Celtic Banter Archive December 09 2013

09 Dec 2013 15:02:35

Celtic Football Club statement:

FOLLOWING events on Friday evening at Fir Park Stadium, Celtic Football Club today announced that it has issued precautionary suspensions against 128 individuals preventing them attending matches involving Celtic, pending further investigation. These suspensions will cover matches at Celtic Park and away matches.

In addition, the Club will be relocating around 250 season book holders in Section 111 to other areas within the stadium, or offering refunds covering the remainder of the season to those who do not wish to be relocated.

Events such as those on Friday night do not represent the Celtic support or the Club. These events were an embarrassment to our great football club and are absolutely indefensible.

It is clear that there is an element which has no hesitation in bringing Celtic's name into disrepute. This is something the Club will not tolerate and we therefore have no other option but to take this action. We will not allow the great name of Celtic to be damaged in this way any more - our supporters deserve more than this.

While recent events are very regrettable, we would like to thank our many thousands of fans for the wonderful, positive backing which they continue to give to Celtic. We are sure these supporters will understand the position which the Club is in and we are also sure they will unite with the Club as we move forward.

Celtic Football Club is in excellent shape on and off the field. The Club is in a very safe and strong position and we have a young, exciting team working hard to deliver quality football and success for our supporters, as they did on Friday evening with a magnificent performance. This is what we want to be talking about and this is what we want to celebrate.

Celtic has a proud 125-year history and fundamental to that history have been our fans. Our supporters enjoy a wonderful reputation earned across many years, many families and many generations. This is something we must protect vigorously.

The act of Neanderthals on Friday night at Fir Park, over exposure by the press due to the spotlight put on the group after the Milan game + the lack of policing (be that stewards, police or other fans) has ultimately shot the group in the foot. I can't remember the Celtic support being so divided in my lifetime, but I feel this is the beginning of the end for me.

The part I have to laugh at is the final paragraph: "Celtic has a proud 125-year history and fundamental to that history have been our fans. Our supporters enjoy a wonderful reputation earned across many years, many families and many generations. This is something we must protect vigorously."

Is that why they are trying to weed out the singing of Irish folk + rebel songs? Songs that have been sung for generations?

They won't be happy until Celtic Park is like an EPL graveyard for the vast majority of the time, similar to the Emirates, with generic songs sung like "One-Nil to the Celtic" mildly sung from your seat when we score a goal or other crap like or "And it's Celtic FC. " that every team in the UK has a version of. We are no more "more than a club", we're just like the rest of them.

RIP Celtic FC, the club I once related too and loved.

HamiltonBhoy

Im glad we've reacted quickly. this is the only way forward and there can be no half measures.bans for all involved and relocation of the green brigade is the correct decision and they've only got themselves to blame

mk bhoy

HamiltonBhoy - I'm sorry you feel it's the beginning of the end, but for most of us, if the GB can't behave (and they've been given plenty of opportunity to do so) then they have no place at CP. Please don't tell me that signing about historical events that happened in another country is what Celtic is about and what makes us special, IT's NOT! What makes us special (and we are) is our passion for our club, compassion for others, social tolerance and sense of pride in all of the above. The behaviour on Friday was a disgrace and not what I want to see from our support - what a performance and all the papers are discussing is the behaviour of an element of our support. Thanks for the support mate, but I suspect the rest of us will survive and looking forward to the next 125 years. As for the atmosphere, there's no denying the GB bring something special to the party, but they can continue to do that without embarassing the club and frightening the younger members of their own support.

09 Dec 2013 17:21:48
@Hamiltonbhoy, I have read your posts over past couple of days and you seem to be in BOTH camps one post condemns GB the next post is like an apologist for them.
Also your "Irish rebel songs have been sung for generations at Celtic Park" yes but we have all moved on and grown up. I have stood in the old jungle and belted out every song in the Irish songbook and then some, I bought all the Irish rebel records and LP's. but those days are gone.
I deplore the GB for their recent actions and all decent fans should also. Years ago we all sang our hearts out at Celtic Park and the GB were nowhere in sight, what we need is for ALL fans at all ends of the ground to start singing at home games.
All the GB are doing is giving our enemies in the press and media ammunition to fire at us, Celtic Football Club's reputation is what I am interested in. Timalloy

How can the club condemn politics at football when they invited one of the biggest war criminals of this country on to the board - John Reid, continually donate money to Poppy Scotland, participated in a minutes silence for Nelson Mandela on Friday night? Politics are something that should be encouraged in youths today, not told they have no place in football. They are part of every day life, when people sit down together there will be different political views expressed. Celtic fans sing "We don't care what the animals sing, what the Hell do we care?" yet continue to have an obsession with what the media think of us. We're one, if not the, most hated clubs + fanbases in the UK. That's never going to change, so the quicker our fans get over this embarressing self obsessed "best in the world" tag the better! I'll continue to support the 11 men on the park, but I'll not be giving the PLC another penny of my money! Because let's be honest, all the board recognise now is ££££, they don't care about us and I certainly don't care for them!

