Our unofficial Celtic v Atletico Madrid match programme is now available. We preview tomorrow’s match as well as the other game in our group between Rennes and Udinese, as well as a look back 37 years to that infamous game against Atletico in the European Cup semi-final.
European nights have always been special in my Celtic supporting time. When I was a boy they would fill Celtic Park whereas it was predominantly empty on domestic duty. The modern era brought great Uefa Cup and Champions league moments but for a while, even at the peak of our Champions League prowess, the stadium lost something to corporate interests. I remember watching fans walk out of the stadium with 10 minutes on the clock when we were drawing 0-0 with Milan!
Tomorrow night will be more like the great days I remember, when every soul inside the ground was plugged into the nervous anticipation that pumps through all our veins.
Atletico Madrid occupies a similar place in our history to Rapid Vienna. If you were around during the 70s and 80s, when these two clubs eliminated Celtic on their way to European finals, by violence and dishonesty respectively, games against these clubs will have an added dimension. Two years ago we finished above a decent Rapid team in the Europa League group stage who had already dumped Martin O’Neill’s Aston Villa. When Scott McDonald’s goal went in I raised my arms and inadvertently punched the safety ladder at the back of the North Stand, the cut knuckles and bruising lasted weeks. It was a stupid incident but captures the, 40-odd-thousand-people-one-heartbeat, phenomenon that we get to experience too seldom in our lives.
I’m going to look out the hoops tonight, been ages since I’ve worn them. Bring on Atletico, Falcao ‘n’ all.
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Rangers have released their Accountants
Celtic game is on live tonight in Spain on normal free-to-view tv if anyone is looking for it. Local time 18.55, canal cuatro.
Brian Wilson: Let the people sing – yes, even football supporters
Published on Wednesday 30 November 2011 01:20
The Scottish Government is attacking symptoms rather than root causes with its attempt at a new form of censorship
LET ME open with a voluntary confession for Scotland’s Song Police: I know all the words of Kevin Barry and have been heard to sing them. Indeed, I think the last time was in the drawing room of Hillsborough Castle when the portrait of Lord Brookeborough glaring down at us made the temptation irresistible. “Another martyr for Old Ireland, another murder for the Crown”, and all that.
The reason I know the words is that I am the product of youthful conditioning, just as all of us are. We are brought up with traditions, values and our parents’ beliefs. As we grow older, we sort them out in our adult heads. We determine our own versions of right and wrong. We choose our own songs. I was brought up to detest sectarianism, support republicanism over monarchy, follow Celtic and regard Irish unification as a just cause. I have never seen reason to regret any strand of that DNA. Just to confuse (though there are no contradictions involved), I was not from a Catholic background.
As a rational adult, I quickly worked out there was nothing romantic about violence and grew wary of songs that glorified it, even at a distance in time. The poor sods on the receiving end of flashing bayonets and echoing Thomson guns were no more deserving of their fates than the later victims of Semtex and AK-47s.
For wholly explicable historic reasons, a reality of Scottish life is that large numbers of people identify with one tradition or another that has roots in Ireland. To those who have no such affinities, this may seem unfortunate or anachronistic, particularly because it has a habit of presenting itself through the medium of football. But society rests on mutual tolerance and respect. Nobody’s sense of personal identity, or the expressions that go with it, can be legislated away, and it is a fool’s errand to try. No particular group of people should be singled out for special treatment, to the point of criminalisation, to satisfy a political agenda but in the absence of rational argument.
Yet this is exactly what is now happening through the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill, which the Scottish Government appears determined to press ahead with. If ever there was a counterproductive piece of legislation in the making, this is surely it. Let’s separate some of the arguments. First, the Threatening Communications aspect is non-controversial. If there are gaps in current law that prevent the police from prosecuting the purveyors of death threats, sectarian or racial poison (incidentally, why not political also?) then of course cyberspace should be legislated for in the same way as other channels of communication. The complaint about the remainder of the bill is that there are no such gaps in current law. If people breach the peace or commit acts of violence, they are guilty of offences, whatever the motives. However, Section 74 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 added the concept of “statutory aggravation for offences motivated by religious prejudice” and requires courts to take account of that factor in sentencing.
