Celtic Diary Thursday December 19

Yesterdats diary prompted a plethora of replies and gave me an idea. I’m off undercover to Follow Follow to start a Second Rangers Diary, though the title might give me away.

This diary is merely a day to day reflection of how events surrounding Celtic can be interpreted, and very often, something the club does provokes a strong reaction from supporters, and from me.

The decision to ignore the fans, at a time when they are being treated poorly by the club, and to go to Turkey of all places to play Ajax of all clubs is crass and insensitive. Especially as they would have known they were going to do it some time ago. Granted they may not have known they were going to Turkey, but they knew they would cancel that game. They should have let us know, and then people would not have wasted money booking up for the game.

However, the board have taken the decision to offer two free tickets to all season book holders for the Glasgow Derby on January 1. Thats a good gesture, and hopefully it will persuade some people who may not have even considered going to the game to attend. Some might say its cringeworthy, others may applaudit.

But  thats what its all about. Getting bums on seats. Getting people to go to the game. If the board does not listen to the fans, then sooner or later there won’t be any who bother trying to talk to them. They’ll still watch the game, but on telly, or on a stream. They will still buy the merchandise, but they won’t be doing it at the club shop, and eventually it will become a match day ordeal, rather than experience.

So, the freebies are a step in the right direction. Especially if book holders use them to take their kids along, and their mates. This needs to be encouraged, because if our CSC is any sort of indicator, then when the present support dies off, there’ll be no-one to take its place. Which is why the harsh treatment of the younger elements of the crowd is baffling.

Of course, there is no place for vandalism or hooliganism, but singing is harmless. Even the bloody drum can be tolerated, and tolerance is the key word here. There is room for youngsters to be lively. there is room for the older guy to watch the game and moan that the team isn’t what it used to be. Theres even room for those who fancy going to the football when they wake up in the morning. The board need to realise this and act upon it.

The club also donated £500 to a nursery in the East End of Glasgow which had been broken into, which came out of the Charity Fund. So, two good news stories. Were they expecting a bad one, as a cynic might ask ?

Well, theres this.

Glasgowroad put this story out on twitter the other day, which is worrying if true;

Around this very week last year within the confines of Celtic Park it was let slip to myself that the club backed The Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012. At first it came as a shock and I waited on the punchline, then further details were given of how QC Paul McBride had advised Peter Lawwell and ‘The Club’ that they should back the Act. Today @MinogueTom has in one tweet exposed all that myself and certain others have known all along – http://t.co/n72XLcJQSv the truth always comes out, especially now as there is no hiding place from ‘The Freedom Of Information’.

We were told not so long ago that the club ‘backed’ the fans in our campaign to see this Act smashed, this was a one-liner via another rushed and prompted ‘Club Statement’, they lied. Stories of internal meetings in which Celtic PLC staff gathered personal details of Celtic season ticket holders from Section 111 with a view to “getting rid of them” were denied as “untrue and false”, they lied.

The myth and set up that was the ‘Battle Of Dens Park’ was a joint operation between Celtic, Police and Dundee FC. I sat during an ‘evidence gathering’ video production compiled by David Brannan and shown to myself and one other in the presence of Hawthorn and Lawwell on a projection screen in The Boardroom, at an estimate 90% of this video was focused footage of Section 111 and Green Brigade members, as the video finished we moved through to the ‘meeting room’ where tea was poured and Lawwell made a call to The Ticket Office Manager and asked for the “seating details of all season book holders from section 111 who have a ticket for Dens Park” , Dundee was the next away game (26/12/12) and it was clear he was planning something. Where the information went once he received it doesn’t take a genius to work out, luckily probably around the same time it was also relayed to a Green Brigade member. There was no riot at Dens Park, there were no Celtic Supporters “urinating where they stood”, there were no “scenes that harked back to the 70’s” , Lawwell lied, again they lied. This is just one example of many instances and situations witnessed by myself of Celtic PLC’s agenda against a section of our own support, The Green Brigade were kept a step ahead, that was only right, they were called liars, they never lied.

