GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MAY 16: Police officers during a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Heart of Midlothian at Celtic Park, on May 16, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Tonight, Police Scotland confirmed to the BBC that they have received no actual complaint from Hearts about the alleged assaults that were supposed to have taken place against their players at Celtic Park.
Tony Bloom and others from Hearts said those assaults had taken place. Hearts’ first official statement said they would be working with the authorities over the incidents at Celtic Park. Celtic fans online then did what the media should have done.
They studied every moment of footage available. Every angle. Every clip. Every freeze-frame. Not a single piece of corroborating evidence for the accusation was found.
In fact, Celtic fans put in so much time and effort looking for evidence themselves because, after all, who wants psychopaths capable of assaulting players in our support, that Martin O’Neill was emboldened enough by those efforts to publicly challenge Tony Bloom to produce the evidence.
We are now more than a week from the game, and Hearts have yet to submit a single verified complaint. My guess is that they never will.
Had a Hearts player been assaulted on that pitch, we would have known about it on day one. The footage would have been presented on day one. Let’s be honest, that pitch invasion was covered from a hundred different angles, and the media would not have hesitated for a second to hang it around our necks.
Instead, nothing. No footage. No formal complaint. No evidence placed in the public domain.
Just an allegation that travelled halfway around Scottish football before the facts had even got their boots on.
There are a lot of people who owe Celtic fans an apology over this. Tom English is one of them. Pat Nevin is another.
Shockingly, former Celtic goalkeeper Pat Bonner said on the BBC that he had seen an assault.
Well, if he saw an assault, he appears to be the only living witness. He should have been questioned about that. He should have been asked exactly what he saw, where he saw it and who was involved. Except now we are told no complaint has been made.
The real complaints that should now be registered are with Bonner’s bosses, Nevin’s bosses and Tom English’s bosses. Because this was not a minor claim.
This was not some throwaway line.
This was an allegation that Celtic fans had assaulted opposition players during the most emotionally charged finish to a Scottish football season in years. It painted our support in the worst possible light. It handed ammunition to every crank, every hostile pundit and every bitter rival who wanted to taint our title win.
That cannot simply be allowed to drift away.
I will not wait for an apology from the many people who lined up to have a pop at our supporters.
I will not wait for them to say they got it wrong.
They have had ample opportunity in the week and a half since the game to do that. When no facts emerged to support their stories, when no footage emerged to show these so-called assaults, they had every chance to pause, reflect and correct the record.
They did not.
So an apology now is not expected.
And you know what? I don’t even think it would be particularly welcome.
Because they were ready to think the worst of us. Always. They were ready to write and broadcast the worst about us. Always.
That should shame them.
In the end, we do not need an apology. We are owed one, but we will not get one. All we need to know is that we were right and they were wrong.
We defended the integrity of our supporters when that integrity was falsely maligned.
I’ll sleep well tonight knowing that.
I consider my salary paid, and then some, because I have defended our club and our supporters from these false allegations.
But as I said in a previous piece, we are going to remember all of those people. We are going to remember every one of them who told a lie, pushed a conspiracy theory, or maligned and slandered our fan base.
We will remember all of you.
You are the reason this game is a mess. You are the reason the media is distrusted. You are the reason some of the biggest problems we have in this sport go unresolved. You can look down your nose and sneer at supporters all you want, but we are not the ones who behaved disgracefully here.
Take a look in the mirror. You’ll see who did.
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Perhaps a start could be made by declaring the named people
persona non grata at Celtic Park, UNLESS a full public apology is forthcoming. Furthermore, Celtic should be more selective in what organisations they admit to cover any games. Again, they can be admitted once a FULL PUBLIC APOLOGY is forthcoming, otherwise no deal. We are not so desperate as to need these disreputable “journalists” in our midst.
You’ll be waiting a long time. I’ll wager our board do nothing. They won’t come out fighting for the fans. They never do. Sack the board.
A bloody disgrace, The Scottish media accused our support of assaults and were proved wrong. What are our club going to do about it? Probably damn all. When is the statement from the club reminding the Scottish media of there false accusations and barefaced lies. Pat Bonnar as a Son of Donegal should be ashamed of himself.
These false accusations were relayed around the World as fact, the club really has to speak up.
but no, Nicolson and Wilson will more than likely keep their heads down and say nothing.
They only show up when criticising their own supporters.
I agree micmac, but what if one single fuckwit had attacked a player? We got away with one here because It’s happened before. They need to stay off the fucking pitch ffs.
Also cops getting attacked on the trongate all down to the pigwatch propaganda and that cannot be disputed .
