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The meltdown over Celtic’s Hampden win goes on. The SFA “explanation” hasn’t satisfied The Peepul.

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Last night, the final madness broke out over on Ibrox social media. They’ve been losing their minds for days over this penalty kick controversy, and now that they’ve received the explanation they demanded, they’re even angrier. And what is that explanation? Well, it’s the same one we’ve all been fobbed off with countless times: these things happen. Get over it. Move on. Stop moaning.

I’ll be honest—I don’t like those answers either. I don’t like it when it happens to us because there’s a serious conversation that needs to take place about the standard of officiating and the nonsense that we all tolerate.

But the fact is, when these decisions go against us, nobody else cares. The press certainly doesn’t stamp its feet or whip up the kind of outrage we’ve seen in the last few days. It’s incredible to witness the sheer level of anger over the sort of decision that happens every single week. We’ve seen it countless times before.

Last season, for instance, when Aberdeen were denied a stonewall penalty in the League Cup final against the same club we just beat at the weekend, nobody batted an eyelid. The media wasn’t clamouring for answers, demanding explanations, or calling for officials to be held accountable. This kind of outcry is reserved for decisions that benefit Celtic or go against Ibrox. We all know it.

But the reaction in the mainstream media pales in comparison to the hysteria on Ibrox fan media, where the frenzy is being stoked. It’s even being encouraged by some in the mainstream press who refuse to accept the answer they demanded in the first place. That’s why I asked earlier this week: what exactly do these people want?

I’m talking about serious suggestions here. That rules out a few options which are being discussed in the madder of their forums and sites.

Their fan forums are descending into hysteria. They’re even talking about protests now. One suggestion on an Ibrox fan site was to blockade the road and stop our team from reaching their ground on 2 January. To achieve what purpose? To make what point? To gain what advantage? It’s incomprehensible. Not half as incomprehensible as the Ibrox site which, for the second day in a row, is banging the drum for the game to be replayed. These people are absolutely demented.

Here we are, four days after the game, and this is still the conversation Scottish football is obsessing over. Conveniently, it keeps attention away from other issues that need addressing. For instance, no one is congratulating Celtic. The implication is that we’ve somehow won this honour by default—if not outright deceit.

The Ibrox statement, which has been widely released to the media, has caused even more frothing at the mouth; it actually thanks the SFA for its “transparency” on the issue, which has gone down like a lead weight. There is the usual lunatic talk of dossiers and court cases and legal teams working round the clock … these fans live in their own wee world with this stuff. They really do want blood on the walls.

As I said in the piece earlier, we’re now up to one hundred and nineteen major honours, all won fair and square. Not every club can say the same.

This hysteria has several functions.

For one thing, it diverts attention from the credit we’re due for continuing our incredible form this season. We’re well on track for a double at the very least—and possibly even a treble. The whispers of an invincible campaign are growing louder. Soon, people won’t be whispering it anymore; they’ll be saying it outright—everyone except the players and manager, of course.

And it keeps attention away from the shambles at Ibrox.

A handful of wins on the bounce are being spun as some kind of corner turned, with claims that the players are finding their rhythm, and the manager has stumbled upon a magical formula. It’s the same story we’ve heard before, and it’s setting up the next embarrassment.

Celtic, meanwhile, have said almost nothing—and nor should they.

Only Tony Ralston has spoken about this. I’ll be writing about his comments later.

Let the endless drone of nonsense, stupidity, and posturing continue. Yesterday, Keith Jackson published a late-night piece quoting Ian Maxwell and falsely claiming Maxwell expressed no concern about bad decisions affecting games. That’s a barefaced lie.

What Maxwell actually said is what we’ve repeated time and again: these people can stamp their feet all they like, but beyond that, what are they actually going to do? Maxwell pointed out that clubs always talk about going to war with the SFA, but in the end, they just accept things and move on.

That’s exactly what will happen here. Ibrox’s statement makes that clear, which is why their fans are fulminating. All the CEO’s posturing is just theatre for their audience of goons. It’s for nobody else. Sections of the media can act similarly outraged all they want—they’ve never done anything serious on bad refereeing before, and they won’t now. And as I said earlier, I am not happy with that outcome.

But there is a certain delicious irony to it in this case.

At some point, you’d hope these people would get serious. You’d hope a club would get serious. But the hypocrisy of pretending this is some sort of exceptional circumstance is staggering. Let me echo what Maxwell has said; bad decisions happen. There are only two things that make it exceptional; the reaction to it and the hard fact that the trophy count has changed. Celtic are now undisputedly ahead.

