GLASGOW, SCOTLAND: NOVEMBER 05: The Green Brigade hold up a banner during a cinch Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park, on November 05, 2022, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Talking to a lot of fans, I know that walking into Celtic Park these days doesn’t feel the same. The North Curve is quiet, the flags are missing, the chants are muted and it’s all because the Green Brigade are still banned. Twenty-six matches have passed and there is still no word from the club that actually delivers a return date.
We are left hanging. The stands are full, but something feels empty, because a core part of what makes Paradise what it is simply is not there. Every time I hear someone talking about “progress in talks”, it feels like smoke and mirrors. We deserve better. The players deserve better. Celtic Park deserves its heartbeat back.
The Green Brigade remain banned, and their situation has become a focal point in a wider debate about supporter rights and club policy. Whatever your view of them, their absence has changed the atmosphere inside the stadium. That much is undeniable.
This is a group that has been part of the modern Celtic experience for nearly two decades. Formed in 2006, their aim was simple: bring colour, noise and energy to matches at home and away. They brought choreographed displays, coordinated singing, drumming and a sense of collective identity that helped make Celtic Park one of the most intimidating and inspiring venues in Europe.
They also represent something else.
The group describes itself as a broad anti-fascist, anti-racist and anti-sectarian movement, and they have never hidden their political and cultural identity. For many supporters, that visibility is part of what Celtic has always been about. Right now, though, they are excluded.
Hundreds of supporters are unable to attend matches, and there is still no clear explanation of what conditions must be met for their return. The original suspension followed what the club described as a serious security-related incident during the October 29 match in 2025. Since then, the silence has been the biggest problem.
Yes, there have been talks. Interim chairman Brian Wilson confirmed he met with Green Brigade representatives and said he hoped progress could be made.
There is no timeline. No written framework. No public explanation of what a return would require. According to the Green Brigade’s own statement, there has been no response from the club following a meeting on 12 February despite repeated contact.
That is not progress. That is drift. And drift feels like disrespect.
The board speaks about safety, standards and responsibility. Those things matter. Nobody is arguing that they do not. But the language coming from the club has the tone of corporate compliance rather than supporter engagement.
At the same time, the Green Brigade say they are willing to talk, willing to engage and willing to move forward. So here we are, stuck.
Meetings without outcomes. Statements without substance. Progress without a plan. Both sides say they want a united Celtic. Neither has yet delivered the one thing that would actually prove it: a clear, agreed pathway back to the North Curve.
And until that exists, the words mean very little.
Because the reality inside the stadium is obvious. Paradise without the Green Brigade feels different. The energy is lower. The edge is missing. The sense of collective voice is weaker. This is not a debate about one supporter group alone. It is about identity. Peter Grant said it bluntly: Celtic are nothing without the supporters. He was right.
When Stuttgart came to Glasgow recently, the crowd did not lift the team the way we have come to expect. That is what happens when a major part of the support is missing.
You can argue tactics, recruitment or formations all you like, but football is more than eleven players.
It is atmosphere and pressure and belief. It is the sound that turns a stadium into something opponents fear.
Remove that, and you lose something far bigger than noise. At the moment, there is still no confirmed return date.
The board says progress has been made. That sounds like board language for a situation that is nowhere near resolution. Unless there is a written roadmap, agreed and published, this situation will continue. The season will move on.
The stadium will remain full, but it will not feel the way it should.
And that matters. Because walking into Celtic Park now does not feel the same.
The North Curve is quiet. The flags are missing. The chants are muted.
Twenty six matches have passed and still, no one has told the supporters when the heartbeat of Paradise will return.
Celtic cannot let this go on.
“Because the reality inside the stadium is obvious. Paradise without the Green Brigade feels different”
Back in the day it would have been the same with ‘The Jungle’. Paradise without The Jungle would have felt different. Good article, Paulina. Thanks!
Paulina, of course we all want unity but the GB need to come clean here. They know the conditions that have been set for a return to CP and they obviously dont like them and are not willing to share what was said at the meeting. If you want to know ask them. The minutes of the GB meeting should be shared with all the support.
