2012 was end of old ways, OF conspiracy theorists

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One of today’s newspapers did its very best to run with a one’s as bad as the other’ suggestion, saying : “Yes, both sides have justifiable grievances. Celtic were rightly outraged at the state their stadium was left in. Likewise, the Rangers board were understandably disgusted at those mock executions of blow-up dolls draped in red, white and blue scarves.”

This is wholly misrepresenting the situation. Celtic were rightly outraged at the blow-up dolls, criticised the actions at the time while endorsing the behaviour of the fabled “vast majority”. Celtic don’t have a problem with self-analysis; they’ve done it often enough in recent seasons in the face of Uefa fines.

The blow-up doll incident, and the faux defence of it, which Celtic didn’t offer, has nothing whatsoever to do with who pays for tens of thousands of pounds worth of vandalism carried out by visiting fans at Celtic Park. You can make your own suggestions as to why it was raised in connection with the subject.

The article goes on to offer up evidence of the bigger story, which it somehow manages to miss.

“Rangers (sic.) believe they have every right to take the hump because Celtic have chosen to ignore years of protocol – an unwritten rule which has stood the test of time, whereby each club pays for damage done to its own stadium by opposing fans on derby day.”

Maybe, maybe not, but here’s the thing, whatever unwritten rules Celtic and Rangers observed died in 2012.

You want unwritten rules to persist? Pay your taxes, register your players correctly, make full and honest submissions to HMRC inquiries instead of shredding correspondence. Play by the rules everyone else has to play by.

Cheat, lie, hide and shred and you have no defence in written rules, never mind unwritten objects of your imagination. This reality should now be writ large for all to understand.

After the 1909 Scottish Cup final between Celtic and Rangers ended suspiciously in a draw, one astute observer noted that the clubs were acting in concert, like an Old Firm, in order to generate gate receipts from a replay.

With the permission of Oldco’s administrators, Newco were able to change their name to “Rangers”, but that act of an administrator cut no ice at Celtic Park, or most other Scottish grounds.

There is no Old Firm, it died in 2012. Celtic don’t use the phrase, they don’t observe unwritten rules they had in place with Rangers, they don’t want their stadium trashed, they don’t want to install “prison grade” facilities for visiting fans (this is what’s now required in Scotland in 2017, good grief!), they would happily never host the club again.

If you think all that happened in 2012 was a “relegation” (which you’d earlier reported was impossible), this might be news to you. It was more than this; it was the end of the old ways – and good riddance to them.

Celtic will stand of fall on our own merits. We will observe the laws and rules of the land, the tax authorities, the Association, Uefa and Fifa (even if it means criticising our own fans). If you’re looking for unwritten favours after vandalising our property: tough.

And for those who continually see O.F. conspiracies, none of them have ever been able to tell me a business case for Celtic to put life into that concept. It’s not good for business, no matter what the wildest conspiracy theorist might tell you.  Anyone who tells you it is needs to take a look at himself.

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  1. AWE_NAW_NO_ANNONI_OAN_ANAW_NOO on 16TH JANUARY 2017 2:20 PM

     

     

    As much as anybody can provide substantive proof that Celtic or PL were involved in the 5WA.

     

     

    I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. They may have marketed derby games as close as possible to OF without using the term but they knew there was enough demand for the tickets to price them that high and it would only need a slight nudge. Similarly they knew demand from our side for the game at Ibrox would be high enough to justify the old allocation rules.

     

     

    Like it or not, there’s a lot of Celtic fans out there that still give additional weight to games against TRFC, even if they don’t call them OF.

     

     

    It’s also worth remembering that one of the clubs’ aims is to maximise revenue. Sometimes that may require being packaged with TRFC. I suspect fan antipathy to that idea isn’t yet strong enough to stop them doing it.

  2. £49 for a ticket is a simple business equation, supply outstrips demands and prices are set accordingly. As for Jacksons article, Jabbas paws are all over it. You wonder if Jackson has any capability to understand how low he has to scoop to produce a peice like that. Does he look in the mirror and think, i’m not a journalist, not even a reporter, just a puppet. Its an embarrassment to the readership that a newspaper would publish that garbage and except people to take it seriously.

