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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Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire says:
30 November, 2011 at 12:53
McNair…,
he’s no a hun, but he is a rabid fascist
Many similarities but of course a rabid fascist might not be an ugly b%stard.
individual liberty to enforce your views over the consensus ? hmmm
Do us a favour Beram? Shut up till the Green & White ribbons are on the trophies!!!
BSR.
Here we go. :)
McNair…,
:o)
The system is not particularly relevant.
As long as it upholds individual liberty over that of the state im happy
individual liberty to unionise ?
Lurgan
Daily routine
bsr,
the daily routine hasnt started yet
Is Philvis:
(a) Still tapping the F5 key?
(b) Marching in support of the workers?
(c) Neither of the above?
New article nearly posted
TPD,
philvis.. is at the front waving his big red flag :o)
Who will uphold liberty over the corporations ?
I liked this from the BBC Gossip page:
Former Hibs striker Tam McManus has agreed a short-term deal at Ayr United with a view to moving back to America. (Sun)
That’s a hell of a view. Or are Ayr providing a company rowing boat?
being told the game is on Ch 5 council telly tonight can anyone confirm ?
Is Paul on strike today … ?
Neil Canamalar.
I seek not to force anyone to do anything.
You will find that it is “statists” of all persuasians that seek to impose things.
Not I
The DUPs Jimmy Spratt has made a formal complaint against strikers on ther picket line at entrances to Stormont.
Árd Macha
Guys- is the game on any Telly tonight?
Cheers
Neil at 13.04
That is a very good and pertinent question.
All our individual freedoms once protected by common law have been eroded by statutes
Statutes are a form of commercial contract.
So the state that you are obviously enthralled with is also a legal corporation as is your legal fiction Mr Neil xxxxxxxx – assuming your birth was registered.
new article posted.
I heard that some Public Sector workers are opting out of their pension scheme because they cant afford it. DONT!! But if you have to remember you have Death in Service Benefit(D I S B) linked to it, normally 2 times salary. Earn 20k Death Benefit £40,000 if you die while working.
You must look at replacing it for peace of mind for your family.
Citibhoy
That’s a bit glib. How do we protect individual liberty without the framework of a government? Does everything rest with the law? In which case, is that adequate, and who is paying for the enforement of the law.
Someone once told me that smart people start off as left-wingers and as they grow older, wearier and wiser they shift to the right. I hated the notion when I was young, but as I grow older (and more certain of my smartness, in all but dress…) I do find myself shifting to the right. Takes a bit of explaining (and I’m fairly far to the left of most), however, I simply can’t understand why anyone who claims to understand free markets and libertarian concepts is not smart enough to recognise the importance of social policy and government in supporting those very things.
Citibhoy
Of course you are a free man and entitled to your opinion.
May I heartly thankyou for your “Drivel” and raise you a “Balderdash and Bunkum”.
The argument is not about paying your taxes, but about the manner in which the banking structure now operates, the problems that has caused and the manner in which the Government is going about resolving the problems so created.
Of course you pay your taxes, but of course the level of tax can be reduced in all sorts of ways by making use of the the appropriate tax breaks afforded to each and every one of us. One example is that you can reduce your personal tax by making contributions to your pension– whether in the private sector or no.
let’s say you do that– you decide that you are going to increase your pension contributions and so reduce your tax. Then along comes the Government and says ” Now I know you funded the old pension by making voluntary contributions you ole freethinking libertarian you, but we are in a spot of bother and so i’m afraid you can’t get the pension when you thought you could and from now on you will have to pay in more, and at the end of the day you will in fact receive less than you bargained for because– well we need that money frankly!”
But they don’t do that to every freethinking libertarian– just the freethinking libertarians in the private sector!!
Eh!!!!
Beyond that we have the very nature of banking to consider. Recently, I had a meeting or two down at Canary Wharf to renew some facilities for a client. The bank were happy enough to provide the facilities in the main, but then we got around to talking about a secondary lender who was always going to rank behind the bank– so the bank always had first charge.
This secondary lender had indictaed to my clients that it was in trouble financially and needed cash and so offered to discount the sum it was due to receive in 5 years by accepting 50p in the pound now instead.
Seemed like a good deal to my guys, and so we put it to the bank. They could see the sense of it and so agreed to extend the facility to allow that debt to be paid. Interest was to be 5%, arrangement fee and legals had to be covered—- and oh just as an afterthought we want 50% of what you have saved by paying early!!!!!
That 50% amounts to Hundreds of thousands of pounds. That 50% effectively takes the interest on the loan to something like 40% over 4 years. That 50%– it was explained— would make a big difference to the “bonus pot”!
I know you may say it is a free economy but is this how we want banks to behave? They lend money, they charge a fair interest rate etc. That is a given. But this type of speculation, and profiteering simply makes them look greedy and of the Shylock variety.
Yet it is not an uncommon position.
I know of one Business guru type who has advised major clients never to deal with a certain High Street Bank again despite a 40 year history such was his anger at the terms for a facility suggested by the bank. When the company rejected the terms and funded their own needs through the Directors pension scheme the bank grovelled and begged not to lose the business but to no avail. I believe that the officer concerned was then sacked by the bank for cocking things up!
It is that mentality which is putting people off the banking system and demanding change. It seems that the “bonus” culture is all powerful and all blinding. Successful business is all about helping me to help you to help me IMHO.
In this instance the Government is dictating terms to the Public sector like a flatulent banker. There is nothing libertarian or freethinking about it.
HH
After the disgusting behaviour by their 10,000 supporters at the ‘Game of Shame’, why are we giving them any tickets at all?