HamiltonBhoy

@Timalloy I don't condone the actions of Friday night, however, there is no evidence AS OF YET that members of the GB participated in these Neanderthal acts. I have always supported the group 100% and continue to give them my backing, I find it unjust that the club have chosen to relocate people who may or may not have been involved on Friday night from a seat they've paid for. One of my mate's girlfriends has had her seat relocated to the other side of the stadium, top tier up in the Heavens - She wasn't even at Fir Park on Friday! Tell me how that is fair?! And what you say about "growing up", some have strong views on Ireland, and while there is 6 occupied counties, people will continue to sing these songs - but that's another debate!

HamiltonBhoy

@HamiltonBhoy Say what you want about the board but everything the have done over the last few years has been in the best interests of the club. You say this is the beginning of the end, the end of what though? Do you think because the club bans 100+ moronic tools (who were warned on more than 1 occasion) that the whole club will crash and burn? You can sing the songs you want when your in Docs or in your own house (as I do) but if you go to the ground then play by the rules. People like you Enable the Green Brigade and it sickens me.

SUPPORT THE CLUB
RsK_Bhoy

09 Dec 2013 18:03:36
Hamilton bhoy it's not Celtic that are forcing the songs or politics out of Parkhead it's the rules of the powers that be it's really that simple, if the rules say it has to stop well wether some of us like it or not the rules are the rules. A use to love all the songs and still do, a just don't sing them at games because a don't want our team getting in trouble. A don't want to see us punished for.
If there are other political stuff brought to football then voice your concerns in the rite way.
This isn't Celtic or Peter Lawells fault they are following the rules.

The silence from ed 007 is deafening

{Ed007's Note - No silence from me. I will tell you AGAIN, I have always said that if the GB continued to break the rules they would have to face the consequences.
I'm still waiting on proof that Friday night was anything to do with the GB and all the time wondering how 128 people's tickets have been suspended when there was around 60 seats damaged, were the other 68 people throwing flares or smoke-bombs?
Plus answer me this, why have people who weren't even at the game been punished and how did the club identify 128 people in the such a short space of time?
There is still no evidence that Friday night was the GB's responsibility and now members of the group (and other innocent people) who weren't even at Fir Park are being punished. I suppose that all sounds pretty fair to you? Just be careful you aren't in the next group targeted by the PC hand-wringers.
Also not all the banned tickets were in 111 either so that kind of blows your argument out the window as well, who knows, maybe they shouted a sweary word, and someone like you reported them.}

I've been on the receiving end of it before Ed. Lifted on the way home from the football for a breach of the peace ("offensive language on a train") a few years back (Aug 2009, third game of the season against Hibs I think it was). ST suspended upon notification from Strathclyde Police to the club, court case dragged out from Aug 2009 to Apr 2011 before getting a not guilty outcome. I didn't get reimbursed a penny for my ST I'd paid up front for the 2009-10 season even though it's been proven in a court of law I was wrongfully arrested as part of the even up the numbers campaign by the police force of Scotland!

HamiltonBhoy

@RsK_Bhoy So you feel that inviting John Reid, given his political background and the PLC keep voicing they are an apolitical company, on to the board was in the best interests of the club? Do you feel that not replacing big Vic + Gary Hooper was in the best interests of the club? Do you believe banning fans from a certain group and relocating fans from the seat they paid for, regardless of whether they were involved at Fir Park or not, is in the best interests of the club? Not once did I say the beginning of the end for the club, I said for me. Football is a hobby, for many years where you go and have a good time + a sing song watching a team you love dearly. Nowadays it's not even worth the hassle. The government, police, SFA + the board have all played their part in running football stadiums like some sort of fascist dictatorship!

@MonkeyBhoy But politics are in Celtic Park, in the board room. As I've mentioned - John Reid, Poppy Scotland, Nelson Mandela. They are picking + choosing when politics have no place in football, when it suits them!

HamiltonBhoy

Did Motherwell sell direct to Celtic Supporters, if not then I would like to think the 128 banned have used their client code to buy a ticket. If they didn't use the ticket themselves, then they must know who did.

Unfortunately, I'm sure the tickets are only supposed to be used by whoever purchased it so you will be responsible.