  3. £49 for a ticket is a simple business equation, supply outstrips demands and prices are set accordingly. As for Jacksons article, Jabbas paws are all over it. You wonder if Jackson has any capability to understand how low he has to scoop to produce a peice like that. Does he look in the mirror and think, i’m not a journalist, not even a reporter, just a puppet. Its an embarrassment to the readership that a newspaper would publish that garbage and expect people to take it seriously.

  4. Ticket pricing is about supply and demand and most teams will do it

     

     

    eg Man city v spurs £58 same ticket v swansea £38

  5. Celtic don’t use the term Old Firm because they know a section of the support would object.

     

     

    That’s the only reason.

     

     

    It’s not because they reject the concept.

  6. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    weeminger on 16th January 2017 2:38 pm

     

     

    I agree with all of that.

     

     

    and that is the biggest conspiracy within Scottish football. i.e That is Scottish football

     

     

    The club cannot come out and say we are the establishments bitch cos it is good for our shareholding

     

     

    No they will always make up policy on the hoof to which they believe will deliver the biggest dividend.

     

     

    That´s what bean counters do. It does not matter which industry.

     

     

    Industry´s only flourish when their bean counters take a back seat .

     

     

    Policy on the hoof , having their cake and eating is.

     

     

    SPINELESS that´s what we have come to expect from this PLC

     

     

     

    SPINELESS R US FC 1888

     

    HH

  7. ERNIE LYNCH on 16TH JANUARY 2017 2:46 PM

     

    Celtic don’t use the term Old Firm because they know a section of the support would object.

     

     

     

    That’s the only reason.

     

     

     

    It’s not because they reject the concept.

     

     

     

    This is 100% not true. Impossible to prove either way but there you go

  8. ‘they would happily never host the club again.’

     

     

     

    ###

     

     

    So when did The Great Demondo have that Damascian conversion? Does anyone know? What happened? Did they insult his moustache?

     

     

    ###

     

     

    “Rangers are a fantastic club with a great history. They will, in not too long a time, be back in the SPL. I have no doubt about that. And they’re needed for Scottish football because of their following, the size of the club and especially their history. We certainly would like to contest with them every week.”

  9. ERNIE LYNCH on 16TH JANUARY 2017 3:00 PM

     

     

    When TRFC beat us in the cup and by some accounts were a little bit shabby in their behaviour towards DD?

     

     

    Perhaps DD’s feathers were ruffled precisely because he felt he’d said and done things to help them in the run up to that point and they didn’t show the correct level of grace,

     

     

    Who knows? It’s all conjecture.

  10. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    Weeminger

     

     

    Andrew Smith is Peter Lawwell go to boy in the SMSM.

     

     

    That´s all there is in that story

     

     

    HH

  11. So Paul67 – if it (the old firm) isn’t good for business and you cannot see a business case for it.

     

     

    Why did Celtic collude with the 5 way agreements, stand by while the big lie was perpetrated, why did we passively accept LNS, why haven’t the board taken forward res 12 etc etc.

     

     

    On the balance of all probabilities it seems that the celtic board wanted rangers back. If you want to talk about business cases didn’t Lawwell go on about losing £10M a year from their absence? Isnt that their business case.

     

     

    This hypocritical and frankly silly attempt to dehumanise those who point out the unpalatable as conspiracy theories really should be beneath you.

     

     

    But when you exist to propagate the boards agenda it can hopelessly compromise you.

  12. Paul67/ Auldheid/Canamalar

     

     

    I have lost touch with the outcome of resolution12 issue.

     

     

    To be honest it dragged on and my was was somewhere between the requisitioners didn’t fully understand that a relatively concrete case was required before Celtic would put their name to anything formal ,and that Celtic didn’t really have an appetite to pursue the issue.

     

     

    The last time I payed attention to the issue I ending up skimming the posts through boredom.

     

     

    Paul’s leader here seems to contradict Canamalars strong view that Celtic had strung along the requisitioners and in fact have no appetite to out the cheating SFA / Hun cabal.

     

     

    Can any of you clear up the issue a bit?

     

    TT

  13. ERNIE LYNCH @ 2:36 PM,

     

     

    ‘none of them have ever been able to tell me a business case for Celtic to put life into that concept’

     

     

    How about this?

     

     

    1. The ‘OF’ rivalry adds what 5,000+? (pick your own number) season books each year. Not necessary at the moment, because things are going well on the pitch. What about the seasons when things aren’t so good? What if RD was still there? How many additional season books would the ‘OF rivalry add?

