The latest right-wing media attack on Celtic will fool precisely nobody.

Last night, the Scottish Daily Express put up a piece that has to be challenged aggressively.

It was a piece about a Celtic fan who was allegedly assaulted at the last home game simply for wearing an Israeli badge. It is one of the worst examples of shoddy journalism that I think I’ve ever seen, and it is nothing but a far-right newspaper taking their cue from a bunch of far-right activists and attempting to smear our fans and our club.

The Scottish Daily Express is one of the worst right-wing rags in this country, and I have no problem calling it that. I also have no problem saying that it is an organ of the far right, not just the right.

I think it is a racist newspaper. I think it is a bigoted newspaper.

It is anti-immigration. It is anti-Palestinian. It is proudly anti-woke, to use the familiar term of the far right. And I’m not even going to say that the newspaper has been misled here. The newspaper is deliberately running a story which it knows is a grotesque falsehood and a misrepresentation of what actually took place.

To get a sense of what this diabolical piece of work actually says, I want you to consider the following paragraph at the start of the piece:

“A Glasgow grandfather, who was holding a small pro-Israel badge, has spoken about the terrifying attack by Celtic-supporting thugs inside Celtic Park. Police Scotland have launched an investigation into a ‘serious assault’ after the 54-year-old Roman Catholic received injuries which required hospital treatment.”

First, it mentions that he’s a grandfather – so straight away we’re into the emotive language.

Then it’s “Celtic-supporting thugs.”

But what exactly does his being a Roman Catholic have to do with any of this? What exactly is the nature of a report which puts that in there as if it has the slightest relevance at all?

This is his version of events, as told first to the Jewish Telegraph, and then to the Scottish Daily Express:

“The game didn’t kick off until 3pm and we had a bit of time on our hands so I stopped at the (Glasgow Friends of Israel) stall. I’d been a season ticket holder at Celtic most of my life, as were my parents before me. Until the October 7th massacre of innocent Israelis by Hamas, I was a fervent supporter of the Palestinian cause, like many other fans at the club. But all that changed when the terrorists struck and I switched my allegiance to the Israelis. As I was leaving the GFI stall, I noticed they had blue badges with a white Star of David which supported Israel, and I asked for one. They were slightly bigger than a 50 pence piece.”

The whole story that he tells from here on in is so obviously ridiculous that it’s impossible to take it seriously.

His grandson, who he went to the game with, was sitting somewhere else in the ground. Of course.

He was advised to take the badge off by police upon going into the stadium, who told him it might not go down well – this is what he says. So he claims he took it off and put it in his pocket, but not before taking some pictures of the badge inside Celtic Park.

So this guy took photographs of his hand holding the badge up.

For what purpose? For what possible reason?

Is that a normal thing that people do?

He claims he put it back in his pocket, but after Jota scored the goal, he felt a pain in his leg – which was the pin of the badge sticking into him. So he took the badge out of his pocket.

And at that point, he says, he was attacked by Celtic supporters.

It is preposterous. It is a completely ridiculous scenario.

This thing, no larger than a 50p piece, was allegedly spotted in seconds – a matter of seconds – by fans who then attacked him.

His version of events is even more bizarre.

“My right arm was twisted behind my back and fingers then prised my hand open to reveal the badge,” he said. “My assailant then started hurling abuse at me, calling me a genocidal Nazi among other insults. As I tried to get the badge back off him, he stamped me in the chest with his boot and I went flying backwards down the staircase. When I recovered, I told him I wanted the badge back. He said ‘come and get it.’ I ran up the stairs towards him and he tried to kick me again. This time I was ready for him. I sidestepped his flying boot and grabbed his leg before yanking him forward.

“He came flying down the stairs towards me and we started grappling with each other. Suddenly three or four others jumped on me and began punching and kicking me. I covered up to avoid being hurt and found a gap which allowed me to break free.

“As I ran away from the chasing gang a group of police officers came charging towards us. Their appearance definitely saved me because the attackers about-turned and ran away back to their seats.”

