Earlier this year I wrote that the pyrotechnics problem was one of the free rider. There are reputational and Uefa fine costs to Celtic, but the perpetrators hide among a crowd, so encounter no costs. Celtic pay the fines, Celtic fans, as a group, carry the reputational damage, those who create the problem act with impunity.
Two who set flares in Istanbul have been identified and banned by the club. This ban will prevent them attending away fixtures in Europe for a considerable time, but it will not prevent them walking through turnstiles at Celtic Park, or some other Scottish grounds. Celtic have announced that they are considering their position and may raise a civil action to recover fines imposed –aligning consequences with actions.
Whenever I hear someone ‘considering their position’ I don’t expect them to act. Those who act tend to only provide advanced notice when legally obliged to do so. There is a flip side to this, however. If Celtic raise an action the issue is dead – it will not happen again. If Celtic don’t raise an action it may well happen again. Steps to hide identities will be improved, perhaps making it impossible to identify another offender. The stock defence of football clubs, “We’ve done everything we could”, will not wash.
It’s only 12 years since 80,000 Celtic fans went to Seville and didn’t so much as spill a drink. What chance that now?
When they were at their peak, 1.2million miners went down the pits in Britain. Before the pits, the population of Lanarkshire was a fraction of what it is now. They build railways in the late 19th century, allowing coal to be taken to the cities and ports, and people were drawn to places like Bellshill, Motherwell, Coatbridge and Wishaw.
This subsequent years saw the greatest migration from Ireland to Scotland, and an enormous migration from rural to urban Scotland. People came to Lanarkshire to work in the coal industry, and to Glasgow and other surrounding towns to work related industries, like shipping and heavy engineering.
The work was almost always dirty, often dangerous and inevitably poorly paid. Poverty and its associated diseases, including social diseases, were difficult to escape. Even today, the twin towns of Hamilton (a market town established for centuries) and Motherwell (a 19th century town established by the coal and steel industries) are separated by a significant gap in employment opportunities, property values and wealth. Physically they are only two miles apart, you can walk between them in minutes.
Football was the real opium of the masses. They worked five and a half days a week, on their half day they went to a game. Entrance was cheap, even the poor could attend, all boys could play, all men could talk a good game (it remained a predominantly male pastime for decades).
Coal, and its by-products: railways and heavy industry, shaped the industrial towns of Scotland, Wales and much of England. Without it, cricket would be our national game (it was once popular even in Scotland). You wouldn’t have Celtic.
Today the last miner will emerge from a British pit, in Kellingley, North Yorkshire. The pits around Lanarkshire are long gone, and there are few bings left. Jobs now are cleaner and safer, but we’ve lost a link to something Celtic fans value more than most, our heritage.
Speaking of which, get to Celtic Park before 13:00 tomorrow. Wallow in the abundant heritage that is Billy McNeill!
We’re shipping same day from CQN Bookstore, but there’s not long left before Christmas!
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“Another wonderful goal from the golden head of Billy McNeill” how often have we heard
Those words from radio match commentators during Billy’s playing career at Celtic.
Gordon on 19th December 2015 9:25 am
On the 24th April 1965 , when Billy rose to head the winner against Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup Final things would never be the same again. The roar which greeted the goal lasted nine minutes until the final whistle, the crowds which embraced the team bus in the Gorbals on its way to the city centre knew it and the whole of Scotland knew it.
*I was a lonely teenage broncin buck, as Don McLean would later say, then and I didnae really know the significance of that goal but that Saturday afternoon standing on the slopes of the Celtic end at Hampden I witnessed grown men and women greetin.
Danny Wilson World Class:)))
Hoooooopy Birthday to Embra Mike!
Have a great dat mhate.
Tamrabam @12.02
The obvious answer is ‘not very well’. I would rate only Craig Gordon ( mainly on last season’s form) ahead of the Seville equivalent and perhaps more contentiously Lustig. Commons and Brown would get in the squad and last season’s Bitton would too. Forrest is certainly better than some of the fringe players of that era such as Smith and Fernandez. We have nobody now in the class of Sutton, Thompson, Hartson, Petrov, Lambert and imo Lennon has never been adequately replaced as a midfield anchor. And of course our number 7 of that era was pretty special
But the team in 2003 had peaked and within 2 years had broken up after a poor European campaign and a humiliating final day loss of the league flag. ( EBT influenced though that was we should still have bloody won it). I suspect the current team and manager is unlikely to make a breakthrough in Europe but in 2001 we would have rejoiced at making a last 8 far less a final.
Enjoy the day and Hail Cesar!
Jimbo67
Saint Stivs on 19th December 2015 11:37 am
Cheers Saint Stivs – the Bhoy is officially Celtic daft!
He was reading some of the comments about boycotts, and I was explaining some of the reasons people might have for calling for this – spoke through both sides of the argument, pros and cons.
He sat and listened to it all carefully, and then said “Aye dad, but we’re going to the game!!!”
No arguing with Wee BGFC.
HH
BGFC
Excitement building on the Celtic Way. Moments away from our newest statue.
a virtual prize for first person who post pic of the new statue
**** LAST MAN STANDING 6 ****
ALL THE PICKS ARE IN, THANK YOU!