{Ed007's Note - The 128 suspended ST's weren't all allocated tickets to Fir Park.}

The sad aspect of all this and what most people seem to be missing is that this is a site to talk about a football team and in my mind the greatest football team on the planet. All we seem to talk about now is a few hundred fans that do their best to bring trouble to the clubs door. I do not like to see any fan kicked out or forcibly relocated but the GB have been warned many times and I always suspected their number would be up soon. Will home games be less atmospheric in the short term without them, probably. Will the club survive without the GB, most certainly.

{Ed007's Note - Maybe we can get back to the days when the whole stadium vocally supported the team but I doubt it. If that had been happening there would have been no need for a singing section in the first place.}

@MrsE Anyone who got a ST for 111 (around 300 people) gave their client code at the start of the season to the group so they could register for the away ticket scheme. The issue isn't that though, looking at how many Celtic fans were in the bottom and top tier of the South stand, how many were meant to be there? How many hopped the turnstiles? How many doubled up? How many used a Phil O'Donnell stand ticket for the South stand?

@14 - I've enjoyed your posts in the past, but please do me a favour! I'm sure I'm not the only one who can recall being squeezed into the Paddock at Pittodrie or crushed into the away end of any of the older relics that made up the upper tier home grounds, but we didn't act the way the crowd. did last Friday night - support the team, don't try to make your own headlines!

09 Dec 2013 21:24:51
Hamiltonbhoy it's not celtic or Peter Lawell that are picking up on these things and saying there wrong (maybe seat wrecking apart) but the rest it's uefa, SPFL the police.

{Ed007's Note - MB surely if that is the case then there needs to be more consistency regarding pyro at games. Aberdeen, Dundee Utd, Hearts, Hibs and Motherwell have all had pyro at games this season. And that is without going down to the lower divisions where Accies and Raith Rovers amongst others have used them.
The seat breaking is inexcusable but until the law is applied with the same vigour against other team's fans over pyro it will continue to smack of double standards.
The same laws apply in England where they are illegal yet Everton clearly let blue smoke-bombs off at the Emirates yesterday in full view of Sly cameras and have also done it at Anfield and Stamford Bridge.
Youngsters see European matches where flares etc are either legal or at least tolerated and they want to copy what they see on TV, until the law is applied more stringently across the board it is a problem that is only going to get worse. }

Meanwhile, the new rangers express their "disappointment" (not even an apology) at the behaviour of their fans at Falkirk and it all gets brushed under the carpet. Funny old world innit, eh?

TomTheTim

{Ed007's Note - A 16 year old GIRL was arrested for that and appeared at Falkirk Sheriff Court last week over that and police enquiries are 'continuing to trace others involved'.}

@15 Was there seats at these times though, or was this on terraces where there wasn't plastic to be trampled on? In terms of pyro, it's been used by Celtic fans as far back as the 1985 SC final.

Hamilton Bhoy, so if you have a ST in 111 & the Client Code is registered as having bought a ticket for Motherwell then the ST has been suspended? Is that the jist of it?

{Ed007's Note - No, there was ST from other sections suspended as well. There were people phoned by the club today and informed that they were not permitted to enter the Nou Camp only to be phoned back a few hours later for the club to backtrack and say they could travel to the game.
One young lady who sits with her father, they don't sit in 111 but sit in the tier above the GB, she was working nightshift as a nurse on Friday night and her 56 year old dad was in his local pub watching the match, her dad was called today to be told their STs were under suspension and would be reviewed in due course.}

Ed, why those two?

Their client code must have been used?

{Ed007's Note - It isn't just tickets registered to 111 that have been suspended. How did 128 people break 60 seats?}

Overcrowding?

Just wondering why two random ST holders who don't sit in section 111 and never bought tickets for Motherwell would be singled out that's all.

{Ed007's Note - They've hardly been singled out when 128 fans that have received 'precautionary suspensions' have been singled out. It isn't all tickets from 111 that have been suspended. Although there are tickets from 111 suspended who weren't at the match either.}

There's over 40,000 season ticket holders, Celtic have not randomly suspended 128. It must be based on something?

Either GB section or Client Code used to buy a Motherwell ticket.

The Liason guy for the Club seems to confirm its the GB allocation for the match?

{Ed007's Note - Must be true then if JP says it.}

All it would take is the lassie or her da to help with a flag or banner especially if they are the tier above the gb

2 boys off our bus that sit in 112 have been suspended. Andy.

10 Dec 2013 07:42:34
That's another argument edd, am not disagreeing that the same rules need to be applied and a do believe we will get punished the most. Maybe that's something PL should fight more . but hehe's not got a leg to stand on if he gets challenged on the rules been broken if there's clear evidence.
Is it not possible the people who have been suspended by celtic let others use there ST to get a ticket for Motherwell game there for making them responsible .

