Yesterday, we got a picture that summed up the dire state of Scottish football. It was an image of the netting that has now gone up at Celtic Park. It’s there to protect our fans from our “guests.” Just as the ones that will go up later this season at Ibrox will be there to protect our fans from our “hosts.”
What a ghastly state of affairs this is.
What a place we’ve arrived at, where we have to do this just to protect people from being targeted by thrown objects and all manner of chaos. It is a damning indictment of where relations between the clubs are at and an even bigger condemnation of the shocking behaviour of their fans.
Of course, some people will try to push the usual false equivalence. But it is our fans who have been targeted. It is our players and our officials who have been targeted—some even hit with objects at Ibrox.
Our supporters have horror stories from that ground going back years, but at least when 7,000 of us travelled there, there was safety in numbers. The moment they cut the allocation to a tenth of that, they took that safety away. And it didn’t even seem to cross their minds that they might be creating an unsafe situation.
Or maybe it did cross their minds. Maybe that was the whole point.
And maybe they just didn’t care. Certainly, when our club raised safety issues with them, they didn’t care. When we tried to talk to them about making the experience safer for supporters, they didn’t care.
When we finally did get them to sit down at the table and discuss taking security measures seriously, we put ours in place.
They were supposed to do the same. They didn’t bother. Which is why there were no fans at either of the derbies so far this season.
From the very start, the media has aided and abetted their worst behaviour by refusing to confront the problems this allocation cut caused.
Instead, they focused on how it would “damage the atmosphere.” And what is this atmosphere they’re speaking of? It’s built on hatred. What they are talking about is restoring an atmosphere of hate.
And I am not speaking out of bias when I say that hatred flows from one direction. If we hate them back, that’s only the natural reaction anyone would have towards people who sing about being “up to their knees” in our blood.
As Michael Collins, played by Liam Neeson in the film, said: “I do hate them. I hate them for making hate necessary.”
I hate all the bitterness and bigotry associated with this fixture. That’s why I think the atmosphere on the night we won 3-0 in Ange’s first season to go top of the league was the best I’ve ever experienced at one of these games.
That night, it was all about us. It was about optimism and positivity. It was about the good things happening at our club. We weren’t reliving battles from hundreds of years ago or wallowing in filth, as so many of their fans tend to do.
The way the media promotes this fixture makes me physically sick at times. Their hypocrisy is astounding. They constantly bang on about bad fan behaviour and talk about wanting to “clean up” our game.
Yet this is the fixture they choose to showcase as the face of Scottish football? It’s disgusting. And it holds us back.
It holds Celtic back as a club, and it holds the game back as a whole. Their tolerance for the Ibrox songbook is beyond shameful, especially when the rest of society is trying to eliminate all other forms of prejudice.
It is disheartening to see these nets go up. Why is this necessary? Why can’t these people just behave like normal human beings? Why can’t they just come and watch their team, then go home at the end?
Look at all these elaborate security precautions. Why are they even required? They are required because a section of their fanbase doesn’t know how to coexist peacefully with the rest of the world.
At Celtic, every single week, thousands of us pass by the opposition supporters, and it’s peaceful and respectful. There’s never a problem.
Yet our club has had to spend a significant sum of money ensuring that their fans are as far away from ours as possible. And yes, security measures have always been in place for these games. But I dearly wish they didn’t have to be.
Look at the contrast.
At the weekend past, 6,500 Hibs fans came to Celtic Park for the Scottish Cup tie, and the atmosphere was outstanding. Their fans sang for the whole game—right until the final whistle, even when they were losing.
That energy brought out the best in our own supporters. That’s how it should be. Yes, the fans were segregated. But there were no nets. There was no vile bigotry. Just two sets of fans separated by a line of police, there to watch a game of football.
This season, we’ve hosted fans from Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, and elsewhere. Not a bit of bother. Not once. Nobody put up netting for them. Nobody had to. The idea would have seemed absurd.
Those measures have been taken for one set of fans and one set of fans only. They exist to protect our supporters from one support and one support only. Not that it protects the players or the coaching staff—especially not at Ibrox, where similar nets would be needed to shield our dugout, but none will be put up.
And the media calls this a “step forward”? It’s a step backwards. A retrograde step. It brings the poison right back into Celtic Park. And it does nothing to make Ibrox safer for anyone from our club. Our fans may have a little additional protection, but the danger to everyone else remains acute.
Those nets are a symbol of how rotten the Glasgow derby has become. There is no doubt that since the death of Rangers and the birth of Sevco, the toxicity has only increased. And I am very clear on what I think the biggest problem is in that regard: the poison injected into its bloodstream arising from The Victim Lie.
The idea that their club was somehow “discriminated against,” and that their fans are therefore justified in hating everyone else in Scottish football.
It’s a disgusting idea. And it is entirely false.
Yet the media pushes it, and their fans wholeheartedly believe in it. Well, the hacks can celebrate the return of away fans all they want. They can talk about how it restores something Scottish football has lost.
In my view, Scottish football has been far better without it. And it’s certainly not something that Celtic Park has been missing.
