A game against Union Berlin, from the second tier of German football, four days before our Champions League qualification campaign gets underway sounds like perfect preparation. Union will be better than any opposition we have or will play since defeat in Turin last month and they will be miles ahead of our Champions League second qualifying round opponents.
Having to play six instead of last season’s four games to qualify for the group stage has cost Celtic ‘lucrative’ preseason friendlies. I am sure those charged with the task of balancing the books at Celtic Park (we always pay our bills) will be less than entertained by this, and for many supporters, if feels important that we face Real Madrid or Inter Milan preseason, but the summer time is all about qualifying for the Champions League. There are five weeks between Celtic’s opening qualifying game and the first leg of the play-off round. This extra preparation time should ensure we are fitter and ready.
Legend has it that competitive football in July inevitably leads to a drop in form late in the season but legends are not always reliable. Last year Basel entered Champions League qualification at the same stage Celtic will next season, and next week they become the first Swiss team to play competitive European football in May ever. Apoel Nicosia entered at the same stage in 2011 and became Cyprus’ first qualifier for the Champions League quarter final last year.
The Champions League final of 2014 will be held in Lisbon, the first time the city has hosted Europe’s top game since………. you know when. There are 1730 miles between Berlin and Lisbon, or 10 months, if you prefer. Preparations are already underway.
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Starry, I haven’t been to Berlin for a couple of years but in my experience it is not anymore expensive than any other German city. Like everywhere else if you don’t eat and drink in the tourist areas you pay the same as the locals. I’ll do some more homework for you.
Anyone see the DR “unbiased ” report on under 17 Glasgow Cup Final?
First off they report is 1st meeting since the team now known as RIFC were DEMOTED to the 3rd Division (4th tier) of Scottish football, WRONG. The team you are seeing were invited (before other decent candidates) to join Scottish Football.
They show photos of a seat being passed among Celtic fans and report that flares were thrown by both sets of fans. There are photos available on line showing the victorious teams Ultras having flares in their hands! They ask if you were there can you help? use the photos that are already on line.
Celtic stated they would look into this, SFA and Ranger not available for comment!
” A BIG BOY DONE IT, It WISNAE US.
Re Lenny communicating with the bench, is this definitely outlawed? Does he not have a specially installed ‘Batphone’ behind his seat in the Director’s Box at Parkhead that he openly uses to communicate with the bench?
On Ledley’s wages, I’ve no idea what he is on, but I would expect his overall package will include a significant signing-on element which may well be spread throughout the period of his contract.
Pogmathonyahun aka Laird of the Smiles
Sounds good Mate, be great to meet up with another CQN legned!!
fourgreenfields
Were the old board, Grants and Kelly’s Celtic men? Wee Fergus gave the SFA a run for there money, the current board, I think as a well run football club, we have the right men.. Issues concerning Sevco, shouldn’t concern us, they’re doing a fine job, even with all the help they get…
My young unfortunate cousin said this morning,I love it every time we beat Celtic even if it’s only in a youth game
Och wee hun, it’s the first you’ve ever played us
Had hoped for another road trip down south, Aallen was great last year.
But Berlin just over four hours on the ICE will do just fine.
Looking forward to it already.
Starry, from last year
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g187323-i135-k5327279-Is_Berlin_expensive-Berlin.html
Hi Paul67,
First we take Hibernian, then we take Berlin…
A we while later and we’re all off to Lisbon…
starry plough .
If you go to Berlin —— I highly recommend Hard Wax in Kreuzberg . One of the best vinyl emporiums in the world.
thomthethim
On viewing a couple of photographs, looked to me like the seats were passed down to stewards and have been laid there, just my take on the pictures..
I don’t like Huns never have never will. I get outraged when I see clear injustices be they by Referees, Officialdom or the Lord Nimmo’s of this world. However all these issues do not define me or my persona. I am a Celtic Supporter plain & simple and I will always follow & support Celtic. Regardless of what happens to Sevco, regardless of funny handshakes, regardless of who our opponents are, I will simply continue to follow the Celtic. Summa made a brilliant contribution a couple of days ago, when he said “No longer will someone live rent-free in my head”. Well neither Nimmo, Sevco,Ogilve et al are going to live rent-free in my head”.
