KILMARNOCK, SCOTLAND - FEBRUARY 15: Celtic Chief Financial Officer Christopher McKay (L) and Chief Executive Officer Michael Nicholson during a William Hill Premiership match between Kilmarnock and Celtic at BBSP Stadium Rugby Park, on February 15, 2026, in Kilmarnock, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
This morning Paulina wrote a very heartfelt piece. It did not even come close to expressing the frustration she felt as a Celtic fan watching those scenes unfold at the weekend.
She is already writing another for tomorrow in a similar vein. Furthermore, she is not alone in feeling absolutely sickened by what happened at Ibrox on Sunday. What our supporters had to endure was disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful.
In the aftermath of Sunday’s game, the Green Brigade held their meeting with the club. Official minutes have not been released and no formal record is available, but the issue is clearly unresolved.
There is a growing sense among many supporters that the club may take this opportunity to ban the Green Brigade entirely on the basis of what happened at the weekend. In fact, nothing could more completely wreck the fragile ceasefire that exists right now than that.
Let me tell you a story.
During the war in Afghanistan there were members of the CIA’s Asian Division who were deeply concerned about the kind of people the United States was arming in order to fight the Soviet invasion.
In his brilliant book Ghost Wars, the writer Stephen Coll describes a meeting attended by a senior CIA analyst. During it, Mujahideen commanders unveiled a wall sized map showing the territories they intended to “liberate” once Afghanistan was free.
The map included several Soviet republics with large Muslim populations.
Those rebels made no secret of their intentions. Once they finished fighting the Soviets, they planned to launch a broader campaign of liberation. After that they intended to confront what they called the “Great Satan” across the ocean.
The analyst sitting in that room had been sent there to establish relationships with those men on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency, which provided them with weapons, money and training. Some of those men later joined Al-Qaeda.
Some may even have taken part in later attacks on American targets.
There is a cultural example of the same phenomenon in Game of Thrones.
In George R.R. Martin’s story, Cersei Lannister tries to weaken the growing power of the Tyrell family by empowering a group of religious extremists known as the Faith Militant. At first, they appear to be serving her interests.
Before long they become emboldened enough to arrest people close to her and eventually challenge the crown itself.
Martin was drawing on a long historical pattern.
The phrase often used to describe it is simple: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
The Mujahideen eventually morphing into Al Qaeda is the most dramatic modern example of that mistake.
There will be people inside Celtic’s boardroom who look at what happened on Sunday and look at the media firestorm that followed it. Consequently, they see an opportunity to finally settle their dispute with the Green Brigade.
If that is the road they choose to go down it will be a catastrophic mistake.
If there is even the appearance of Celtic working alongside the Ibrox club to punish our own supporters, the backlash from Celtic fan organisations and Celtic fan media will be explosive. The club cannot walk into that trap.
There are serious things at stake here.
This is not simply about a league title.
It is about the overdue reckoning with a problem that has haunted Scottish football for as long as I have been alive.
There is an opportunity here if Celtic has the courage to seize it.
The club can place sectarianism and the racist abuse that pours out of the Ibrox stands at the centre of the debate, where it belongs. If instead Celtic uses this moment as a pretext to attack its own supporters, that will not stand.
The media voices now calling for action against all ultra groups are not acting in Celtic’s interests. Those calls have little to do with the wider health of Scottish football. Much of it is driven by a long-standing anti Celtic agenda.
If people inside our club fail to recognise that reality then it falls to supporters to make it clear to them.
Walking into that trap would serve nobody except those who want to weaken Celtic.
Our supporters entered the field of play in celebration. They should not have done so. However, such scenes are not unusual in football.
What happened afterwards was entirely different.
That violence came from the aggressive tendencies of the home support. Any attempt to blur that central truth only serves the interests of those who want to rewrite what happened.
Some on Celtic’s board may believe they could win a short term victory over their internal critics by taking action against the Green Brigade.