{Ed007's Note - There was nowhere near enough time for the club to properly investigate the matter so they have made a sweeping generalisation and knee-jerk reaction. If they had any evidence of wrong doing your ticket wouldn't be suspended, it would be de-activated, you would be arrested and your ticket would remain de-activated and you would be banned from attending any game, home or away, until the criminal investigation/prosecution is completed.
If you are found guilty you receive a FBO (Football Banning Order) and if you are found innocent you will be allowed to return to matches. That is the normal procedure.

10 Dec 2013 16:44:50
Edda me and ma m8 got jail at an old firm game a sit in main stand just at the wee road across from away fans, we were up giving th abuse and the polis jailed us. Celtic phoned me and asked what happened a got a warning not to do it again lol.
Your prob rite about suspending the 128 was over the top am sure most would agree ad say most people are just sick of the crap that keeps happening just now and simply want it to stop. A cut down on drinking after a got jailed or a new a would get barred

{Ed007's Note - I hope you realise the untold damage you done to CFC's world-wide reputation that day MB. Apart from entering CP under the influence of alcohol AND shouting at opposition fans, there could have been kids who witnessed your disgraceful, loutish behaviour.
What kind of example is that to set younger fans?
You would have stopped drinking completely never mind cutting down if the club meant anything at all to you. You brought shame on the club and every supporter throughout the world that day, how do you sleep at night?}

10 Dec 2013 17:43:21
No doubt about it children would have been there it's the family stand a sit a got it with ma dad and kept it going with me and ma m8 now me and wee Ghirl if she ever can be ars*d going .
Why can't a enter the stadium under the influence if they sell alcohol?
It was the polis that arrested me not Pl or whoever it was at time can't mind.

{Ed007's Note - Read the back of your ST MB. It is an offence under the Criminal Law (Consolidation Scotland) Act to enter, or attempt to enter the stadium whilst drunk.
Look at Rule 14.3 on the official site here:

www.celticfc.net/corporate_groundregulations

All joking aside, you could have had your ST took off you and banned from CP. Did the police charge you with anything or just let you out after you had sobered up?}

10 Dec 2013 18:22:05
Honestly a wasnt that bad, they let me go afew hours after. Am pretty sure it was a charge of breach but a never went to court. Celtic asked what happened then said basically that's your 1 and only chance.
Av seen the back of the ticket and seen it, a just mean if they sell alcohol how can they say that

{Ed007's Note - So that the club, should they decide to take action against you, can justify it by pointing out that you have broken the law.}

Hi Ed, I agree with your point but maybe if the product was better on the park everyone would get behind the team more. Its probably the most uninspiring squads there has been in years, no wonder the atmosphere has dropped. The GB would get my support if the concentrated on football and left the politics out of it. I go to watch a football, the team I love. If I have a problem with Politics I contact my MSP or Westminster MP!

{Ed007's Note - When the singing section was started in 2006 Strachan had just taken over from MON as manager and we were doing well. If there had been no problem with atmosphere back then there would have been no reason to start a singing section.}

09 Dec 2013 13:32:05
Amid all the fuss about Superswine leading The undead to 2 titles, one of which is unfinished, is it not time that our own Paul Hartley was given more credit for his achievements at Alloa, with 'limited' funds. He and Jackie are there if Lenny decides to move on.

Agreed, if Lennon went I doubt we'd attract a "big name" manager. Hartley + Jackie Mac have both done great so far, so I'd be happy with either!

HamiltonBhoy

Neil Lennon for me every second of every minute, every minute of every hour, every hour of every day, every day of every week and every week of the year. Just look at what Lennon has done for us, this topic is really a non starter, ., .kbarry

09 Dec 2013 18:10:44
Has to be Jackie Mac for me, just because he's at a higher standard Hartley would need to manage in top league first,
But am happy with Lennon

09 Dec 2013 19:38:43
Neil won't be going any place any time soon.
He'll certainly want the opportunity of putting that mob to the sword upon returning to the top league, if circumstance allows them to get there in the shortest timeframe that is.
Where will he go that's better than Celtic anyway? There are only a handful of English sides that can offer better and he's not going to get a mention on a top 6 side anytime soon.
Anything else is a step back for me and he knows it as well.
Lets just enjoy the fact we have a good manager who'll be here for the long haul. Stevo Dundee

@2 Well knock me over with a feather duster, me and kbarry agree on something, hail hail
Tambhoy

I'd hate to see him go too, but for how much longer will he be prepared to keep building, only to have his work undone. If Forster goes in the January window it may well be a step too far'