With Celtic facing Israeli champions Hapoel Be’er Sheva on Wednesday at Celtic Park, many supporters see this as an opportunity to register their sympathy with the plight of the Palestininian people, who have seen their land confiscated and themselves subjugated to Israeli oppression.
It appears the plan is to wave the nations flag as a sign of solidarity.
UEFA are already making sure their disciplinary panel are not too busy the following week as they will be called upon to decide whether or not the club will be fined or forced to play behind closed doors or even away from Celtic Park in a subsequent fixture or two. Or even if they are going to be fined, and then forced to play behind closed doors away from Celtic Park.
Make no mistake. Thats what will happen.
It’s their competition, they make the rules, and we either abide by them or we don’t. And if we don’t, there are consequences.
Thats the reality of it.
Now, on account of it being fairly unlikely the Israeli government will sit down on Thursday morning and decide to withdraw from Palestinian territory unconditionally, one could argue that waving a flag is all a bit of a waste of time.
Yet there’s no denying that as a politically minded support who have had our own issues where occupation of homelands has been a concern, there is a desire to do something.
That, also, is the reality.
So may I suggest a compromise ?
Its already been suggested on twitter…
As the people of Palestine are in darkness we light up our phones in solidarity. No flags. Can’t get fine.
Perhaps at half time, and maybe we could all sing along to “Let The People Sing ” which would not get us fined, but would be a more poignant and fitting show of unity and sympathy for the plight of those poor people.
By promoting this at length, and not going down any other path, such as “how come Ajax can show a Star of David ? “, and How come the flag is on show at the Olympics? “, we can avoid the pitfalls of ridiculous debate, and just get on with showing we care, without getting fined or banned.
I’ve even thought of a phrase to describe it.
Common sense.
The game next Wednesday will also feature the new Hawk Eye goal line technology system, used extensively in the European Championships in France. The Evening Times reports;
Earlier this year, UEFA voted to adopt the Hawk-Eye system, and it was installed in all 10 stadia used during the recent European Championship tournament in France. Now, it will be used in the UEFA Champions League, from the play-off round onwards.
The Hawk-Eye system is already in use in the English, German and Italian leagues, and it uses seven cameras per goal, with control software tracking the ball within the goal area. Using vision-processing techniques and software, Hawk-Eye indicates whether or not a goal has been scored within one second with a vibration and visual signal on each match official’s watch.
The system will work alongside additional assistant referees (AARs), who will continue to monitor all activity in and around the penalty area.
UEFA’s chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina said: “Goal-line technology and additional assistant referees complement each other perfectly. The main task of the AARs is not to control the goal-line and decide whether a ball has crossed it.”
I don’t suppose theres any chance of it being used domestically, as we hear Hawk Eye, named after a character from US tv series MASH, which had nearly all its main characters with Irish surnames ( Hawkeye Pearce, Hot Lips Hoolihan, Radar Jackson, sorry, O’Reilly etc ) and is viewed with suspicion by the SFA, and described, off the record, as being a bit “feniany taigy “
And anyway, if it was used, no doubt someone would have left the lens cover on when we needed it to correct an honest mistake.
Now, on with the nonsense.
And it really is nonsense today.
At Etims we tend to wait for three independent sources to come up with a rumour before we repeat it. That way, our rumours are three times more likely to be bullshit than anyone elses.
The latest one, which has reached the magic number of three is that Bastian Schweinsteiger, who has fell out with Jose Mourinho at Manchester united, is lined up to become Celtics best paid player ever shoudl we qualify for the Champions League group stages, and the money will be recovered by charging a quid a letter to have his name on your new top. Or old one, come to think of it.
And the beauty of that is that the New Balance kits usually see all the printing fall off within a few months, especially if you wash it, and so therefore the prospects for repeat business are unlimited.
I’m not sure if the pink kit is the same, but then again, I’ve yet to hear of anyone buying one to test this out for us.
Wonder of he’ll get the nickname “Bassa ” when he’s here. Depends on the quality of his passing, I suppose.
What do we know about him ?
He spent 13 seasons at Bayern Munich, playing in exactly 500 matches across all competitions and scoring 68 goals. His honours at the club include eight Bundesliga titles, seven DFB-Pokal titles, a UEFA Champions League title, a FIFA Club World Cup title and a UEFA Super Cup title.[3] He joined Manchester United in 2015.
Schweinsteiger is Germany‘s fourth most-capped player of all time, having earned 120 caps and scored 24 goals, in a 12-year international career starting in 2004. He was selected in their squads for four European Championships and three World Cups, including their victory at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Following Philipp Lahm‘s international retirement on 2 September 2014, Schweinsteiger was named captain of the national team. He retired from the national team on 1 August 2016.
Well, he’s no Joey Barton, thats for sure. He’s won things at every level and although he’s never played for Burnley, he has played for a big team or two.
Well, two.
And he’s a catholic! Which means he is automatically a lifelong Celtic fan who knows all the words to the Boys of the Old Brigade. Probably.
Schweinsteiger is Roman Catholic.[44] Schweinsteiger’s fans refer to him as “Schweini” or “Basti” to distinguish him from his elder brother, Tobias, a professional footballer who also played for Bayern Munich, albeit in the reserve team.[45] Schweinsteiger was in a relationship with model Sarah Brandner from 2007 until July 2014.[46] They lived in Munich together.[47]
In September 2014, he began a relationship with Serbian tennis player Ana Ivanovic.[48][49] The couple wed on 12 July 2016 in Venice, Italy.[50]
Happily, he is married to tennis player Ana Ivanovic, which means more misogyny in the diary..
