GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - APRIL 20: Celtic fans during a Scottish Gas Scottish Cup semi-final match between Aberdeen and Celtic at Hampden Park, on April 20, 2024, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Celtic supporters are used to the pull of emotional blackmail from the club, but today’s release of the so-called Irish Origins kit feels particularly cynical.
The problem the club has is that even those of us who recognise the timing of this may not have been its decision will not give it the benefit of the doubt. That benefit of the doubt disappeared a long time ago.
Because the perception is grotesque. It is ugly. It is horrific.
At a moment when this club is promoting Irishness and celebrating the origins of Celtic, it simultaneously appears completely unwilling to defend those origins in the face of vile anti-Irish racism from supporters across the city.
Over the years we have heard more than enough stories about board members privately disdaining Irish republican songs and wishing that those songs were not part of the Celtic experience.
Yet they are part of the Celtic experience. They exist because the club’s Irish roots are part of its identity. The irony is obvious. Those roots are not something the club seems especially keen to highlight most of the time.
They become important only when there is merchandise to sell.
Dropping this kit line now, in the middle of a major controversy over what happened on Sunday, makes the whole thing look cynical. Manipulative. Opportunistic.
Maybe that was not the intention.
But intention does not matter nearly as much as perception. And the club has allowed the perception that this is exactly what it is.
There was a very simple way to avoid that perception.
All Celtic had to do was release a statement defending the club and its supporters against the torrent of criticism and hostility that has been directed at us since the win at Ibrox. A statement condemning the home fans behaviour.
That statement has still not come.
And the absence of it is what makes this look so bad.
The Irish Catholics of Scotland do not have many institutions that they can call their own. They do not have many places that recognise their history or care about their story.
Celtic is supposed to be one of those institutions.
But this board has not acted like it.
By refusing to defend the supporters of this club in the aftermath of what happened at the weekend, the board has betrayed those roots and the people who built this club.
Now, in the middle of that silence, it releases a kit line celebrating that same heritage and expects supporters to open their wallets.
It is abysmal. It looks dreadful and smells awful.
There is no doubt the kit will be a commercial success. It looks good ant it is well designed. It will sell in large numbers even in the middle of the Not Another Penny campaign.
Some people inside the club will be congratulating themselves right now on the marketing genius of releasing it at this moment.
But it leaves a bitter taste for those of us who want change. For those of us who want the current leadership gone. For those of us who want the people running this club replaced.
The cynicism of it is breathtaking. The gaslighting is extraordinary.
Even those of us who have long suspected that the people running Celtic do not feel about the club the way supporters do can still feel shocked by the scale of it.
Fans are tired of hearing how these directors care about Celtic. Fans are tired of hearing that they are “super fans”. Super fans would not allow this club to take the beating it has taken over the last three days without saying a word.
Super fans would defend the supporters of this club. Instead we get silence.
At the very moment when the club should defend its heritage, it sells merchandise celebrating that heritage. Irish when it suits them. Irish when it fills the tills. That seems to be the extent of it.
None of us should forget what happened this week or the silence from the club. None of us should forget that the same people who attacked Celtic supporters, players and staff will soon walk into Celtic Park while one of our own supporter groups remains banned.
The hypocrisy is staggering. The disconnect between the board and the support has rarely looked clearer. At a time when Celtic faces enemies on all sides and sustained attacks, the club’s leadership has chosen silence.
And that should remind every supporter of something important. The real danger to Celtic does not only come from outside the walls. Sometimes it comes from within.
From those who will not defend what this club stands for. Those who care more about revenue than identity. From those who cling to their positions not out of love for Celtic, but out of selfishness and greed.
They have no vision, no mandate and no legitimacy, and the longer they remain in charge, the more damage they will do.
There has never been a more important moment for supporters to stand up for the culture and the identity of this club. Because if we do not fight for Celtic, no one will.
Not another penny, friends. Not another penny.