My understanding is the GB want to be unpoliced and run about the stadium and Glasgow freely without reproach. They dont want any police at CP. They don’t want any military or ex military in the Celtic support. They wish several groups of people to be unwelcome at CP and it is not going to happen with this board or the next one.
Look across europe ultra sections are getting shut down everywhere!
Mr Mojorisin,
you certainly seem to be a man in the know… you’re asking Paulina to ask the Green Brigade to ‘come clean’ regarding their stance on many things, I would humbly ask you to do the same, where is the proof and basis of your claim that the Green Brigade allegedly want no police, no military in the support and to ‘run about Glasgow freely’ (not sure what celtic could do about that demand tbh). What I feel you miss is the fact that if Celtic had strong leadership, leadership that engages with all aspects of the club, you’d maybe find that agreements and compromise would be easier to achieve maybe? I know we seem to live in a tribal world, you’re either left or right with no middle ground, but that doesn’t mean our board should think like that, they are custodians of something far bigger than them, they need to start realising that and park their ego’s and behave like real, proper leaders, although I feel that may be something they don’t have the skillset for.
If the crowd are the twelfth man then the millionaires in soft seats have handicapped us for these last home games.
They also put money accumulation ahead of trophies by debilitating the team if they choose to.
The wealthy money addicts use spectacular Green Brigade tifos in thier promotion materials, they use the chants created by the Green Brigade over the speaker systems and then ban 250 for the minor crime of 4 or 5. Why?
Looks narcissistic, hateful, elitist and contemptuous snobbery but we know the real reasons are the peasants organising, then telling the millionaires they are not good enough and can’t do their jobs properly.”Can’t do our jobs and you want us sacked ?,well then you are not welcome here”.
Sends the message that what the peasants are saying is too truthful and that’s why it hurts.
It’s a sign of weak leadership when lt can’t tolerate criticism and is reduced to such appalling and draconian measures to the further deterioration of the product. No spectacular tifos on Euro nights or big matches, no more 90 minutes of Celtic drums and songs just the opposition fans and theirs.
The greatest atmosphere in Europe, say all the football superstars, it’s on millions of people’s tick list to experience. Imagine the anti- climax, the disappointment, the damage to a reputation that took generations to form. Wrecked in one season by some temporary custodians who care more about themselves than the reputation of Celtic.
As far as I’m concerned that ban alone is a sacking offence but I’m just a peasant whose views are to be shut out.
Ps. I am not nor have I ever been anything to do with any ultras, or even know any.
Hey Volp, that’s not how it works. Ultras are getting barred across europa by UEFA. We maybe benefited when 10,000 ultras from Feyenoord were banned against us. I never heard much complaints about that. Of course there wasn’t 10,000 guilty fans. Collective punishment is how it works. Predating the ultras, english clubs got banned from europe for years due to the actions of a few.
Our away support is on a final warning from UEFA also.
The GB are wanting back unconditionally and the board want strict conditions. Thats why they are not back.
Both the club and the GB should be sharing the minutes of their meeting with the fans.
How about the green brigade pay back the huge amount of fines our great club has incurred through there flares & banners then welcome them back to bring the noise,the club or board could also help by laying on buses to take the green brigade to the Scottish parliament after the game to vent there spleen on political matters,case solved,maybe
Ps. Excellent article PJ ,you definitely get what Celtic is all about.
I certainly don’t like to see Celtic getting fined for sure…
But it’s one very dead place without The Green Brigade in Parkhead !
Im not sure why that is Clach. The demographics of the Celtic support has changed massively in the last 25 years for sure. Never was a big problem with atmosphere at CP before they stuck all these guys in one corner.
One thing for sure they are not going to be allowed to veto who is in charge of security and they are not going to be allowed into CP without being searched for illegal paraphernalia. They are going to be policed like everyone else and maybe moreso than everybody else. They need to make some concessions, because if they are waiting for a regime change, they will find the rules for how to behave in the stadium will be similar no matter who is in charge.
Yes the ultras will push the limits but we all know what happens when they go too far. Ultras having section closures all over europe mainly by UEFA not the clubs.