and not concurrently as of Sept the 1St,so I really think it’s politics between both parties .
Are you the James Forrest whose father, also called James, was a senior employer and member of the GMB union at the parks department for Glasgow for many years?
I mentioned your name to my wife who thinks, through her official capacity at the GMB may have known him.
Absolutely superb article, as always ? this probably highlights the very attitude and arrogance you raised in your recent podcast about the , we are the people ingrained mentality ? brilliant work jamesy. Massive fan
What you have to remember is, they have only applied for planning permission. They haven’t started any work yet.
It will probably take around 6-8 weeks to gain planning permission, never mind contractors and materials.