Celtic’s Trongate title party has been demonised in the media. But the truth is a little different.

So yesterday’s title party – which they asked us not to have, which we had anyway – generated a large number of headlines.

This is not surprising. We always knew we were going to get the shit end of the stick, because we’re not allowed to celebrate this. After all, it’s not supposed to be our city, not supposed to be our country, not supposed to be our culture. So why would we be allowed to celebrate as if it was?

And the thing is, I’m only half exaggerating here, because this is sometimes how I feel about this place. Sometimes it feels as if we’re not citizens with the same rights as everybody else – that we’re barely tolerated guests.

Paulina is over here right now from Poland, and I bet she feels a lot more welcome in this city – except when she’s being grilled by Border Force – than some of us do who’ve lived here our whole lives.

So nine people got arrested. Nine. Out of the many, many, many thousands who showed up for the party. Three of those arrests were inside the stadium, so that means only six people got arrested out of all those who were out on the streets.

There were also 15 fixed penalty notices handed out in total for the entire day involving our supporters. There were 60,000 of them at the game, and God knows how many more ended up in the Trongate for the big celebration.

So forgive me for not thinking World War III broke out in Glasgow yesterday. If there really had been “widespread disorder”, as the police described, I think there would have been slightly more than six people arrested.

I think there would have been slightly more than 15 fixed penalty notices handed out. That actually doesn’t sound to me terribly different from an average Saturday night in Glasgow. I wonder how many fixed penalty notices there are on an average weekend.

I’m also somewhat fascinated by this idea that there was all this widespread destruction of property.

A few broken traffic lights seem to be the best anyone can come up with. And I don’t know – since you know this event is coming twelve months in advance, might you not be able to put grilles over the traffic lights or something? They do that in other parts of the world, and it seems to work. Then there’s the usual talk about rubbish everywhere. Natural consequence of the council knowing an event like this was coming and not putting out extra bins or trash receptacles.

There are pictures today, and stories going around, about lots of Celtic fans who stayed after the party to help council workers clean up the rubbish. And here’s my suggestion on that – and maybe it’s sophomoric, maybe it’s childish and simplistic, maybe it doesn’t belong in the debate – but nobody should get away with not including it, because if you’re allowed to talk about one, then you’re allowed to talk about the other.

So, having done the first – having highlighted the number of arrests and the number of fixed penalties – I think we should look at those pictures. We should count how many Celtic fans are in them.

And if it’s more than 15, then our critics should shut the fuck up.

Because if you think you’re going to demonise the entire Celtic support – everyone who was there yesterday – based on six arrests and 15 fixed penalty notices, then it’s absolutely legitimate to ask how many of them helped clean up after the event. And if that number is higher, then the argument is over. There’s nowhere else for it to go.

You can’t highlight the bad and ignore the good. You can’t try to tar a whole event with the actions of a handful of idiots who spoiled the fun for everyone else, without also acknowledging the thousands who just wanted to enjoy themselves – and those who stayed to help clean up at the end.

That’s what really infuriates me about this whole shoddy debate.

From the start, it was clear our club did whatever it could to try and make this thing go more smoothly. They even suggested alternative venues for fans to gather. No one at the council was interested in helping facilitate that.

I suspect what they wanted was for the club to swallow the entire cost of the thing – which they should not do, and will not do.

You would not ask Bayern Munich to carry the cost of their fans celebrating in the city centre. Munich’s council would take it for granted and lay on enough provisions to minimise disruption.

This is the same council that couldn’t even be bothered to put out extra bins. They wouldn’t even make that one small, basic concession, which could have erased a lot of the negative headlines we’re reading today.

The point here is, it almost seems as if this whole thing has been framed to make our fans the bad guys no matter what.

The scheduling of an Orange Walk on the same day was clearly inflammatory. It was clearly dangerous. The council did it anyway.

Police Scotland – for all their foot-stamping over “not liking the decision” – you’d think that, being the number one body responsible for public safety, they could have vetoed it. They chose not to.

It just seems to me that the whole affair has been set up to make us look bad. That no matter what happened, they were ready to point fingers and say “look at the damage, look at the trouble”.

And for what purpose? What’s been achieved here?

A potentially explosive situation didn’t end in chaos.

Yes, there was an altercation in George Square – involving Orange Walk members throwing objects at Celtic fans on the way to the game. But again, the press wants to ignore that. They prefer to focus on two Celtic fans having a shouting match in the middle of a party and highlight that instead.

I know which one is a bigger deal. I think we all know which one is the bigger deal. I think we all know why that one wasn’t the one that made the headlines.

So the worst of the trouble didn’t happen. The worst of the damage wasn’t done. But the press got their headlines, and the council still got to complain.

And again I ask – what’s been achieved here?

The event will go ahead next year, whether it’s with approval or not, whether it’s with permission, proper policing, facilities, or council assistance. It will happen if Celtic are champions – and let’s face it, we will be.

The same party will take place. The same debate. The same argument. And if the council still wants to stand in opposition, the same outcome.

They chose not to be constructive and the result is all this moaning and pearl-clutching that makes our city sound like some banana republic backwater.

It’s done nobody any good. It hasn’t fixed anything. And it hasn’t changed the fact that this time next season, we’ll be having the same conversation, the same party, and reading virtually identical headlines.

Unless people get real. Unless the council becomes more constructive. Unless they and the wider community come together and acknowledge that this can’t keep happening in the same shambolic way. If they’re willing to work with Celtic and Celtic fans – instead of pushing us to the margins – then maybe it won’t happen like this next year. Maybe common sense will prevail, and it’ll be handled more professionally.

But they don’t get to preach. They don’t get to climb on their soapbox and crow. They don’t get to paint our fans as some hooligan rabble when that is far from the truth. They can point to a few bad actors – and those people will be prosecuted. Good luck to the police in getting their convictions. No one will complain. No one will defend those who deserve to be punished.

But I prefer to focus on the Celtic fans who stayed behind to help clean up. That’s the image of Glasgow I’d want in the papers. That’s what you’d promote – if you had any sense. If your intent wasn’t just to score cheap points at our expense, that’s what you’d highlight.

And I think it’s very telling what they’ve chosen to do instead. That’s why I’m not swayed by a single word of it. That’s why I’ve got limited sympathy for Police Scotland or the council’s stated view. It doesn’t impress me one bit.