I would like James’s take on this because we shouldn’t ignore it. Glad to see the vast majority stayed away from the so called celebrations. Who the fuck has a celebration by throwing bottles at the emergency services.
Lets Just learn lessons from this.
Have uou been to a party in the trongate afyer winning the title, after a couple of hrs having fun the police come in & disperse everyone using horses charging thriugh us. My ex how was a cop asked what was going on & was told the orders came from head office to stop us having fun. No wonder shit happens when we get treated like shit.
Mr Mojo, you don’t half talk some amount of utter drivel.
Mojo,a handful of young would be rebels and neds, throwing missiles at the police. Who were making themselves targets by marching slowly with shields and in riot gear along London Road towards Glasgow Cross. It looked to me as if the Police were looking for a riot rather than policing one.
As far as coming onto the park goes, yep I was booing and shouting for them to get off the field, but there is no doubt in my mind that it was mostly over excited young fans, and a few older eejits on the field in a celebratory mood rather than in any threatening way.
I’ve not got any policing experience, maybe you have, but the sight of riot police where no riot exists is ludicrous. and in my opinion only gives a few of our young bams a target.
Field invasions of celebratory Celtic fans seems to have incurred the wrath of Scottish society, whilst the field invasion of fans with violent intent by hundreds of Ibrox fans has now been quietly swept under the carpet.
Totally agree about the riot police. There was no need for it and it totally caused the situation
Was there riot police in all the previous years?
Why was there riot police there in the first place??? Because of all the anti Celtic rhetoric over the proceeding weeks stirred up by the media!
Micmac. It is good news that police scotland have said fans have no case to answer regarding attacking hearts players.
Why bury your head in the sand regarding the trongate. Police came under attack while helping an ambulance assisted a celtic fan. Do you think this is lies?
There was an estimated 3,000 in the Trongate. There was hundreds of thousands at the Liverpool celebrations and no footage of fans fighting each other.
We need to self police like we used to!
“ What are our club going to do about it?“
Well the only Billionaire in World Football to have MADE money out of owning a Football Club was quick enough to get a Statement out disparaging the manager who delivered multiple trebles and the CEO Mute Mike was very up front and gushing in his praise and appreciation of the replacement to that manager who then lost a final, denying the club a Treble very nearly sabotaged the whole season so what do you think they’ll do? 🙂 🙂
Another shocking performance from our board. Just let everyone else slag off the club with lies and dont come out to defend our supporters and club!!!. They are pathetic
Already complained to the beeb! Have asked for a public apology from Bonnar, English and the editorial team or legal action re defamation will be forthcoming.
Takes 5 minutes, everyone should do it.
I saw an assault caught on camera. It was by a Hearts player on a mobile phone.
You’ve missed one of the media culprits,Micheal Stewart he totally lost the plot over this,when comes to his beloved Hearts all impartiality goes out the window the mask well and truly slipped
This is the golden opportunity the Celtic Collective should be waiting for. Out so called guardians of the club have let this go on unchecked. Our enemies who normally hide in the shadows of being a neutral pundit ect have broken cover and crossed the line.
Let’s be honest the collective will have zero success directly challenging the board to sack themselves, turkeys don’t vote for Xmas! Our club and fans have been attacked, slandered, libelled by our enemies across the uk and defamed this petty country. Demand legal action, if the board won’t act then crowdfund an action against a high profile liar! Personally I’d do mccoist but Tom English is another obvious liar. This should be the collective’s next move and believe me I would ante up for the crowdfund!
Mr Mojorisin @ 11.15pm…
“What if” doesn’t cut it for assault because it never happened…
What if ma maw had balls – she’d be ma late daddy, but she doesn’t so she isn’t !
Clach fair point and I agree.
The problem is we wont get away with this in europe. They wont accept a pitch invasion is friendly banter and we will get hammered. We will get away with it all day long in Scotland.
Remember Rapid Vienna at old Trafford. Remember the clown v PSG
Stay off the pitch ffs.
How hard is it?
Something I thought I’d never say regarding Celtic…
But – THANK YOUSE POLICE SCOTLAND…
For doing something that our wage thief of a scummy spineless CEO seems incapable of doing…
And telling the truth about Celtic supporter’s innocence…
Friday 29th May – Another £17,000 STOLEN from Celtic today by Lucan !
The cops came in initially to protect an ambulance crew helping an injured fan and came under attack. This is not a lie, nobody is denying this.
For you to suggest the police want to go and fight with Celtic fans is totally fantasy.
Its “our young bams” that you keep making excuses for that fucks everything up and gets us put in the same category as the basket case outfit.