The Green Brigade calls the bluff on the title party. GCC has a big problem now.

The problem with a bluff is if someone calls it. This has been well known by everyone who’s ever tried to bluff and failed. But it’s also been known by everyone who’s ever used bluffing as part of basic strategy. And bluffing has been a part of basic strategy since time immemorial. It’s a high-risk move though.

The other day I did a piece on Glasgow City Council’s incomprehensible decision to allow an Orange parade to go through Trongate on the day Celtic are presented with the league trophy at our ground.

I marvelled that no one had looked at a calendar and spotted the obvious problem with that date. I was stunned that Police Scotland allowed it. Although, maybe I was a little harsh on them in that regard—it seems more likely that this was just dropped in their laps and they were told to deal with it.

And I speculated that perhaps the people who did this were looking to create a point of confrontation. Perhaps they were aiming explicitly to create circumstances where trouble might be just one wrong word away. What I couldn’t understand was why anyone would do such a thing. Why anyone would do something that mind-bendingly crazy. And last night, it dawned on me—perhaps it’s an attempted bluff.

It dawned on me that maybe this was an effort to bounce our fans into not holding their title party at Trongate. And the problem, as I said above, is if you’re going to bluff, you’d better hope no one calls it.

Today, the Green Brigade did exactly that—by advertising Trongate as the location of the title party on that day. So if this was a bluff, it’s stupider than any two people playing chicken and getting into a head-on collision.

So what now for the council? What now for the plans for that day? The Green Brigade has gone ahead and announced the party. That genie’s out of the bottle—and there’s no putting it back in. The police can come along, try to get heavy-handed, and attempt to prevent the party from taking place.

That would be one way to handle it, but it would immediately raise questions. Questions about why other events aren’t policed the same way, and why a firmer hand hasn’t been used at other times, in other places.

Police Scotland is already under significant scrutiny because of their decision to stop Celtic fans marching to Celtic Park for a game against the Ibrox club not that long ago. Another example of two-tier policing would be an absolute PR disaster.

It would stink to high heaven, and our club would want answers. Our fans would want answers. And that would lead to political pressure and politicians wanting answers too, one would hope.

As I said the other day, trying to get the Orange Order to change their plans is a fool’s errand—they’re simply not going to do that.

So the likelihood is that large numbers of Celtic fans will be in the Trongate area, either on their way to the game, or unable to attend it and choosing to celebrate there before kick-off, and watching in one of the many Celtic bars, as the dregs of the Orange Order and their assorted hangers-on pass through the area.

I don’t know if the council really was gambling that Celtic fans might take their party somewhere else. I don’t know if they were gambling on the Orange Order cancelling their march. But whatever they were gambling on, the gamble failed today when the Green Brigade announced the celebration. And the Orange Order remains committed to holding its march at the time of its choosing.

Perhaps the council are relying on the fact that the Orange Order march will have dispersed by the time the Celtic game finishes and Trongate starts filling up with the 60,000 fans who were in the ground.

It’s possible they get lucky in that regard, and that every single Orangeman is out of the area by the time Celtic fans show up en masse. But as I’ve said already, there are going to be plenty of Celtic fans in that area when the march takes place. And there will be enough stragglers, hangers-on, and quite possibly troublesome elements from the march who want to cause bother, hanging around until the party begins for real.

Nobody wants trouble. Everyone hopes the afternoon goes off without a hitch. But someone at Glasgow City Council decided to roll the dice. And if there is widespread disorder, if there is serious trouble, then as I said in the previous piece, no one should be pointing the finger at our supporters.

Our fans have done this three years in a row. Our fans get on just fine with each other, by and large. If there is real trouble, it’ll be because of the added element. It’ll be because of all those Orangemen being thrown into close proximity with our fans.

There’s no rolling it back now.

The Green Brigade has put out its statement. They’ve announced the party. So, they’ve called the bluff of those who wondered if they would. Of course they were going to do it. They were always going to do it—just as the Orange Order are going to do their march, regardless of what anyone has to say about it, unless the police step in and try to stop one or both of these events.

I think we can all guess which one that would be… but the Green Brigade—and our fans—have called their bluff too.

This is very unlikely to end well, and those on the council who approved that march are the ones who’ll ultimately be to blame if goes off the rails.