Equally, expressions of support for terrorist organisations is dealt with by the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act of 2006. If these acts of “stirring up hatred” occur at football matches, they will result in criminal sentences that include banning orders. So that deals with misguided miscreants who shout “Ooh, ah, up the ’RA” though heaven knows what “RA” they are referring to when Martin McGuinness and the DUP are now the best of pals in a partitioned Ireland.
For good measure, Celtic have given life bans this season alone to 13 individuals who were detected uttering the forbidden words. That is the way it has to be. The tragedy for these individuals is that they have probably no more than the vaguest idea what they are shouting about. But the existing law, plus the action of clubs, makes a red card mandatory.
If there is any justification for new legislation, it must lie in banning something that is not already covered. But what can that be? To muddy the waters, its apologists throw in the Tynecastle assault on Neil Lennon. But the last I heard, assault is illegal in Scotland. On the other hand, the new legislation does not cover the mindset of Scottish juries – which does rather suggest it is aiming at the wrong target and, indeed, the easy one.
Under the new legislation, the potential criminalisation of singing football supporters is to be a matter for the judgment of police officers “having regard to the nature and words of the song”. Apart from placing another unwanted burden on police officers, who will now come under pressure to define what people can and cannot sing, this catch-all formula creates a form of censorship unique to football supporters.
If a song is illegal on grounds of racism or prejudice it should surely be illegal full stop – not only for football supporters. Then Roseanna Cunningham, the minister responsible for this nonsense, piously suggests there is no need for the singing of songs that have nothing to do with football, which would rule out most songs sung at matches around the world. Indeed, this seems a particularly unfortunate line of argument from an individual who presumably bawls out Flower of Scotland at Murrayfield. What does a 700-year-old battle have to do with rugby?
Ms Cunningham seized on figures showing 231 “football-related” offences involving sectarianism in Scotland last year – all of them, presumably, prosecuted under existing legislation! Forty-seven of these occurred at Celtic Park but only 14, according to police, involved the home support. And there were more than a million attendances in that period.
So where is the sense of perspective? My own view is that bigoted, sectarian attitudes are buried deep in Scottish society. They are directed mainly against minorities, principally – as statistics confirm – the Catholic minority. That is a problem worthy of the Scottish Government’s attention.
It is not too late for the Scottish Government to step back from this legislation and accept it is attacking symptoms rather than root causes. Let the people sing – proudly and legally – rather than pushing them into a corner where they feel obliged to defend that basic right, just as I would have done.
• Brian Wilson was the Celtic centenary historian, and author of A Century With Honour
Awe Naw ——-
The gimp room should be done up to look like a ‘ competition orange ‘
Dick The Dutchman / Fruity Fernando / Little Bill Struth .
A Carnival of Grotesques .
Off oot -getting way too excited.
A year ago today we were trading this……
Rangers takeover: Whyte and Ellis’ purchase may drag into new year
30 November 2010 18:01 GMT
Rangers could soon have new owners but Craig Whyte and Andrew Ellis are unlikely to complete a deal before the new year. Pic: ©SNS Group
Craig Whyte and Andrew Ellis will hold talks with senior Rangers officials next week, as they look to step up their joint efforts to buy Sir David Murray’s shareholding in the Ibrox club.
However STV understands the deal, worth £33 million, may not be concluded as hoped by Christmas and it may take until the new year for the pair to finalise their purchase.
The takeover, which will wipe out the club’s £27.5 million debt to Lloyds TSB, is understood to be at an advanced stage. As part of their proposals, Whyte and Ellis will also pay shareholders, including Murray, a total of £5.5 million.
If the deal for Murray’s 92 per cent shareholding is completed, Whyte will own 69 per cent of the club’s shares, with Ellis – who failed in his own attempts to buy the club earlier this year – holding 23 per cent.
