The Ibrox club has no business being involved in Celtic’s title party discussions.

Today, the newspapers are running a story that’s a little bit strange, and I think it requires some explanation. It’s about how Police Scotland is consulting with both ourselves and the Ibrox club, as well as Glasgow City Council, about the possibility of a title party—something organised this time, perhaps.

To be perfectly honest with you, I’ve got no problem with having a sit-down with the council and trying to come to some sort of arrangement—as long as the city itself is prepared to lay something on for us and support the idea that our fans are entitled to congregate together, if that’s what they want to do.

And it’s about time the city did its bit. Celtic brings a lot of trade to Glasgow. Celtic brings a lot of credibility to the city. Celtic is one of the great driving forces of the Glasgow economy, and it is high time that the Glasgow City Council leadership, as well as those in the Holyrood parliament, started to act like it, instead of treating us as if we were second-class citizens.

Where I’m a little bit unsure about all this is in wondering why the hell the Ibrox club is involved in these conversations. They’re not going to win the title. They have no skin in the game. They’ve got no stake in this affair. So why in God’s name are they even being consulted as part of this process? What business is it of theirs? What agreement we come to with the city and the police—do they have a veto or something over whether or not we have this celebration? I don’t know how that would work. I don’t know why our club would ever agree to such a thing. I know our supporters certainly will not.

Ibrox’s involvement in this is baffling, and someone’s going to have to explain it to me. People can say it’s a contingency in case their club mounts a staggering comeback and wins the title themselves—but no one actually believes that’s credibly going to happen. No one would make any serious argument that such a thing is likely, even though it is still technically possible.

Since everyone knows this, I cannot fathom what they’re doing involved in this process. And I also don’t like the way the media is trying to draw some kind of equivalence between their last title party and what ours might look like. There is no equivalence between their last title party and ours. It was perfectly legal for our fans to gather in the streets and celebrate. It was not legal for theirs to gather in George Square during a national lockdown. It is more than possible—in fact, it is probable—that their behaviour contributed to a strain on the NHS and quite possibly a number of deaths.

In addition, our fans celebrated. Their fans rioted. Every time the media wants to have a go at us, it mentions how our supporters gathering in the streets caused rubbish to pile up and how there were 19 arrests. Nineteen arrests out of many, many thousands. And rubbish piling up? Are you kidding me? As if that’s never happened in Glasgow before—as if that’s some alien concept in a city where we allow sectarian marches every single year and devote a full day in July to them.

There would, could and should have been many hundreds, if not thousands, of arrests during the George Square riot. This is what I’m talking about when I mention Police Scotland’s decision not to properly exercise their authority that day. And let me remind you what the sequence of events was.

They allowed an illegal gathering. They allowed drinking in the streets. They allowed sectarian singing by people who had already broken several laws. They stood back as drunken Ibrox fans turned on each other—violently. They did nothing as local businesses were being terrorised. And finally, when the crowd turned on them, then and only then did they finally break up the party.

No wonder some of us do not trust their operational decision-making.

The media’s attempts to paint both celebrations as being essentially the same—and as being somehow on a level with each other—is deplorable at best. It makes excuses for the drunken, psychotic behaviour of their supporters that day, and at worst it seems to make a moral equivalence between that behaviour and fans in the streets partying with one another and generally just having a good time.

They ought not to be anywhere near this discussion. It’s got nothing to do with them. And I would not like to think that their club would have a veto on what we as a club and as a support are allowed to do. That would be absolutely shameful if Celtic agreed to such a thing. Once again, there are questions here that ought to be answered—and we’ll find out, in the fullness of time, what those answers are. Because way before this day ever comes about—way before the title is decided—we need to have some clarity on whether or not this city intends to make provisions on our behalf, or whether it expects us all just to go home and celebrate behind closed doors.