The Union Brats are not selfless martyrs. They are thugs who Celtic was right to ban.

Today, the Union Brats released a statement expressing their anger and frustration at the ban imposed by Celtic.

Just kidding. But it wasn’t far off that.

They have urged their club, or so they say, to accept the allocation of tickets for the game. They have presented this as some sort of grand sacrifice, where they fall on the sword for the good of the wider support and the club as a whole.

We say there is a fool born every minute, and this seems to be especially true in Loyalist enclaves and wherever else the Union Brats hail from. It may also be true of large parts of the Ibrox support as a whole if they are swallowing this nonsense.

There would have been no problem in the first place had the Union Brats stayed in their stand and not invaded the pitch.

I understand bitterness, anger and frustration over the Scottish Cup result. I understand these things on an emotional level. But on an intellectual level, I cannot believe those fans were not condemned by their own club, by their own supporters, by the media and by the governing bodies.

Had they been, this situation would not have happened.

It was not Celtic who jeopardised the allocation for this game. It was the Union Brats themselves and inability to behave like human beings. This is because of their inability to handle defeat in a proper manner.

So this whole idea that they are now being painted as heroes across the city, and doubtless in some corners of the media, as selfless supporters who have taken the right decision on behalf of their fellow fans, stinks of the worst kind of bullshit.

These people are a stain on that club and a stain on the whole game. The sooner that club recognises it, the better.

It will recognise it eventually because it will have no choice.

You cannot permit a group of supporters to do what they have done without sanction, without punishment and without even the faintest whiff of condemnation, and not encourage further misbehaviour. That is just a fact.

When those fans shamed their club with racist banners during European ties, that should have been the moment for that club’s leadership to confront the problem.

They failed to do it.

Not only did they fail to do it, but in the context of this title race, with the run-in close and pressure building, they hugged these guys ever tighter. That is why we are in this situation. That club’s tolerance for a thuggish, gangster element of its support has only made matters worse.

I know some people in the media are going to turn around and say that the Union Brats did the right thing. Fair play to them, they’ll say.

That is how you will know those people are amoral cowards.

The next Union Brats atrocity will be on them as well as on those fans themselves, because everyone who has played a part in normalising this behaviour bears responsibility for what happens next.

Everyone who has excused it, rationalised it or looked the other way has helped create the conditions in which it continues.

I know that suggestion will offend some people in our media and among the governing bodies.

Too bad.

We are not in the business of sugar-coating the facts here. Unlike them, we are not in the business of making excuses for inexcusable behaviour.

Anyone who hand-waves this stuff, looks away from it or dresses it up as passion is, as far as I’m concerned, part of the problem.

The Brats say they made this decision after consultation with the club. I have no doubt that part of the statement is true. I also have no doubt that the club told them, in very simple terms, that they had lost this one and would just have to swallow it.

So they can dress it up as altruism all they like. There is no choice quite like having no choice, and that was exactly the set of options their club faced here.

They could either give in to Celtic, or they could stand their ground and stand up for their fans.

But this would have disenfranchised their entire away support for the benefit of one group.

I knew which road they were going to go down.

For all that club’s wailing, teeth-gnashing and foot-stamping, it is at the end of the day just one club. It is a lot less powerful and a lot less influential than it believes it is. The world does not automatically stop to listen when it raises its voice to shout.

Celtic has got its way here.

Celtic has made its point and won.

Across the city, they can leak to friendly journalists that they are unhappy with this verdict.

No shit.

That is what happens when you lose. They should be used to it by now.

But the reason they have not released a moon-howling statement is that everyone knows it would be bluster. It would be Trumpian posturing that nobody buys, because everyone knows that club has nothing to back it up.

In this case, perhaps they have belatedly realised that they set the trap for themselves.

As I said last night, it is one thing to lose a public-relations battle like this.

It is another thing entirely to be tripped up by this Celtic board, which can barely organise its own piss into the pot.

That has to be a real humiliation.

The Union Brats can dress this up however they like. They can pretend this is sacrifice or leadership. They can pretend they are stepping aside for the good of the wider support. But the truth is much simpler.

They caused the problem. Celtic called them on it. The SPFL backed Celtic’s right to act.

And now they are banned from Celtic Park because their own behaviour left everyone else with no other responsible choice.

Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.