Going by the looks of the photographs coming out of Romania today Ronny Deila and his players will be going a culture shock; the Stadionul Marin Anastasovici isn’t the Camp Nou, our more familiar European haunt.
The industrial surroundings should set a tone for the players, though, and industrial performance is required tonight, where the attributes of effort, attention to detail and strength of character are required.
Astra surprised many of us at Celtic Park last month. After their capitulation to Dinamo Zagreb they were supposed to be the whipping boys of the group, but they can play and extended Celtic more than any domestic challenger would be able to.
A victory would be an enormous boost to our season, and to the development of Ronny’s first Celtic squad. Question is, are we ready yet?
Ignorance of causality
Sometime between when the link between tobacco and cancer was suggested, and when it was proven, cigarette manufacturers mocked the research by pointing to a study which linked dental hygiene with cancer.
A perfectly valid piece of research found that – in their sample – the group who brushed their teeth daily had less cancers. In any research you would expect random links, which is why the medical industry requires many studies before concluding on a linkage or treatment.
Yesterday Community Safety Minister, Roseanna Cunningham, told the Scottish Parliament that recent years has seen decreases in religious hatred crimes at football, which she attributes to the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act., which she informed us we spend £3m per year enforcing. That’s a lot of police overtime to pluck fans out of their beds at 4am.
I respectfully disagree. Ms Cunningham is blind to causality. Top flight football in Scotland these past few years is a completely different place than it was previously. The change had nothing to do with her government’s “horribly drafted” [Sherriff Richard Davidson] legislation.
She knows this, of course, but the landscape has changed over the last year. The Scottish Government received an independent report on the Act in December last year but refused to debate it in Parliament or at committee. This is unsurprising as the issue could have been toxic at a sensitive time.
Jim Murphy yesterday pledged to scrap the Act “right away”, adding “Sectarianism is a deep rooted and hate filled long-term problem in Scotland. It was allowed to fester and grow over many decades. Shamefully it was celebrated by a minority and silently tolerated by far too many”.
No other political party supported the Act, so it will not survive a change of government, but going by the polls that day could be a long way off. That £3m per year is lubricating a lot of wheels, but the real cost is the politically motivated criminalisation of the non-intolerant innocent in order to “equalise” them with the absolutely intolerant.
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383 Comments- Pages:
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First?
brap
3rd?
Shat….
..cracker….
…and I’m yer mawn!!
mick 1888
Dixies penalty nearly hit me and I was at the back at the hun end!!
Don’t think any major newspaper in Scotland will touch the advert,billboards might work better?
The corrupt Labour Party had decades to challenge sectarianism. They did nothing.
Actually, they did do something, they encouraged sectarian divisions.
Celtic Celtic on to victory.
H.H Mick
tonydonnelly67
12:35 on 6 November, 2014
I met a HUN I know at the shops this morning he shouts hey Donnelly wut do yi think of the draw in the semis? Ach! I said I’d rather have got one of the other two bigger teams, but this wee new club I have to hand it to them have done well, but I doubt if they will be even close to us by half time, he sais….muscles in his neck bulging, ach your no still banging on about the NEWCO ur yi? I said I’m not banging on about it you asked me what a thought an am telling yi, …..were the same club don’t talk daft, prove ti me wur no?….I said this may need your full attention here and no interruption until I’m finished….aye righ go on, SAIS he……..so I told him about a friend of mine who was a tim and worked at the old Rangers accountants office, he was a great friend of my two brothers and myself, and on my older brothers 50 th birthday he bought him one share in RFC, I got one when I turned 50, as did my younger brother, this big guy my friend used to laugh around Christmas when they where sending out the Christmas cards and team calendar and a Christmas letter from the chairman and the team manager who ever that was at the time, the reason of the funny bit was both my older brother and I lived in Canada, and it must have cost them plenty every year to send it, all for a £1 share, lol, any way, back to the guy at the shops this morning, I told him I had a share, and also about what happened evey Christmas on how I looked forward to my Callander and the rest from RFC and that two year ago, they stoped coming through the post, I told him I made a call after the first failure of my Callander to Ibrox , to find out what had happened, and then I said to him ( the HUN at the shops) guess what they said to me…….he said awe f..k off and walked away…..I shouted to him haw mere you’ve no heard the best bit….he kept on walking……it was a horrible wet cold morning before I met that HUN, oh how my day turned around, has ti be an omen, result tonight…..by the way the story on the share wi me an my bros. Is true. Ask Masty.
.
Only 87 Days till the Next Old Firm Game..【ツ】
Thumbs Up
Summa
TD 8))
Summa – looks like Mickey Mouse peeping out from the left there
That is funny :)
I’m glad to see you’re on the FAC team Paul. I’m also glad to see you agree that the money spent enforcing the bill does not equate, satisfactorily, to convictions. Again you’re right also, that £3m per year is lubricating a lot of wheels and now that we have a Police Scotland Force all those resources have become accountable only to one person; but the people voted and got the governance accordingly… that Sir is democracy, regardless how despicable.
TD67
Tony next time you go to the shop take big Dave L.
fae the Brazen with you and there will be more than
his neck bulging.
H.H Mick
tonydonnelly67:
:-) Champion.
blantyretim:
Thanks.
Tony Donelly that was damned funny.brb in stitches.
Donnelly even
Couldn’t agree more, Paul67. Hope more on here will see the truth that’s staring them in the face. Our current Scottish Government will not face up to sectarianism, as it’s in the blood of too many of their party and they either don’t or won’t recognise it.
