BRIAN WILSON, Celtic’s interim chairman, has provided a club update in the fall-out of actions from a section of the home support at the start of Thursday night’s Europa League play-off first leg against VfB Stuttgart.
The tie had gone only 15 seconds before a barrage of tennis balls were thrown onto the field to hold up the game for over three minutes.
It was the latest protest as tension mounts between the club and some supporters.
Wilson, speaking in a statement, said yesterday: “Last night was deeply disappointing for the Club in many respects. This started with an orchestrated disruption of the game, causing a delay to an important match.
“Over the past two weeks, I have met with a range of supporters groups and individual supporters.
“I have met in good faith with representatives of the Green Brigade and was hopeful that progress could have been made; indeed this remains the case.
“I also met in good faith with representatives of the Celtic Fans Collective.
“When I came into this role, I asked for unity inside the stadium to support the team while trying to resolve other issues. I want to see suspensions lifted and differences set aside, but this cannot be unconditional. Last night’s disruption and the reasoning behind it illustrate the difficulty we face and have repeatedly had to contend with.
“This is not intended to deflect from other issues that affect the club and are fully recognised. However, the possibility of further disruptions needs to be addressed urgently. Surely the priority must be to give Martin and our players every opportunity to achieve their objectives within the remainder of the season.
“On that basis, I will continue to seek an end to this debilitating and unnecessary atmosphere of conflict.”
Martin O’Neill didn’t pull any punches as he reacted to the delay at the start of a night to forget with the club crashing 4-1 to the Bundesliga outfit with the second leg due in Germany on Thursday evening.
The 73-year-old interim gaffer, as reported in CQN, said: “Anyone who thinks that is a good idea, needs their heads examining.
“A way back, this was an incredibly difficult, intimidating place to come. Teams like Juventus were terrified coming here.
“That sort of thing does not help at all. What it does do is Stuttgart find out there’s a lot of infighting going on. It sends the wrong message. It doesn’t make sense to me.
“If I’m a Stuttgart player, I’m pretty happy if that’s the case.”
The champions return to Parkhead for the 3pm kick-off against Hibs with another three precious Premiership points up for grabs.
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