That is not how this will play out. If they are seen to side with those who wish Celtic harm, that stain will not be easily removed.
For many supporters it would be unforgivable.
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Celtic should take legal action against fat Tom English, the BBC and any other journalist who puts the blame on our fans for the trouble in the Liebox, as i said in a previous post Nicholson rat should grow a pair of balls and fight like fuck for the Celtic fans because all the footage proves it was them dirty Hun tramps who charged the Celtic end and make no mistake papa Smurf and his extended family would of killed any Celtic fan they could. Gloves are off Nicholson so get your note book out and take on them corrupt shower of SFA scumbags
James F — How much Risk did you play when you were younger?
The Green Brigade have a decision to make — are they Ultras first or are they fans first and Ultras second?
Their arrogance is off the scale — identity politics in the raw and if it was happening anywhere else as in outside their group they would be the first to highlight the absurdity of their various viewpoints and demands.
As in their view matters and everyone else can just suck it up. This is Trump level identity politics and then some — rules don’t apply to us they only apply to the little people who can’t write a press release.
Rammy at Parkhead that got them banned — the dichotomy of their viewpoint was laid bare.
Poor downtrodden migrant being economically exploited by a vulture capitalist organisation suddenly becomes an oppressor / fascistic authority figure / lackey of a controlling over bearing state just because he wears a high viz vest at Parkhead and stops them overcrowding the Standing Section.
The GB need to get with the support.
Cut out their chancer vibe and get with the crowd.
Everything else is just middle class hippy / libertarian crap.
Couldn’t agree more with all of that mitch.
We and the GB are maybe lucky that the Ibrix mob took it to the extreme. If they had behaved themselves the reports would be damning. Some of our fans stormed the turnstiles, they crayoned hate graffiti on the walls, ripped up seats and invaded the pitch at the end. That is a lot of indecent behavior even if a minority.
Lucky for us the thick fuckers in blue and black overshadowed all of this completely…but even so it still happened and we have to cut it out!
Not quite with you on some or probably most of this.
Crayon work / stickers — everywhere now.
Broken seats — lot of it about / sometimes in your own ground.
Overcrowding / organised — Govan FC’s euro games lead the way with crush loads in certain areas and no passageways visible. As they got further in the comp the tell tale signs spread.
Overcrowding / disorganised — lot of it about with doubling up endemic. Planned rushes of the exit gates needs work and planning along with B team plod looking lost.
Old ticket angle was used to the max on Sunday to get close to the ground so that doubling up would be possible and then they did the exit gates from the inside. Very basic stuff that is easily sorted.
Plod on Sunday were playing with a 2.5K plan for a situation with 7.5K away fans — ego trip that was not up to the job. Plus the stewarding inside the ground was amateur hour — cost save seemingly. Might be an angle to push for who was in charge of the stewarding.
Green Brigade are toast ….they will not be back this season.
Colour, noise ,passion ,identity but too much grief ….they thought they were the Club .
Having supported Celtic for over 50 years and been to hundreds of matches I have never understood the recent practice to wear masks to a game. Get it stopped now. As for Green Brigade. Pushing Celtic fans out of their allocated seats so that they could sit together is becoming routine for them. My mate had the issue with these fools in Munich. They have a different mandate to us for supporting our team. They have had enough chances. They have blown it themselves.
They certainly wouldn’t fuckin push me outta ma seat when I had one Jimmy…
No matter how much I like their atmosphere and their amazing support (if not the fines they get Celtic)…
I don’t see them being there for Motherwell on Saturday though it will be bloody galling if The Union Bears are in Liebrox the following Saturday supporting Sevco v Aberdeen !
They are cowards Clach they would run a mile, and have been seen to do so, when confronted by grown men.
Same as the onions, they hunt in packs. Look at the lot of them running about Argyle st. terrifying old ladies.
If they want back they say sorry and start behaving themselves!