Hoopslegend Gerald Butler is on more than 32k a week to make such films as his current offering, in which North Koreans storm the White House.
We’re gettin’ good value from Joe Ledley.
Just checked flights from Pisa to Berlin early July.
easyjet…..€117
Alitalia……€249
Tempted!
HH!!
The official Union [Berlin ]song is “Eisern Union” by the famous German Punk-Star Nina Hagen. An eponymous song by veteran German rock band the Puhdys doesn’t enjoy great popularity, as this band also composed songs for Hansa Rostock and Berlin’s ice hockey team Eisbären Berlin, which once was a department of Union’s main rival Dynamo.
-lifted from Wiki /EWTB/EWLM
DBBIA/99LuftBallonCSC
South Of Tunis
The legendary Hard Wax, must be quite a place..
I’m getting the fever for a Celtic Road Trip…
Where’s Awe Naw? You going to Berlin Big Chap??
Starry from what I can gather, Munich is still much more expensive than Berlin and I don’t find Munich overly expensive. I’ll wager much cheaper than the ole Schweiz.
Joe Ledley is player who can play many positions, I’m of the opinion that he could be the box to box midfielder we crave.
unfortunately he is played in a holding position when he plays at Celtic..
football is a simple game and Joe plays it that way, pass and move…
It’s common for seats to be recycled from one stadium to another.
From the pictures I saw the broken seats looked partly perished.
http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/8808173/1/
Thread re. Berlin.
micktt
12:56 on 30 April, 2013
thomthethim
On viewing a couple of photographs, looked to me like the seats were passed down to stewards and have been laid there, just my take on the pictures..
*******
That’s exactly what it looks like.
Pogmathonyahun aka Laird of the Smiles
Just looked out my door to check the weather, cost me a tenner, incredibly expensive in Switzerland!!
Ntssoollaa…
Partly Perished…
Does it still have it’s history??
From the photos I saw it looked if some of the seats has perished ‘melted’. Possibly down to the flare/smoke bomb in amongst the Celtic fans. I just wish the numpties who bring these things to games would realise the risk they are causing to other fans.
Q Why can the Glesca polis discover that you are carrying in a bottle of water but for some reason cannot find these flares/smoke bombs? Just asking like!
blantyretim
Correct Joe was known as a box to box player when we signed him, he is one of two or three players we have who moves after he passes the ball, rarely to receive a pass back I might add, Lustig must think his team mates hate him!!!
Starry Plough
Spent a lot of time in Berlin and it’s not expensive at all – if you stay in the right places – great City. There’s an American guy who runs short-stay (not sure what the shortest would be though) self-catering apartments. Very good value, no fuss and dotted across Berlin – Kreuzberg being one of them. Check them out here – BerlinCribs.com. Jealous that I can’t make it! Pre-booked holiday.
Off oot to soak up some rays.
Southampton set sights on Celtic trio Victor Wanyama, Gary Hooper and Fraser Forster.
Aye right!
hoopsmon
Excellent, thanks Mate..
Well, no letter in the post regarding tickets, so I have decided to boycott the Cup Final in protest.
As regards whatever went on a Firhill last night, and there are plenty of contradictory views:
Celtic supporters support Celtic; Hooligans cause trouble.
The two are mutually exclusive.
I like Joe Ledley, he’s one of our top players. We sure miss him when he’s not in the team.
Asonofdan
Do they have a spare 40m??
pabloh_aka_neil lennon
Exactly.
From the BBC
Fifa honorary president Joao Havelenge has resigned after being named in a report as having received bribes.
The report by Fifa’s ethics chairman Hans-Joachim Eckert also names Nicolas Leoz for taking kickbacks from World Cup rights marketing agency International Sport and Leisure.
Leoz resigned from the governing body’s executive committee last week.