It is also understood £25 million will be invested in Rangers’ first team squad over a period of five years, with transfer funds being made available to Walter Smith in the January transfer window if the takeover is concluded in time.
News of the duo’s bid first broke on November 18, with Whyte and Rangers both putting out statements to the Stock Exchange confirming a possible offer.
Nearly two weeks on, evident progress has been made in a bid Whyte’s solicitor confirmed as being “at an early stage”. Talks between Whyte, Ellis and club officials were also yet to take place at that point.
Where did the £25m go???
Game on espn tonight starts 5:30 and my wife now wants me to paint the wall behind the 6′ freezer, why who is behind my freezer???? Roll on the game so I can get oot of here…………
Aw Naw
How’s about everytime a scene involving Ibrox or MIH pre the millennium we get the death star music,this could be scaled down up until Whyte walks in to pay his quid by Ibrox/MIH turning into Steptoe n Sons yard with the accompanying music.
If Aluko goes on strike today does that save him £3K in wages.
Lennon n Mc….Mjallby says:
30 November, 2011 at 12:18
Great Idea …… can squeeze in the theme tune to Fools and horses also …..
Hail Hail
A propos sod all…..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I once travelled to Adelaide on Emu Airways. I was 5,000 ft up in the air when someone pointed out to me that emus can’t fly”
Billy Connolly
Googybhoy, Where did the £25m go???
………….
Asbestos removal
MIB Erm hospitality
Jelavic mafia down payment
Frozen assets
Etc
Feel free to add to the list.
V
Bobby Murdoch –
nice one!
Jobo (about to clean oven, half way through list now…)
Good Morning,
In many respects, Celtic Football Club’s finest hour came long before anyone in a green or green and white jersey kicked a ball. The very fact that in a time of extreme hardship,poverty,depression,discrimination and prejudice, a group of people voluntarily got together to clear a site for a football pitch and facilities was in itself not only a goal but a major achievement. Bringing those people together for a common purpose, social interaction, laughter,work,shared experiences was the creation of the “club”. Not a football in sight!
Celtic Football Club has always been about people. People and their plight. Their hopes and aspirations.Their fears and concerns. It has always been about what is perceived to be a common fairness,social justice and the idea that acting together the club and its supporters can make someone somewhere see life a little better. Whether that be the East End of Glasgow or Thailand or elsewhere.
Oh and of course there is a small matter of playing football.
Yet some of the things that stick in my mind about Celtic and Celtic people have nothing really to do with football. It has to do with being a person or even a people– who try to live in a Celtic way in the same way that the team play the Celtic way. I don’t mean to be big headed or naive about this as there will be loads of good people who follow other teams throughout the world, but there is a “thing” about Celtic where there is in the main a common set of decent values which act as the bedrock and the very foundation of the club.
One of the most moving moments on TV that I can recall seeing was when Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish called a press conference to announce that he was stepping down as manager of Liverpool FC. Not because the results weren’t good enough, but because he personally was under strain, under pressure and had ceased to be the “person” that he wanted to be, or had been, or once was, or aspired to be.
That was an incredibly brave personal step. Kenny will not have wanted financially so that part will not have been a concern, but to walk away from something that had been your career for something like 25 years, to leave it all behind,with all the attendant publicity and innuendo and rumour from the press— that will not have been easy to do. Gone was the Dalglish smile, the cheery quip, the dry sense of humour, and instead there was only strain and turmoil and angst.
Yet by being so honest, open and humane, Dalglish was treated with the respect and dignity that he deserved for someone who played well, lived well and who had been through a hell of a lot after Hillsborough. But for once he had to do something for Kenny Dalglish and family rather than Kenny Dalglish and football.
Today, loads of people will withdraw their labour for the first time in protest. they are angry that they are being made to pay for financial irregularity elsewhere. It is not that they are not willing to come to the party in sorting the problems of Government, but they are effectively being told and ordered to give up what they are contractually entitled to without a bye your leave and without being consulted.
