There is every likelihood that this season will end at Celtic Park with the presentation of the trophy, but I don’t know a single Celtic fan who would not prefer it if the trophy was handed out on the second-to-last game if it meant we could have the first match after the split at Celtic Park, so we can win the league in front of a home crowd.
If the last game being away from home is the trade-off, I don’t know who would not be perfectly prepared to take it.
Playing the last game at home so they can present the trophy adds a little bit of spectacle, sure. Nobody denies that. But that bit of theatre can easily be shifted to another match. It can happen the week before. It can happen whenever the title is secured—as long as it’s at Celtic Park, so we can celebrate it properly, with our fans, and see the silverware and the league flag presented where it belongs on the same day; nobody has offered a good reason as to why that can’t happen.
The important thing is how many fans actually get to witness the moment the league is won. If most Celtic fans had their way, we’d want the presentation early—as long as we get to see the team win it at home. That’s what matters.
That’s the moment people want to physically be there for.
The post-split fixtures are going to give us three games away. I genuinely don’t know any Celtic fan who would care if one of those was the final game of the season, as long as one of the two home matches is the first game after the split. If you could poll on this I think the results would be overwhelming.
Hell, nobody I know would care if we were handed the trophy at Celtic Park on a Wednesday night—as long as we got to see the league clinched in front of a home crowd, on a raucous afternoon, as it should have been yesterday.
The SPFL will go on about how the draw is done by a computer, but that’s rubbish. Everyone knows they’re inputting conditions to avoid a title decider at Ibrox. So, if they can do that, they can give us a home game first.
The presentation itself is just theatre. I’ve missed those games before. I was sitting in a bar in Tenerife when we got our second league flag under Ange. When we booked the holiday, we knew it would be the final game of the campaign. We knew there was a good chance it would be the trophy presentation. Did we care? No, because we got to see the league won while we were still at home. That’s the moment that matters.
It’s high time the league showed a bit of common sense.
We know we’re going to be champions. We know we’re getting the trophy. So, this contrived idea of waiting for the last home game just to stage a presentation is daft. That final home game could be away to Aberdeen for all it matters.
If the league knows we only need a point – which we do – then bring the trophy to Celtic Park for the first game after the split. Do the two in one day; let us have the chance to win it and get the silverware in the same afternoon. Let us know that’s the plan in advance and let fans plan the party.
This “final home game” tradition isn’t a tradition at all, it’s a confection, nothing more, and it doesn’t need to apply. If you were going into the last five games and the title was still undecided, you wouldn’t get a guaranteed final-day home fixture. So, let’s stop pretending this is some immovable custom. It isn’t.
If within the next week, anyone tries to hide behind that excuse as the reason why we’re playing at Pittodrie or Easter Road—where only a handful of our fans will get to see the title won—they’re not being straight.
With two home games and three away, you can schedule it however you want. What you won’t do is schedule a home game first and a home game last. One of those will have to move. And I think every Celtic fan knows which one we’d rather it was.
Brendan knows it as well as anyone.
He said as much at the weekend when he expressed his regret that we’d lost a chance to win it in front of a home crowd. But that chance is still there. It now just depends on the so-called SPFL computer giving it to us, and there’s no reason why it can’t be programmed to do exactly that.
For once, the league should just give the fans what they actually want. I’m sure I read somewhere that “football without fans is nothing.” Let’s for once be true to the sentiment. Surely that’s not too much to expect.
I can see them putting Sevco at home on Saturday 26th April and if they draw that’s us winning it in the house…
We will likely be dumped with Sunday 27th April instead and away no doubt –
Not often that I disagree with you James, but the presentation on the evening Matchday is very much a no no from me, I no longer go to games and so it wouldn’t effect me personally but the whole event would not be over until 11pm at which point the pubs are closed and 60,000 canny squeeze into Maggie May’s !
I’d be careful about promoting that as Polieas Alba might just engineer it to end the street party which I was at the last two years and it was awesome indeed !
I was just about to say that, that they’ll put the Sevco game on before us.
If its the celebrations after they’re bothered about and they don’t give us a home game first, all they’re doin is postponin them until we get the trophy on the last day anyway and if that’s an away game as well, it’ll be an obvious fix. They should just allow us our day with a home fixture and get it over with. As much as it annoys them.
James if you think the sfa would do anything to facilitate celtic and our fans your delusional they will do everything they can to make it difficult
There are thousands of Irish based Celtic fans like myself that have to plan for such events and many of us have already booked flights and hotels for Flag Day on Saturday 17th May. I hope that date doesn’t move for obvious reasons! HH.
Correct James we all know how a computer works “what you put in you get out” . Would any CELTIC supporters care if we had 3 away games in a row and the first and last games at home….NO…. the only people who would care (hide behind that excuse) are the bigots at the SFA/SPFL and police Scotland .. not to be fair minded.. just to TRY and spoil our party… but they won’t…comeonthehoops
Am I missing something that they couldn’t just make both of them our home games.
I’m sure none of us would have any issue with having a home game to win it & then 3 away games then a home game for the end.
We’ll play Rangers bob in the middle of the split. Winning the title will have “calmed” by then & then it’s not right at the end of the season.
Would be funny if the computer really did do the draws & we got them first fixtures after the split or if that was the last day of the season. That would make an away game of either day worth it but we all know that won’t happen.
I would like to see the experience of being present when we win the league maximised for fans but logic doesn’t come into it. The way I see it, we got cheated at Easter Road (and other places) that would have had us over the line, and we didn’t turn up in other matches like the huns and St Johnstone so it shouldn’t have got to this point. Blame the players who hid, and the management team that couldn’t change tactics and the board who didn’t freshen up the squad, and the people who run the game or don’t run it properly. We’re almost there now so we have to enjoy it whenever and wherever we can.
If the SFA get petty then Celtic could just tag along until the Ibrox game and make it our celebration day.
our first game after the split will be up at Pittodrie.
Are they out yet JimBhoy !