I think we should’ve signed the lad Haynes from Notts County.
He would know how to take Astra apart ;)
There must be plenty of tims who have recently become new members of the SNP. i for one have messaged the candidates for depute party leader asking their stance on the OBAFA, Ms Constance is the only one to have replied so far, and she’s standing by it.
I think lobbying our MPs from the inside is the way to go.
Despite labours promise to axe the bill, I will never vote for them again, especially after getting into bed with the OO before the referendum.
Auldheid
12:42 on
6 November, 2014
Winning Captains
I’m not sure what the purpose of this initiative is and if it will meet it and I’m with Bankiebhoy that it would be more effective if supporters of other clubs signed up to it.
This could be done by having two sections. One which all supporters signed up to and the other for the Celtic supports view.
TSFM would be where to sound out this approach with a split draft.
On the content I have added to an extracted para below a bit about SFA Membership transfer in bold. Its probably too long as is but I wanted to make the point clear. It could be shortened to “normal Membership Application rule set aside for commercial purposes endangering the integrity of the game ”
As every other club moved up one place to fill the gap caused by the liquidation of Rangers, the new club created by Charles Green was allowed to enter the fourth tier of Scottish football. So there was no demotion of Rangers. The old Rangers died and Charles Green’s new club started life in the Scottish league system at the bottom – with no history and no tradition. An Associate SFA Membership could have been applied for within 14 days of joining the SFL and granted, so no need to transfer the SFA Membership held by the liquidated club to the new club. Transfer of a membership no more makes the new the club same as the old club than a golf club transferring a deceased father’s membership to his son makes the son his dead father or resurrects him. This was purely a commercial construct overriding the normal football rules when no need to.
Roseanna Cunningham, told the Scottish Parliament that recent years has seen decreases in religious hatred crimes at football, which she attributes to the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act., which she informed us we spend £3m per year enforcing.
=====================================
Good grief, and just a short couple of months ago, many on here were prepared to give utter and absolute power over us to her party.
What were we thinking about…
Kitalba
Dave just messaged me back.
will hopefully be up for a visit in a day or two. Hopes to use his free time to return to cqn…
any updates ill let you know..
Captain Beefheart @ 12 31.
One of the best critiques of the party political exploitation of Sectarianism in Scotland can be found in this————-
Games with Shadows -Neal Ascherson .
Low Yo-Yo Stuff CSC -Way down south.
TD, loved the story. I know your brother Tam, but haven’t seen him since the second last Vegas get together. How’s he doing?
HH
gsu
Paul – Don’t know where you’re getting your facts from on this but I was at the debate yesterday. The report published last December was not about the Act; it was about tackling sectarianism more generally. The £3 million a year is being spent on the report’s recommendations for tackling sectarianism. I don’t know how much is spent enforcing the Act but none of the £3 million is.
..
Celtic player Abuse has increased 308.76% in the 3 Years ..
Is Religious Hatered a Actual Crime..
I know We see it Every Day on CQN but is it a Actual Offence..?
Summa
As I suggested yesterday Sleekit has decided against
calling of game against Alloa off because of 3 diddys in
international call ups.
What about the “unfairness” previously to East Fife/Cowdenbeath ect
“if he didnt do it for one but did it for others ?”
Basically OK for wee diddy teams to lose out on a SAT game at home but not for
the deadly bears.
STINKS.
Wonder if anyone in press will call him out.
Guess not
greensideup-gbwoI
He is doing fine, he was home for 6 weeks and just flew back this morning to Canada, he has his wife picking him up at the airport and dropping him off at the celtic club as soon as he lands for the game as it a 1pm KO over there, she’s not to happy, she hasent changed, she has previous on being crabit about things concerning Celtic, mind you when the big man cancelled his May wedding till July because Celtic made it to the Europen Cup Final in Milan she got upset about that too, wimen EH?
Captain Beefheart
12:31 on 6 November, 2014
—————————————————–
You’re wrong :
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/dec/05/scotland.devolution
That initiative was cancelled by those currently in power.
But even if you were right, that doesn’t make a good case for implementing and keep the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.
Sectarianism and anti-Irish racism are hard-wired into Scottish culture – it’s part of the “warp and weft”. The Scottish Government appear not to want to even acknowledge this never mind do anything about it, and as we all know you need to acknowledge a problem first before you can look at how best to address it. It’s almost as if it doesn’t suit their current narrative about what a good job they’re doing.
Summa..,
The hatred cannot be a crime, acting on that hatred physically, verbally or in public is covered here
http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/p_to_r/racist_and_religious_crime/
Auldheid 12:49
Exactly! If it is the same club then why the need for any transfer of membership?
If they say it’s because of the change in ownership then why no transfer in 2011 when ownership changed from Murray to Whyte?
philbhoy
12:14 on 6 November, 2014
Paddy gallagher
Hope you are well!
Your Mum too!
All good amigo – cheers.
My application to join the local golf club has been accepted, albeit via a rather circuitous route.
Instead of being granted a regular membership, turns out that the membership of a recently deceased member has been transferred to me.
No harm at that, except for medal rounds and club competitions I’ll be entered as “Robert McIvor”, and will be known to other members as Bob.
I gather that the recently deceased Robert McIvor was a long-standing member, club Captain, and won the club Championship 8 times in the last 10 years.
Unfortunately, I have to use my own handicap.