Worse still this action is about pension and retirement– not about current pay. To pay in more for longer only to receive less seems unjust to me especially where the extra money is being taken out of the pension pot and used for other Government purposes. If I choose to give my money to Government that is one thing. Where it is being simply taken from me is another altogether– especially when I have no say over where that money goes and how it is spent. So people are angry, they are resigned to stand up– for themselves and their families.
This year the banks will award some £4.2Billion pounds in bonuses. In the city of London, an “average” worker receives an “average” salary of £84,000 per year and on top of that an “average bonus” of some £19,980. Now London is an expensive place to live so I do understand that the salaries there have to be higher than in certain other parts of the country or the world. But bonuses are earned and if the industry or the company does not earn the mullah then they cannot afford the bonuses.What you cannot do is continue to pay those bonuses when you can’t afford them and tell others to pay their money into the black hole created by those who work the bonus system. The public sector worker– whether highly paid or otherwise— is an easy Government target. Take the money off them, no matter what we agreed, and no matter what was promised, and no matter who caused the problem. The Public sector worker also suffers the VAT increase, the petrol price rise, the NIC and so on just like the private sector worker—- yet there is no move to delve into the private sector pensions in the same way.
Last year the annual bonus figure was some £6.25Billion pounds for the banks– with the overall management bonuses averaging £166,000 each.
I don’t care where you live that is just obscene, and the difference between the way two groups of people are treated will cause same the kind of angst, worry and strain felt by Kenny Dalglish and others in any job related situation. That is just human nature.
The difference is that the City of London is obsessed with individuality as opposed to the communality that Celtic Football Club was founded on. The “what’s in it for me?” mentality means that someone, somewhere gets shafted so that one individual can get the all important bonus. The individuality of the individual person, the individual bank, the individual sector– it matters not.
On the day that Kenny Dalglish walked out on football, all the money in the world maid no difference at all to him. It was care, consideration, love and affection, and a rest that was needed– and someone to put Kenny and his family first for a change.
Celtic Football Club was the first place Liverpool came to after Hillsborough. That was never a chance meeting– and it had nothing to do with football– it had everything to do with the reception that would be given to the people wearing the red strips and the red tracksuits and the red scarves by the people in the stands or on the pitch wearing green and white strips,tracksuits and scarves.
People. That is all that ever matters. People and how they are treated and how they treat others– that is the bottom line and always should be.
A few weeks ago, a man walked into a restaurant of my acquaintance. he was accompanied by his wife, daughter and his Grandchildren and a long standing friend of many years. He went all through the family meal business, chatting joking,laughing with the family friend joining in. The man was Kenny Dalglish and the friend Alan Hanson. They were not former footballers– they were just people, out for a meal, and a relaxing time with the family of one of them. For all I know Hanson may well be a God parent or something. Just people doing what people should be entitled to do.
Tonight, there will be a minutes applause for another good football man who for some reason thought that he had nowhere to turn when darkness invaded his life. We don’t know what demons haunted Gary Speed, but what is tragic is that he didn’t believe that there was any other resolution to whatever problems he feared or imagined. We can do nothing for Gary Speed himself anymore, but we can demonstrate to his family,friends and colleagues that there is always respect for those who play the game — the game of football and the game of life– with dignity and fairness. Whether they be in the public eye or not.
The moment will be particularly poignant for Joe Ledley and Adam Matthews who worked with Speed. They have to see Celtic Football Club at its best and to feel in their bones that this is a club where the hand of friendship and support is always available in times of trouble. That is who we are, always have been and always will be.
Celtic Football Club—– being there– since 1888.
My last one as I’m gettin a bit too giddy.
When its time to make a scene about the bbc documentary of Whyte you could just have the famous scene in Steptoe where his neighbour sees him bathing in the sink and standing up trying to hide himself.
The item under the spoiler (only because it is long) is a great read.
http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/8610417/64/
it is the top post on page 64.
If its true as reported that C W hasnt paid employees N I contributions this will severly effect their State Pension when they retire. As in they wont have one.
The State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) contributions are incorporated in the N I payments that are sent to Newcastle that then provide a pension at retirement. I only hope for the workers sake this isnt true.