He was accused in the report of being “not fully candid” in his explanations over the affair.
However while the report says that payments to Havelenge, Leoz and the former Fifa executive Ricardo Teixeira qualified as bribes they were not crimes at the time.
Fifa granted ISL exclusive rights to market World Cup tournaments to some of the world’s biggest brands and ISL received millions more from negotiating television broadcast rights.
The company collapsed with huge debts in 2001 and its arrangement with Fifa was subsequently investigated by Swiss authorities.
Fifa was last year forced by the Swiss supreme court to release documents relating to the case after repeated attempts to block the confidential papers’ release.
It followed a report by the BBC’s Panorama programme in 2010 which alleged three senior Fifa officials took bribes from Swiss-based ISL in the 1990s.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter announced in July 2012 that Fifa’s new ethics committee would be looking at the bribery allegations. That investigation resulted in the release of Tuesday’s report.
The report says: “It is certain that not inconsiderable amounts were channelled to former Fifa president Havelange and to his son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira as well as to Dr Nicolas Leoz, whereby there is no indication that any form of service was given in return by them.
“These payments were apparently made via front companies in order to cover up the true recipient and are to be qualified as ‘commissions’, known today as ‘bribes’.”
The report states that Havelenge and Teixeira were “morally and ethically reproachable” for accepting the money.
Leoz told investigators he donated the money he received to a school project – but only in January 2008.
The report states that payments were made between 1992 and May 2000.
Questions over Fifa president Sepp Blatter’s conduct have also been raised in the past but the report says there is no evidence he received money from the now-defunct ISL.
But it does raise questions about whether Blatter should have known about the bribes to other executives and labels his behaviour in dealing with aspects of the affair as “clumsy”.
“There are also no indications whatsoever that President Blatter was responsible for a cash flow to Havelange, Teixeira or Leoz, or that that he himself received any payments from the ISL Group, even in the form of hidden kickback payments.
“It must be questioned, however, whether President Blatter knew or should have known over the years before the bankruptcy of ISL that ISL had made payments (bribes) to other Fifa officials.”
Eckert is also critical about the controls that Fifa had in place to prevent such corruption from occurring.
In response to the publication of the report Blatter said: “I note in particular that, in his conclusions, chairman Eckert states that ‘the ISL case is concluded for the Ethics Committee’ and that ‘no further proceedings related to the ISL matter are warranted against any other football official’.
“I also note with satisfaction that this report confirms that ‘President Blatter’s conduct could not be classified in any way as misconduct with regard to any ethics rules’.
“I have no doubt that Fifa, thanks to the governance reform process that I proposed, now has the mechanisms and means to ensure that such an issue – which has caused untold damage to the reputation of our institution – does not happen again.”
hoopsmon
That’s a really nice site, got Mrs Starry looking over my shoulder now!!
The Battered Bunnet
13:22 on 30 April, 2013
‘As regards whatever went on a Firhill last night, and there are plenty of contradictory views:
Celtic supporters support Celtic; Hooligans cause trouble.
The two are mutually exclusive.’
###
No they’re not.
They might not be your idea of what a Celtic supporter might be, but who said you were to decide?
Corkcelt @ 12:57,
“I am a Celtic supporter plain & simple …….. regardless of who our opponents are, I will simply continue to follow the Celtic….”
Quite right on my first post on the blog I said we should not be defined through R@ngers and our Competitiveness and status should be with Europes best.
R@ngers have helped by going into liquidation.
And Celtic have helped through persuing a sustainable financial model and being the best in Scotland and competitive in Europe.
Lots of good work has put Celtic where they are yet, the aftermath of last nights match will only reinforce the old firm thinking.
New generation of the old firm same as before.
If we can concentrate on Celtic irrespective of any other Club and treat where we are as Normalcy we will be much the better for in my opinion.
Hail! Hail!
Any bhoys got any contacts/sites for a hotel in Glasgow city centre this Saturday ? Thanks in advance,it’s for the wife honest !!