You have to wonder why our CEO was so hell bent on criminalising a section of our support, was it figures? Was it to justify ‘The Act’ at our end, was it a personal agenda against The Green Brigades’ politics, displays, Ultra motives or the fact he couldn’t control them? After all he described them to me as “neds and cancerous”, make your own mind up, but there is one thing for sure, he lied.

So the PLC back the fans in our campaign against this legislation, really? As our supporters were ‘kettled’ in The Gallowgate, lifted from their homes in dawn raids, criminalised for songs that are not criminal, harassed, filmed, over searched, vilified in the media and somehow seen as a part scapegoat to a sectarian issues, just remember they backed it and they lied.

The PLC Board of Celtic Football Club need to remember one thing, we can replace you, you cannot replace us. ”

Here we go again. This needs addressing. An open meeting ? A closed meeting ? Doesn’t matter as long as theres a meeting. Then everything can be brought into the open and sorted.

There is still time for Lawwell to come out and comment on this, and perhaps head off what is a gathering storm concerning the treatment of the support. Theres no doubt that some fans are not only not going to renew season books, but are actively turning them in.

If Scottish football is to continue to avoid armageddon, then Celtic have a responsibilty to play their part.

PeteCon in yesterdays diary replies noted that Celtic need to get out of the SPL, but the truth is no-one wants us. and we shouldn’t even be considering it anyway. We should be rebuilding the game up here, and aggressively marketing it. The press need to start selling the game instead of picking fault with it. Rangers are dead. Time to move on and work with what we have left

Perhaps the best news for Scottish football as a whole came from Tannadice yesterday, when Ryan Gauld signed a new contract and will stay at the club. More young Scots need to do this. More clubs need to work on this, instead of selling them off at the first possible opportunity. Clubs such as Celtic, with large development squads should be encouraging the players to stay up here when it becomes apparent they won’t break through at Celtic Park.

Then we could have a product thats worth watching. a competitive and fair league, which would be a novelty.

Its still a couple of years away, but it will be worth waiting for.

With the transfer window a couple of weeks away, Neil Lennon has been back to see Alfred Finnbogason.

Those little red hearts are not part of the Heerenveen strip. They’ve been sent to him by Celtic supporters who see him as the new messiah.

The Record says;

Lennon – who also checked out AZ striker Aron Johannsson last night, with the American scoring twice – has been tracking Finnbogason for months.

But he backed out of a summer swoop after chief scout John Park baulked at the player’s bumper price tag. ”

So it was all John Parks fault ? Well, if thats the case, its nice to know he’s human and does get it wrong somtimes. Perhaps there is still a chance we’ll get him.

The same article has Lazio interested in Georgios Samaras, and it is looking like the Greek will be away. He is sort of surplus to requirements these days, and has failed to set the heather alight this term. Though Heather says she’s quite relieved about that.

You may or may not have noticed, but the big event today is the first AGM of Second Rangers, where one group of directors, who own the club, will be up for election against another group of guys who want them out. Instead of buying them out, the rebels hope they will be voted out.

Its this kind of awareness and competence that caused the old club to die, so we wish them luck.

The Sun has thrown its cards onto the table;

The Record has a pop at the guy they blame for killing Rangers;

Whereas other people are concerned about more pressing issues;

Lou Macari could have been the man behind the newspaper in yesterdays picture-his gambling habits were well documented during his time at Celtic-and were used as a stick to beat him with.

Today, theres a story about the time he was with Celtic that just occured to me . How did the wee man distract defenders at corners, which earned him the nickname poison dwarf.  ( This may be more myth than fact, but its a good wee tale. He certainly never denied it when i asked him if it were true some years ago. He just smiled and continued to tap his toes to the Merry Ploughboy )