Celtic Diary Wednesday December 17: Where Did All The Good Times Go ?

And there we were all cheerful yesterday.

Perhaps it would have been better if we hadn’t bothered with the news, and just sat home doing christmas cards.

UEFA have charged Celtic supporters with letting of a flare, or to be more specific, “crowd disorder ”

Which to be honest, just about covers the waterfront. We’ve all done most of them at one time or another.

A flare was lit, police moved into the area where Celtic fans were, whats not certain is what happened first. What is certain is that some bright spark decided to take a flare to the game, despite knowing that its not allowed.

When will they ever learn ? What is wrong with these people ?

As usual, there is the cry of whataboutery, other matches last week saw the use of pyrotechnics. so what ? You’ll never get off a charge because someone else did it somewhere else.

Celtic are now up in front of UEFA for the fifth time in three years, which is known as repeat offending. Sanctions could lead to the Inter Milan game being held behind closed doors, although thats unlikely. More likely is another fine, larger this time, or if they are in a bad mood over in Switzerland, then they may order part of the ground to be closed for the game.

Fortunately, the club could cite that we’ve already had half the ground closed for three games this season, and the beaks might see that as time served, and deduct it from the sentence.

Celtic did release a statement, which was a little long winded when a simple message to the guilty would have done ;

EVERYONE at Celtic is disappointed by the news today that UEFA plan to open disciplinary proceedings against the Club following our match against GNK Dinamo Zagreb.

Around 1200 Celtic supporters enjoyed an excellent visit to Zagreb and were welcomed warmly by the city, enjoying a very friendly atmosphere. It is extremely disappointing therefore that the actions of one individual have had such a negative impact on the Club and other supporters at the match.

There can be absolutely no excuse for the use of flares or any other pyrotechnics. The threat to the health and safety of supporters caused by their use in football grounds is well known and we have repeatedly asked for this practice to stop. 

The small handful of individuals who have been involved in behaviour of this kind in Zagreb and on other occasions have done nothing but embarrass the Club and tarnish the excellent and hard-earned reputation of Celtic supporters, who have invested time and money to travel and watch their team. As a Club, we try to do all we can to stop such behaviour, however, we can only do so much – people must take responsibility.

Those who choose to indulge in such behaviour are quite simply damaging Celtic Football Club, the Club which they claim to support.  

We must protect the Club and our supporters. Clearly we will deal with any individuals identified in the strongest terms, however, we once again repeat our appeal for supporters to back the Club in the right way and demonstrate all that is great about Celtic. 

You can understand the frustration. Perhaps they would have been better going with the original draft;

” fuck off you little shit, you’re not welcome anymore. ” 

Though the poster campaign may be taking it a little too far;

Manager Ronny deila found the middle ground;

“It’s hard for the club to control – that’s the responsibility of the supporters. We need to be finished with it and concentrate on football. 

“It’s been fantastic for so many years and 99.9 per cent is good now as well. That’s one of the biggest things about Celtic – the supporters – and we have to keep up that reputation. 

Speaking of the clubs reputation, there was enough time for it to receive another blow amidships yesterday when Bulgarian winger Aleksandr Tonev lost his appeal against making a racist and abusive comment to Aberdeen player shaymus Logan. Although it was one players word against another, Logan was the more “credible and reliable ” witness, which means he’s obviously right. and under the balance of probability  rule ( hard to believe that a rule ) tonev is guilty.

This , however, wll be the last time the SFa use such a method to determine guilt. From now on they will use a far more reliable system, adopted from the enlightened middle ages;

The full decision is here;

Stitch up

Reading that . Tonev need not have bothered with his appeal. He never stood a chance.

Effectively, the appeal panel has said that everything is fine, the processes used were fine, and there was no legal or administrative reason to uphold the appeal. Its not a retrial, as some may think.

This bit, tagged on at the end, is interesting, and we await further developments;

The Appellate Tribunal note that in accordance with normal practice the identities ofthe Disciplinary Tribunal members remain confidential. However the Appellate Tribunal alsonote that to date the terms of the Written Reasons of the Disciplinary Tribunal haveremained confidential. The Appellate Tribunal are not aware of any particular reason why that should be so in this case. There has inevitably been ill-informed speculation about the  reasonsfor the Disciplinary Tribunal deciding to uphold the complaint and impose a sevenmatchsuspension.

Against that background the Appellate Tribunal consider that it would bein the interests of the parties, in the interests of the wider football community, and in thegeneral public interest to publish this decision and the terms of the original DisciplinaryTribunal decision, thus ensuring that any ensuing debate is well-informed. The AppellateTribunal, therefore, suggest to the SFA that they should exercise their discretion in terms of paragraph 17.5.2 of the Judicial Panel Protocol to disclose both decisions and the reasons therefor. 

A well informed debate ? In Scotland ? About football ?

Logan, who was appaently called a ” Black Cunt ” by Tonev, tweeted his delight at the deciaion in a dignified and humble way;

Perhaps calling him black is racist.

Racism is a prejudicial decision or opinion formed on the basis of colour or creed. It is entirely and absolutely abhorrent. Theres no need to explain that to anyone. Or, at least, there shouldn’t be.

I don’t think anyone can criticise Tonev for his use of the other word, though.

From alleged racism to homophobia now, and imagine my surprise when it appeared that most of the Diary replies yesterday concerned the acceptance of the new same sex marriage law in Scotland.

Notice they don’t call it a “gay ” marriage. Thats because no doubt  it’ll be just as miserable as every other bloody marriage.

If people want to show affection and commitment publicly to each other , then let them. Actually, its not even up to us to “let them ” . Its up to them to do whatever they want to.

Its not a new thing, you know, this man to man thing;

Which brings us on to Ally Mccoist and the latest shennannigans over at Ibrox.

The SFA have decided to chase the Ibrox club-well, one of them, anyway- for £250,000 which is owed to them over the EBT scam.

Former Darkside keeper Neil Alexander has won £80,000 in relation to a contractual issue.

Liquidators BDO have demanded their share of the cash from the Charlie Telfer tribunal decision

Ally Mccoist will meet with the board in the Blue room today to thrash out a compensation package, or to fall down the stairs, or however else they decide to deal with him.

Their share prices are now at a new low of just 18p, and will probably have sunk even further during the time it took you to read this.

What does all of this mean ?

Well, that should be becoming fairly obvious….