If some people are struggling to accept that, it’s their problem, not ours. While they’re ranting, raving, and pulling their hair out, we’re focusing on preparing for Dundee United at the weekend, aiming to maintain our lead at the top of the table so that when the season ends, we can add another league trophy to the count.

If only the rest of Scottish football had that kind of discipline and professionalism, and yes, I include the media in that too.

Last night we put up our third podcast, Joyful & Triumphant. Please share it on social media friends.

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10 comments

  • JT says:

    Good article.

  • John M says:

    James great article again.

    However, I would like Celtic to question why two of their players were not sent off or why there was no VAR check where CCV was held back.

    It then brings them and the media back to reality.

  • Kevcelt59 says:

    So, the ‘fonts of righteousness’ at ibrox have declared ‘Scottish football’s reputation has been damaged’!! Who the fk dae they think they are ? And all because a decision went against them. Honestly man, ah’ve never heard anythin like this. Whit a damaged shower of pompous, arrogant, entitled, desperate sad cases. Ah think from now on, EVERY contentious penalty decision involvin them, whether it’s awarded or not, against any team, should be taken apart, scrutinised, dissected and analysed for at least a week. Just like this one. See how long it takes for them tae get fed up with it.

  • shoobs says:

    Your article hits the nail on the head. It’s all smoke and mirrors to detract from what Celtic have achieved. Keeping us off the back pages, claiming basically we didn’t win it fairly and all the other totally bonkers hysteriical conspiracy theories on their forums then the lickspittle bootlickers in the media enabling it.
    Jock Stein used this tactic, keeping them off the back pages back in his heyday. But he was a master at it and in a time when journalists still had a shred of credibility.
    This lot just can’t bring themselves to acknowledge that the world is moving on. Their kulchur is irrelevant and slowly (too slowly) fading into oblivion. It’s the end of days for them and this is their rabid reaction to it.
    Long may it continue!!

  • micmac says:

    Celtic players could be in danger on Jan 2nd, In the past few years we’ve had broken glass in our penalty box endangering our goalkeeper , players pelted with coins and vapes, one of our physios hit on his head with a bottle leading to him receiving six stitches and our supporters hit with bottles, pxss and other objects, with hardly a word of criticism aimed at Ibrox from the press or SFA. The Celtic Board at least publicly haven’t said a word about this disgraceful behaviour, and to me have failed in their duty of care to their employees and supporters.
    The hordes of Hun at Ibrox are angry and in that mood a large section of them can be dangerous. The Celtic board should be asking for more protection for their employees on Jan 2nd with a larger police force in attendance.
    I hope I’m wrong but with the crowd so near the pitch it will be nearly impossible for even the officials to referee this game without being intimidated big time.
    The media in Scotland since Sunday have stoked up a sense of misplaced injustice onto a group who see themselves as “The People”, and are finding it hard to come to terms with the facts that this is no longer the case.

    • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

      No Chance of Lord Lucan-Nicholson speaking out…

      That man’s every pint of blood is cowardly YELLOW to the core –

      Perfect match for all the yellow watery shit in his bowels…

      He’s ALWAYS Shat it big time in defending Celtic –

      His Liebrox counterparts are Champions League material in comparison for sure !

    • PortoJoe says:

      Couldn’t agree more, players could be in serious danger. I would demand that the front 10 rows of the stands be cleared and remain empty to at least increase the distance between potential hooligans and players.

  • Johnny Green says:

    LOL A blockade on all roads leading to Ibrox on Jan 2nd to prevent the Celtic team bus getting there in protest against a possible penalty error? Or is it really just to prevent us getting there and pumping them once again. They banned our fans from going to the rat pit to laugh at them….. and now they want to ban the team!

    Absofknlutely hilarious. The lunatics and the asylum come to mind.

  • Brattbakk says:

    This all harks back to the reason the tribute act aren’t officially regarded as such and why the was no serious attempt to strip ill-gotten gains from mk1. The country fears hun outrage.

  • Jay says:

    I can see this all resetting this weekend when the games come round again. That club & fans have focused so heavily on the result there is every chance that the squad will be poorly prepared for the next fixture.

    I do however think officials will probably be very lenient on them & banker bet of the weekend is the classic “Penalty To The Rangers”

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