There’s nothing about that that’s not suspect.

And tell me this, does that not sound an awful lot like a fight rather than one guy being attacked?

A Celtic fan group has already published – days ago – their own version of events.

“Glasgow Friends of ‘Israel’ is an openly racist and genocidal organisation which is funded by the racist and genocidal Zionist State of ‘Israel’.

On Saturday one of their members attended Celtic Park seeking to spread racist propaganda inside the stadium. The individual in question attempted to plaster pro-genocide stickers around the ground. As you’d expect, Celtic fans made it clear they were not welcome. As is often the case with these zionists, the coward then went complaining to the police and tried to get Celtic fans arrested (pictured).

Since Saturday, a series of orchestrated complaints have been made to the police and club. We are not going to give the spectacular lies of this pathetic group any more oxygen than they deserve. The sight of a Palestine flag offends these individuals as they are a deeply racist people who do not believe that Palestinians deserve to live. The point of their lobbying campaign is to pressure the club to try to stop displays of support for Palestine by the fans. It won’t work.

The more these people try to threaten Celtic fans for supporting Palestine, the more the support will grow. Celtic fans have a track record of both standing up to racism and solidarity with Palestine going back many decades. It’s in our DNA. Just like massacring babies is in the DNA of zionists.

Zionism is a racist ideology and those who support genocide are not welcome in Celtic Park. We call on all Celtic fans to be vigilant of their tactics and continue to defend the proud traditions of the club.”

Whilst I don’t automatically believe everything that I read on their social media sites and don’t accept many of their explanations for things that went on in the past, this one’s a little harder to dismiss, because it comes together a lot better than this bizarre story.

Rhetoric aside, and there’s plenty of that in their post, this adds up a whole lot more.

A scenario in which a pro-Israeli activist provoked a confrontation, inside our ground, with members of our support, sounds a lot more likely than the absolute bullshit that we’re being asked to believe took place.

I know that the so-called journalist who wrote that piece hasn’t asked any questions about the narrative he’s been spun – although it has more holes in it than a tea bag.

This incident has been widely covered on social media. It’s been debated from end to end.

And I’m going to tell you – I believe the Celtic fans version of this far more than I believe the alternative, which is the one that’s been splattered all over the Scottish Daily Express tonight.

It’s a little bit of the dark arts.

Even the emotional language used in the article – the completely irrelevant part about him being a grandfather and a Roman Catholic – suggests that this is an attempt to sway opinion against a certain group of our fans.

But nothing about his story adds up. Nothing about it makes sense.

The article even publishes his selfie picture – not a picture of him, but a picture of his hand holding the badge up. And you can see clearly from the picture that he’s sitting right beside the Green Brigade section.

Which seems an absurd thing for someone holding up an Israeli badge to be doing.

This is clearly someone trying to provoke a controversy, if not an outright conflict.

This does not appear to be a benevolent individual simply going about his business. His behaviour is highly suspect, to say the least. And so is the way that this story has been covered by the paper.

Even Police Scotland – who, as regular readers will know, I have serious issues with – are not convinced by the veracity of his story. That is why the piece has to end with their statement on it, which reads as follows:

“Our enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances of this incident and we would urge anyone with information to come forward.”

“Our enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances of this incident.”

Which is more than the so-called journalist who wrote the piece has bothered to do.

But the details and the circumstances can be found on social media, if the guy could be bothered to look – or indeed, if he had any interest in establishing the full facts and circumstances.

I have a sneaking feeling that Police Scotland know exactly what this was, and what it is.

That’s why they are still trying to find verification for his story.

The guy himself freely admits that he was told by Police Scotland going into the ground to take the damn thing off – because even they recognised that it was a clear attempt to provoke trouble.

As an example of shoddy journalism, this should be up there with the best of them.

But I’ll go you one better than that. It’s not.

It’s not journalism at all.

It’s a wholly false narrative being painted by a right-wing rag, which I wouldn’t use to wipe my backside.

We put out our latest podcast last night, “Crisis? What Crisis?”