     

     

    2. Increased TV interest, with knock on increased advertising and sponsorship revenues.

     

     

    3. Maybe just enough of a lure to tip the balance when trying to attract players who might not fancy moving to Scotland.

     

     

    4. You don’t need the huns team to be competitive on the park, because the ‘OF’ rivalry has nothing to do with football, it’s about bigotry. So you don’t have to risk losing revenue to them. That’s the beauty of it. Just keep them ticking over and no more.

     

     

    5. Oh, and you can hike the prices for the games against them. Ching ching.

     

     

     

    How about that?

     

     

     

    1. There are ‘OF’ fans within the Celtic support, in my opinion the Fholk who cherish these games are of an older generation, they certainly aren’t numerous and they are far from being a main decider on SB purchases, unlike the 90’s where an SB was the only way you’d be guaranteed an OF Ticket – we are now in an Era where SB holders give away their SB’s because they can’t stomach the fixture

     

     

    2. The Increased TV interest is a very small business plus. How large in percentage terms was the SPL TV money for us last Season, how much this Season? The difference is a Pittance, for all the positive Advertising revenue, subtract the negative bad publicity and guilt by association

     

     

     

    3. Do you seriously think that any Professional Football is going to put an OF experience ahead of a UCL fixture? No Chance. It may work for NewCo as a myth enhancer and untie the likes of Joey Barton to Scotland but it will do little for the Dembelles of Football. Therefore a business advantage to NewCo, so a business disadvantage to us

     

     

     

    4. You don’t need the huns team to be competitive on the park, because the ‘OF’ rivalry has nothing to do with football, it’s about bigotry. So you don’t have to risk losing revenue to them. That’s the beauty of This is a busted model and Scottish Football at all levels are suffering because of it. As stated earlier some of the older generation have an affinity for this but for me a Competitive Aberdeen and Hearts would trigger greater revenue for Celtic and Scottish Football than the hate fest.

     

     

    5. And yes you can hike the prices for the games against them, like all Derbies that will be the case. But the UCL is the only game in town business wise… Why on Earth would we want to aid any rival in their ambition to pip us for this? Not only Business Madness but Business suicide.

     

     

    Hail Hail

  14. Rock Tree Bhoy on

    The 8,000 fans that travelled to Berlin to see deidco playing yesterday cheered them off the pitch at the final whistle, yip, cheered them off, (‘we love you rangers’ was being chanted hysterically!) not jeered them off, after getting gubbed 4 zip, what a gullible lot, no wonder there getting taking for a ride.

  15. Paul67

     

     

    Ernie Lynch and Neg Anon make some very pertinent points.

     

     

    I want my own interpretation of what I think Celtic are doing to be wrong.

     

    My interpretation is that the board are there to do the best for the club financially in the short ,medium and longer term, and that the board have decided it is best whilst we are tied to Scottish football to have form of Rangers to compete with us.

     

     

    TT

  16. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    Chairbhoy on 16th January 2017 3:14 pm

     

     

    because 5 will not happen regularly enough and you are forgetting this board’s propensity for having it´s cake and eating it. % will soon not be permitted at all due to our continual abject failures within Europe

     

     

    Neganon,

     

     

    I love it whenever you appear. It pushes the uneducated hard of thinking rigid belief system CQNér who pretends he is not a bigot over the edge. It always gets personal with them due to their natural stupidity and lack of education and class.

     

     

    They need their Rangers look at this blog since Christmas

     

     

    Old Firm Fellatio with the falsers still in situ Zip down … zip down bears … here I am ..I`ll bend over when I am finished.

     

     

    abject gibbering morons

     

     

    Looking forward to causing absolute havoc on here between the 15th March and start of the new season

     

     

    The senile 11 plus failures look out

     

     

     

    HH

  17. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    That´s not including the now senile 11 plus failures that are already blocked with my filter.

     

     

    That filter is coming down on the 15th March

     

     

    Awe Naw who is going nowhere

     

     

    HH

  18. Awe naw

     

     

    Do you know the really sad thing?

     

     

    That folk like Celtic Champs Elect think they have the moral high ground to the huns when in fact they are just the same in their outlook and beliefs.

     

     

    Its incredible really.

     

     

    And CQN’s crushing desire to talk about the huns to detract attention from the big picture really is a betrayal of what this site was supposed to be about.