Glad to say that all 85 picks are now in and the choices are as follows –
Celtic – 36
Man Utd – 16
Aberdeen – 15
Inverness – 11
St Johnstone – 3
Dundee Utd, Partick Thistle, Norwich and Leicester – 1 each
Good luck everybody.
Jobo and CRC
andbreatheCSC
Archie McPherson giving a build up speach. Just spotted Paul67 in the crowd.
Hail Cesar…
Here come the Lions.
Oh there’s only one King Billy,
That’s McNeill.
Jim Craig on now.
Archie asking the questions to Peter Lawwell.
Bertie Auld on cracking the jokes.
Bertie leads the assembled crowd in a wee song. For its a Grand Old Team………..
Superb.
At one of the recent games was coming out of the Superstore and Bertie was accosted by a fan looking him to autograph his programme. Bertie took one look at the programme which was opened at a page with Bobby Lennox on it.
“I’m not signing that baldy b#st#rds heid” says the bold Bertie….Legend.
Don’t know if this link will work Big Billy at The Statue..
https://www.facebook.com/CQNMagazine/photos/a.270248559667445.89814.245447908814177/1306749849350639/?type=3&theater
starry plough, ta for that, stunningly good.
hail ceaser right enough
Saint Stivs
It’s days like this you feel the needle of exile:((
Apologies for posting this on a day when all attention should be on Billy McNeill, but if I don’t write it down now the thoughts will keep on whirring around in my head…
One of the things that has is playing on my mind lot recently is that the level of disenchantment amongst a growing number of Celts is reaching a dangerous level. People feel a sense of mistrust with the board, and a disconnect with the club itself. Whether I agree with all the points that are raised, accusations that are levied and mistrust felt doesn’t matter right now. This is because my opinion doesn’t change the fact that the negative sentiments are felt by a large, and growing number, of people, and that they are felt sincerely. That MUST be recognised whether you agree with the viewpoints or not. These people who feel alienated by the club and disenfranchised by the PLC structure are the lifeblood of our club just as much as any “happy clapper” (for the want of a less pejorative term). The number of people being pushed/pulled away from the club is a draining of that lifeblood. That, to me, is dangerous and represents an existential threat to Celtic far greater than anything posed by Sevco, the media etc. I mentioned yesterday the importance of considering that you might be wrong in order to have constructive debate, and I have been doing a lot of that lately.
So that brings me to making myself a question, if Celtic is at risk of losing a swathe of supporters, how do we change that? I don’t mean, “the Celtic board must do X, Y and Z”. I mean, how do we improve the structure of Celtic in order to satisfy the needs, ambitions and ethos of all fans. How do we get equality of representation for all Celts at our club. Because it should be OUR club. How do we get Celtic to reflect the board church that it is, and should be? It seems the club is not mastering that currently. You don’t have to go far to find a fan whose nose is out of joint.
We are currently in the midst of an unfolding story around justice in our sport, but once that is over, regardless of the result, Celtic may need to change. When the dust settles, what does Celtic need to be, or need to look like, to move forward with everyone on board?
My first thought, which I admit may be naive and obvious, is to consider the possibility of a club built around a fan membership structure, like that found in Spain and Germany. I know this has been discussed briefly on here before, but I don’t know enough about these systems and their compatibility with sporting rules or company law here to discuss this in more depth. That’s on me to go away and do research on the subject. Some might argue that the PLC structure does this already via shares being available to purchase, but in this situation you will always have those that are more equal than others, and we currently have one man ruling the roost.
I appreciate that enacting structural change to a company like this would be extremely difficult. People bought shares fairly and squarely and they rightfully belong to the purchaser to do as they please. However, I think that I/we need to talk about structure, and I need to avail myself of more information to do that.
Maybe the horse has already bolted. Maybe I am barking up the wrong tree. But at least I am examining the stable door, and at least I am barking :)
The groundswell of disgruntlement (copyright Davidopoulos) is too significant to blithely ignore.
starry, i am on the hoose in bishopton with a refusnik kid who wont get ready to go out.
nae excuse from me.
The Celtic Way packed for the Captain.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CWl3V6XWIAA7u0m.jpg
The CAPTAIN
HH
Might just be the angle of the pic but looks more wee Billy than big Billy.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CWl4V5oWcAAoYX-.jpg
Billy
HH
Saint Stivs
If I was home and in the situation my family is in here, the games would be a luxury item I’m sure:)
Refusnik love it..
Mon The Hoops
Is the unveiling being shown just in the UK?
What Channel folks?
Thanks
2-1 Falkirk
The Magic Hat is in the skip
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CWl7M5QXAAAtrIH.jpg
HH
Se7en on 19th December 2015 1:41 pm
Might just be the angle of the pic but looks more wee Billy than big Billy.
—————-
I know, was expecting it to be huge, towering.
The Unveiling
https://www.facebook.com/CelticFC/videos/1097055393667698/?theater
Jimmy Hill 87 RIP
Sectarian singing from the away fans at Falkirk very clearly heard on live coverage.
Sloop John B
Young 17 year old Falkirk striker, O’Hara, causing mayhem in Sevco defence.