As a player, he certainly is what we need, and probably the best there is around for that role…
Schweinsteiger largely operates in the centre, but he is versatile enough to provide an option on the wing, either left or right. He is regarded as one of the best midfielders in the world. Schweinsteiger possesses a fearsome shot from range as well as a wicked delivery from set-pieces and his boundless energy serves him well.[40] Dubbed the “Midfield Motor”,[41] Schweinsteiger is also a superb reader of the game and has scored spectacularly due to his good positioning. He has been called “the brain” of the German national team by coach Joachim Löw.[42] He has been voted as the best German player in 2013.[43] He is also known as the “midfield mastermind”.[43]
Well, we’ll see….
From a midfielder we probably won’t have, to one we are going to keep. Tom Rogic, the Aussie Ardiles, is so laid back he’s almost horizontal, and it appears he was much the same about signing his new contract;
‘It was never a concern as I was always happy here. I have been here for a while and I hope to be here for sometime yet. Leaving was never something that crossed my mind.’
‘I can’t control what is written in the papers. That is outwith my control and it was never my focus reading stuff like that.
‘There is not much you can do about that other than focus on training and playing. I feel as though I have done a good job of that.’
Comparisons with Paul McStay have been made, on the field, and now off it…
‘There is a buzz about the place now and it is exciting. We have exciting games coming up and we have made three quality signings so far and everybody has contributed.
‘Whether we add one or two more then great but the squad is shaping up well. The manager has shaken the place up a bit and the players have reacted to that and so have the fans.
‘Everyone wants to impress the manager – as with any new change at that kind of level. The manager having ties to the club has also seen the fans respond well to that.
‘I think you can see that in the way and the style of football that we are playing and it is still early days. Hopefully things can only get better.’
Indeed. What a difference a few months and a new manager can make. Maybe we should change again before Christmas to keep things fresh.
Okay, maybe I am. But I’m not the only one…
Frdiay, of course, means
Knob Of The Week
This week, we saw a late surge and an immense effort from Mark Warburton, manager of “rangers ” as he attempted to win at least one thing this season, and to be fair, there’ll be other weeks, when he tried to explain the fiscal prudence of his club, with this message for the gullibillies;
“We’ll never talk about specific budgetary amounts but from our point of view we have got to add value.
“With where the club has been the last four or five years, I think it’s imperative we get value.
“But I look at Joe Dodoo, Jordan Rossiter, Joey Barton – who would have been in the Premier League with Burnley had he not come here – and that is us getting value.
“It’s not about how much you spend, it’s how you spend the money you have got. It’s not always about the big sums. Sometimes the best business is done for small fees. I look at Andre Gray who is now minimum a £25 million to £30 million player. He was half a million quid two years ago, so it’s not always the amount you spend that is important.
“It’s about having an eye for a player, how you value a player and making the right move at the right time.”
All deflection of course, Dominic Ball has just signed a deal at Rotherham, and he’s hoping no-one will notice the lure of playing at Ibrox is not as great as moving to Yorkshire, and whatever division they’re in.
Joey Barton would not have been in the Premier League with Burnley. They dodn;t offer him a two year deal. They figured he wasn’t worth it. “rangers ” did. all about value, presumably, as no doubt he’ll enhance his reputation and earn a big mney move south.
And the only way they’ll make money out of Dodoo -where there’s muck there’s brass, they say, is if Celtic fans buy “rangers ” tops solely to have his name put on them to wave at them as at next months inaugural league game between the two clubs.
Yet that wasn’t even for him to win
Knob Of The Week
He lost out to an extremely consistent and very high quality outburst of top level public knobbery from this man…
Robbie Neilsen, the Hearts manager who is out to emulate one of his predecessors , Jolly jim Jeffires, was a little upset after Celtic beat his side 2-1 at Tynecastle.
Having already seen his side crash out of Europe to Maltese gants Birkikira, he was obviously feeling the pressure after sundays game, and another defeat, when he lashed out about penalties being a penalty if contact is made, and even suggested that matchwinner Scott Sinclair hadn;t been properly registered.
Jamie Walker, the man who fell over as Keiran Tierney ran past him, has styed silent on the matter, though his club appealed the offer of a two match ban for simulation, though yesterday he was found guilty of being a cheat, and is banned anyway.
you’d think that having made a bit of an arse of himself all week, Neilsen would let it go.
Nope.
So, despite fierce competition, a determined and prolonged campaign, combined with the possibility he might not be around much longer, sees Robbie Neilsen named as this weeks Etims
Knob Of The Week
See the happiness this award brings. Makes it all worthwhile.
And anyway, judging from the other story, bottom left , on that page, Warburton could well be going for 55 this year, even f there aren’t 55 Knob Awards left.
Have a glance at the top left story as well. I’m sure that the whole EBT scandal started with a similar disguised warning way back when.
Maybe its a hint to the gullibillies so the papers can say they warned them about impending administration, although my money is on Kilmarnock, stillthe only SPFL club who claim universal credits from the state.
Probably.
Yesterdays caption saw some of her majesty’s finest in full ceremonial dress, or as our winner describes..
caption strathclydes finest arrive in israel to advise on the policing of celtic fans
And today, what could Joey be saying to Clint ?
By the way, we hear its Clint’s birthday soon. Probably, so we made him a cake… in the spirit of friendship, and as a welcome to our great city…