     

     

    But I am sure Paul gets lots of pats on the back from Peter when he attends the games.

  19. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    NEGANON2

     

     

    I am sure when they all meet up for confession it´s brushed under the carpet

     

     

    HH

  20. Speaking of having your cake and eating it, what is the difference between Dermot Desmond saying “Rangers great team… Proud history…. Back soon yada yada” and Peter Lawwell saying “Celtic have a stand alone business plan that does not depend on any other team than our own”?

     

     

    Answer when statements from Celtic do not suit your “old firm” fixation.

     

     

    The Celtic SLO has also covered the Celtic position on Sevco calling themselves “Rangers”. In essence he said they can call themselves what ever they want it is no skin off of our nose, Celtic play the fixtures assigned to them. He also confirmed that they do not use the term”old firm” and will not use it again.

  21. The intellectual conceit of some people on here is unbelievable.

     

     

    If you do not wholeheartedly agree with the “anti board” agenda you are “hard of thinking”, a board apologist or a sheep, there are more I am sure but being “hard of thinking” I struggle to keep up with them smart guys wot are more edumacated than me.

     

     

    Must be awful lonely up there on that high horse.

  22. And with that I bid you all good afternoon, would threaten to flounce but no one would miss me.

     

     

    ImgoingdiggingforwormsCSC

  23. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    In essence he said they can call themselves what ever they want

     

     

    He did not say it and remember illegally they shouldn´t be allowed either by law or within football ..but they did as there was no objections from us – how is that representing us properly ?

     

     

    Being an openly non bigoted Celtic fan who can interpret reality is becoming lonelier and lonelier every day

     

     

    Thank F**K

     

     

    HH

  24. So…

     

     

    An article of Fake News about other Fake News?

     

    Concluded with the accusation/label of Conspiracy Theorist to anyone who ask pertinent questions?

     

     

    So similar to the mainstream media of today..

  25. Shout

     

    Shout

     

    Let it all out

     

    You are the scum

     

    We can do without

     

    Sevco

     

    You know we’re talking about you

     

    Sevco.

     

     

    Heard that being sung by young bhoys on saturday night.

     

     

    Had tae laugh.

  26. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    PJBhoynyc on 16th January 2017 3:53 pm

     

     

    part of the Old Firm tapestry and Paul67 wittingly or not is playing game.

     

     

    get ready to rumble.

     

     

    HH

  27. So,….DD got upset wi the neds in the huns directors box in the SCSF were Ronny’s team were put out and, this made DD bring in Brendan ?

     

    Aye,….it had nothing to do with 30,000 empty seats threatening not to be renewed.

     

    Btw, fans with ‘filters’ are oot the same book as the, British MSM when they used to put actors and, subtitles in place of Irish Republicans on the news broadcasts under Thatchers watch.

     

    Clique behavior.

     

    Cliques are hunlike.

     

    Cliques are for stuck up Tims who forget where they came fae.

     

    Cliques widny have lasted a minute in the Jungle.

     

    The PLC widny have lasted a minute wi the Jungle.

     

    BRTH – Why did Fergus lock the fans outside ‘they’re’ club ?

     

    Mr Stein widny have got a look-in for the Cellic managers job under Fergus….show yer cojones and…ye get sacked…..joost ask Wim!

     

    May God’s light shine upon all troubled Celts.

     

    ….life’s too short….off-oot….

  28. Owen- with respect , the Celtic Board have been bodyswerving major issues since 2011-12.They use blogs like this to put up a protest, which is read by a few thousand people(Res 12 is an example, not all Celtic fans are aware of it).We have lacked any type of leadership, which sticks up for the Club and therefore the supporters.Is there a blackmail plot from the SMSM , against Board members? Serious question BTW.We will always be ‘at the back of the bus’, until we have a strong voice leading CFC IMO.I am not saying we need to comment on every issue out there, but the silence has been deafening for years,one statement on LNS excepted.No wonder fans of other Clubs , give us stick for saying nothing.No more Turnbull Huttons left by the look of it.HH

  29. Celtic Champs Elect on

    Would it be fair to say that the pot head is strung out today thus his sexual innuendo or has he now moved upstairs to Crystal Meth or Dan Mack or even Peas &Barley

     

     

    As for the other clowns there is not much more to discuss about them other than to say they are the biggest clowns I have ever heard on a blog

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