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James, I know I will get pelters for this comment. I am from Irish descent, born in Scotland. Yes CFC has irish roots but I thing we take it to far. I live in England where English fans ask if we are Scottish or Irish. Their perception is Irish. This is not how I want outside people to think of us. We can keep our roots but need to be selective on how we promote it.
Hi John, hopefully you don’t get pelters, it’s ok to have an opinion after all. I do have to fundamentally disagree with you however. I always cringe when anyone mentions how ‘English fans think of us’ who cares what they think. Many Celtic fans I know don’t live in a world where we look for others validation, experience in this country has taught me that no matter what, many will never ever accept us no matter what. We should absolutely celebrate our roots, to know your future, understand your past and be proud of it. It’s pretty simple, we are a Scottish club, always will be, but we live in a country (and England) where people will never like us due to our Irish heritage.
This board staggers me, they don’t seem to have an idea of the feelings and viewpoint of the fans. They have no tact and seem to just get everything wrong. They are abysmal !! The timing of this launch astonishes me
I really think the collective should consider a boycott for the post split home anger FC game if they are going to allow their fans into the game. I know we are in a title dogfight but the media coverage of a half empty stadium for that game would be massive and put huge pressure on our board
I take it you are quite happy to give up 3 points in the quest for the title, which in my opinion would be accepting the end of our Title aspirations. The atmosphere within the club is bad enough without adding to it at this stage of the season.
No I am not willing to accept dropping 3 points, I really don’t think we need a full house to beat that team
Our board’s opinion of the fans puts me in mind of the scene in Irvine Welsh’s book ‘Filth’ (which never made it into the film adaptation) where the story’s antagonist DS Bruce Robertson is at his Masonic lodge and meets a well-known ex-England international who is up in Scotland promoting his forthcoming testimonial against Celtic, who explains that he falsely claimed to have ‘an Irish granny’ because it’ll put another 10,000 of the daft c***s on the gate……. just there to be used and abused.
I see that The Ibrox heirarchy in their statement today incerted a whole paragraph around the graffiti surrounding the Ibrox disaster.
The Cretins who did this have given them the chance to claim the victim status, it’s sad and makes me angry that we’ve got a few F’n idiots amongst our support who really give us a bad name.
As a guy who was at that game, and can remember how the West of Scotland came together after the tragedy, including a service at Glasgow Cathedral and a Requiem Mass at St Andrews Cathedral attended by both Celtic and Rangers players. These people within our support have to be ostracised and belittled as the fools they are.
The SFA are talking about an independent enquiry. How Independent? We need to be told who is involved, to me it should be someone or some people from outside Scotland. We don’t need a quick fix enquiry, like the Lord Nimmo Smith inquiry fiasco into Rangers dodgy contracts they lodged with the SFA, and whether they gained any competitive advantage to win trophies.
Anyone with half a brain knows that they had to gain an advantage by luring players with the offer of tax free contracts, that they couldn’t otherwise afford. That Nimmo Smith who was educated at Eton College, Oxford and Edinburgh Universities could come to a decision that there was no advantage gained, defies belief. The fix was in.
Celtic supporters should use that cash they were considering to spend on the merch by having a good old St.Patrick’s week in Coatbridge, Glasgow pubs, (Shamefully a no parade City) And Belfast…
Keep it off these bastards Lucan, Wilson and Sly and have a real pure fab hoolie instead…
They really are The Scum of The Earth…
You might think that I’m referring to The Union Bears…
But some peepil are above them in The League of Scum…
Lucan, Sly and Wilson !
Micmac ,News flash…..the fix is still in….and our Board are a party to it.
To them it’s only business…one tae you, one tae me, there’s enough for both.
2012 proved it. We should have stomped on them back then, it’s too late now.
This board are a bunch of lickspittles , favouring the fuckin hun shitbags .. get them tae fuck outta our club.
Still not spent a penny and will not until they are gone.
6
Keep that hun rabble out of our ground ..we don’t need or want them, scumbags