I cannot pretend to be happy about it. I cannot pretend that those nets are anything other than a ghastly sight and a disgrace. We would have saved ourselves a lot of time and trouble if we had never agreed to let their fans back into Celtic Park at all. I really wish that’s what our club had decided to do.
Photo by Rob Casey/SNS Group via Getty Images
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Could not agree more James, why we are going back to absolute hate and the vile songbook is beyond me. It is a slur on the Celtic board for allowing it and somewhat spoiling our fans’ experience.
100% in agreement, James. Celtic should never allow their toxic support to waste the atmosphere at Celtic Park, and whatever else they get up to. The game was great without them
I cannot disagree with anything you say there James, it all makes sense.
However. like it or not, the hatred involved is a part of the ingrained toxic atmosphere that makes this game, not special, but certainly different in a way that attracts a global audience, like people slowing down to watch the aftermath of a car crash. Whether we should. be catering for that sort of twisted attraction is another story as it is difficult to avoid and blood and guts will always be a sellable asset. I attended these games all of my life and I looked forward to everyone of them. From getting up early in the morning, meeting all my fellow fans at someone’s house, getting the war songs going, getting liquored up, heading for the pub and then heading for the match in a bouncing supporters bus was a great experience.
Going forward I think we are stuck with the way it is and all we can do is mitigate the fall out from it. Sad but true.
what action was taken against the home club when engels was injured by coin throwing at ibrox ?
Non scousebhoy – As this is Scotland and Sevco are fuckin Teflon in this rancid football country…
They (The SFA / SPFL) done fuck all (to Sevco) about life changing injuries to a Celtic FC physio so they’ll do fuck all for Arne Engles getting hit by a missile for sure…
Good enough for them to be netted it – Hope Celtic can set up a TV gantry to show the world – Not That The Scummy’s of The Scummy Scottish Football Media would broadcast much about it anyway…
Glad that it is Celtic that are The Pioneers of this set of circumstances as it would be manna from heaven for The Scummy’s if it was the other way around for sure !
EDIT – That should start NONE scousebhoy and not NON scousebhoy as it reads !
The ‘false equivalence’ has already been highlighted, this time by pilcher of the DR in his article. Carefully manipulating his words tae make us out as bad, or even worse. Beats me why we even want them back at CP. Have a look on social media and even with simple stories like this regardin safety nets, ye’ll see every type of sick, poisonous, filth aimed at our club and support. Nothin is low enough for them. Why dae we want these people in our stadium ?! Ah grew up through decades of these games havin an away support. Now tho, ah wouldnae have their support near our ground. Better the way it has been recently imo.
Absolutely James,
I was at the 3-0 game and it definitely was the best atmosphere.
Don’t want them back at Paradise.
When I hear, “both sides are as bad as each other,”
It makes my blood boil !
Yes we have a cringeworthy element in our fanbase, yes we sing certain songs that I do not agree with or like and yes we can have certain moments of madness…BUT
In comparison to that shower, there is absolutely NO comparison!!!
I wholeheartedly agree James, that the 3-0 night with Ange’s first year team was one of the best I’ve experienced! 60,000 partisan Celtic fans watching an exciting Celtic team on the rise and about to wrench the title back from their poisonous grasp!
Although the opinions may be mixed, I never wanted to see their fans back at our ground, simply because they are vile, and bring nothing but toxicity and hatred.
I also agree, and I’ve discussed this with my elderly father, that the hatred and bile is at the worst levels it’s ever been, and driven by ‘the victim lie,’ as you so rightly suggest!!
Our fans aren’t always angels …we are not naive enough to think that, but we do have a historical empathy with other team’s fans, and in the main, it is usually, very good natured.
Waiting for the low level train last Sunday there were a good crowd of Hibs fans ( mainly youngsters) singing away and playfully taunting, and with the Celtic fans singing back. As far as I could see no trouble whatsoever and not a police officer in sight.
We shall see what Sunday brings.
I expect a tough game as per, but I sincerely hope that we can score early, turn on the after burners and blow away any notion that they are a decent team.
I also pray that there is no trouble inside or outside the ground. Difference is, I pray to God, whilst too many of their horde, worship at the altar of the devil !!
HH
We should never have allowed them back at our ground until they agreed to go back to pre 2018 numbers. Quite honestly Like you James I think the derby game at Celtic Park is a lot more enjoyable without them and their songs of hate. Their anti Catholic and anti Irish chants and songs just make the atmosphere hateful, and as a Scottish Independence supporter of Irish descent they sicken me with the bastardisation of Songs like Caledonia and The Fields of Athenry, along with their sycophantic singing of God save the King and Rule Britannia. Add to that the praising of a fascist Glasgow thug and his gang with the “Billy Boys” song I’d rather avoid them altogether. In the past few years our Club’s Boards lack of defending its players, backroom staff and supporters after numerous violent incidents when visiting Ibrox, has been cowardly, and has only encouraged the notion that both sets of supporters are much the same. When we know that although we have a few eejits amongst our own fans, the hatred and violence isn’t at the same level.
The media both broadcasting and print are completely censored and biased when it comes to football and politics, It has been throughout the years, but in my opinion has got worse over the past 13 years with the liquidation of their original club.