I think even the rats will be jumpin ship soon!!!
these 6pm kick offs really bust ma tatas
means a 2:45am alarm.
Feeling a win.
Just heard Commons with be out for a little longer, pity, I’d have drafted him in for this one – kept wee James on the bench for the last 20 or so.
I don’t normally do team predictions, but…
~~~~~~~~FF~~~~~~~~
AM~~~DM~~~CM~~~JL
~~~~~~~~VW~~~~~~~
~~~KSY~~~~~~~BK~~~
~JF~~~~~~~~~~~~GS~
~~~~~~~~AS~~~~~~~
3-1 the good guys
HAIL HAIL
& Zzzzzzzzzzzz…
tbdJ
JOBO BALDIE 1225
I think I may be of some assistance with your latest chore.
1 Pre-heat oven,then turn off power/gas.
2 Liberally spray oven cleaner inside.
3 Sod off to the pub t avoid being overcome by fumes.
4 RETURN AFTER ONE HOUR TO A CLEAN OVEN!
5 Open windows,and return to the pub for another hour,as fumes still hazardous.
6 Upon return,wipe down oven,fire it up,and throw in rest of list.
7 Pub again,till shutting time.
From yer auld pal,BMCUWP,who can never quite figure out why he is still single!
last minute changes to the wavetower numbers ditty
BRT&H
Being there ,since 1888,has a nice ring to it.
Br\o/gan R\o/gan Trevin\o/ and H\o/gan says:
Great post.
Árd Macha
Cheers
good afternoon cqn
read in herald sport from super Sally and i quote
Rhys Mccabe when he went on put himself about and won us a few free kicks and throw ins
is this football hes talking about or tidily winks
Anyone think the unpublished figures will show the hun trading illegally ?
Last day of the ole Movember, still unshaven, still unbeaten.
Any spare change will find a good home here
Once again thanks to all the Bhoys who have given so generously already.
BRTH . 12.27
Passionate Sir.
But Utter Drivel.
BRTH – magnificent
Bobby Murdoch – a close second ;-)
Jobo
Corporation tax 26% – about to fall to 25%
Higher rate Income Tax 50%
Cut the bonuses – Cut the Tax take -Starve the public purse.
Brilliant
Aw Naw
Very last yin.
Highway To Hell,acdc.
Citibhoy Shoulder to Shoulder with Neil Lennon says:
30 November, 2011 at 12:45
BRTH . 12.27
I take it your a hun?
Br\o/gan R\o/gan Trevin\o/ and H\o/gan
Great stuff from you today. I heard a public sector worker (I’m sure there was a more specific job title…) saying that not only were the cuts unfair, but, it was easily overlooked that low-paid workers also contribute much more of their wage, proportionately, to the economy than higher paid workers. That is to say, they generally spend every penny they earn within their local economy. A worthwhile thought for anyone confronted by the smug high earner who complains about the size of their tax bill.
What saddens me is the erosion of rights and protections within the law, and even worse the shift in public perception which often seems to match your description of the culture within the ‘City’. The company I work for will pay enormous bonus’s to just 1% (less than) of it’s employees and for the most part it’s not something staff are willing to rock the boat over, for fear of creating a perception of behavioural issues… which, of course, will then affect their own much more meagre bonus awards. A sad state of affairs.
McNair…,
he’s no a hun, but he is a rabid fascist
Mc Nair….
Im afraid not – I pay my taxes and on the whole quite happy to do so
thebhoydaveJAPAN says:
30 November, 2011 at 12:31
these 6pm kick offs really bust ma tatas
means a 2:45am alarm.
__________________________________
Is that all? I cannae get a drink before the gemme.
Fascism i dont think so – its roots are like those of Socialism in Zionism. Ugly bed fellows
Im a libertarian.
And do try to be polite at all times. Civilty costs nothing.
Hook, line and sinker.
promote money and power over all else, to the detriment of civilisation, for me thats a fascist, most of you like to call it capitalism.
I seek to protect individual liberty and seek to reduct the perniciious influence of the State.
I am a free man