Having seen European football played on what could easily be mistaken for a swimming pool, I would be surprised if Uefa postponed Wednesday’s game Quarabag-Celtic game. Champions League and Europa League football takes place on pitches which are unplayable every season.
The combination of clubs travelling thousands of miles, crammed fixture schedules, competitors from hundreds of towns, many of which are not in natural grass growing regions, forces match supervisors to turn a blind eye. If the pitch in Baku is truly in a bad shape, the best Celtic can achieve is to have the game moved to an alternative venue., but even that would take an unlikely alignment of stars.
To some or other extent, everyone wants to control what the media reports about them. This is not in itself bad, but there are limits to the extent a football club, or any other group, should take this desire to control. Often for the reason that it will simply not work.
If some numpty reports that Ronny Deila said something off about Neil Lennon, and Ronny said no such thing, the numpty in question would find (found) himself banned from Celtic Park for using falsehoods to cause the club trouble. His newspaper would have to suck it up, as they were in the wrong.
When it comes to journalists reporting an unwelcome fact the rules are completely different. BBC’s Chris McLaughlin, who was banned from Ibrox days after reporting police arrested fans at the Hibs – Newco game for sectarian offenses has been publicly backed by the BBC.
The Corporation eventually backed Jim Spence after he was subject to significant intimidation for using the phrase “some people will tell you, the club that died” in connection to Rangers, but from the outside they appeared to be on the back foot early on.
In his excellent interview with Phil Mac Giolla Bhain, published today, Spence talks about this, saying “It has been and still is a blatant attempt to coerce and ultimately take journalists livelihoods away from them”.
Banning journos work in some circumstances: when they are factually wrong and doing you harm, but if they are factually correct, you’re handing the perceived enemy the initiative, and the high moral ground. A comment about a small number of arrests for sectarian offenses, which few people read, has now been magnified beyond comprehension. It’s a complete PR disaster of their own making, Newco should buy-in some expertise in this area.
Incredibly, when Craig Whyte made himself busy banning journos who reported what he was up to, those who should have been most alarmed were so lustfully delighted at the bans and invitations to demonstrate, they didn’t stop to consider Whyte was diverting their attention.
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The pitch won’t be the best but some gamesmanship at play , the Scottish media doing their best to assist the “local” team , less than $6 for a ticket for a euro away game !
Dunno what the Qarabag pitch is like, but it was clear from last week’s match that they play a short, tight passing game from the back, and theor forwards like to run with the ball at pace.
If their pitch is in poor condition, it’ll likely be a greater disadvantage to them than to us.
In any event, we will have the perfectly groomed Virgil directing the play for us. With Virgil, we can only win.
starry plough,
Do you think you should be in this conversation?
petec
Oh are your posts only for the “initiated”
Not Bailly but Zaluska of course
Thompson Twin
“…and of course our gullibles and we have so many now…”.
Would that be “the Irish/Celtic vote” you referred to in the same post?
starry plough,
Are you trying to be clever?
BOBBY called me a liar amongst many other things.
Now do you really want to get involved?
Fundamental things are important, like the Truth.
Using an iPhone and every time I click on the time stamp on any individual post the page is refreshing and starting again at the very top of the page. It’s very frustrating and means I need to scroll through all of the posts to get to ones that I’ve not read.
.
Any suggestions?
Scrolling back last thread. VFR800A8 said same thing @11.11 about OBVIOUS goal scoring opportunity.
Apologies for boring the blog but it’s not going to put me off continuing to do so in future.
HH
Antipodean Red. I said in a previous post that currently Celtic are plodding through games at the moment there is very little flair. We seem to have one or more players who disappear from the game altogether.I think Wednesday game unless we raise our game considerably will see us depart from the CL why we are not playing with flair and at a high pace I dont know it appears Ronnys message has stalled. H.H.
Strange, it only seems to be happening on the first page.
petec
Not trying to be clever no, I thought your post through the night was homophobic, the fact that Bobby called you on it is another issue between you and him
I asked you if you thought CQN was the place for homophobia.
Antipodean
Harsh yes, so be it, we’ll run with 40k season ticket holders, keep the big banner covering the Lisbon Lions end, and still have more than most.
We never stop being a buying club, we can’t regularly get good ones for our ceiling price which is around 2m. Fact remains, we’ve signed more than half a team since we crashed against Maribor
I agree we don’t have the CL quality, but that chance was taken away from us by high finance, Sky, and UEFA.
Nothing Celtic can do with the resource we have, will refill the stadium, for the foresable future, aside from one off games against Milan or Barcelona.
Is there a place for Homophobia at all?
Test
Im going off the agenda here – but:
As much as I like RD (win lose or draw on Wednesday – he is still the best option by a long way)
Im not sure I am comfortable with this Ronny Roar !!!!
When we win a cup the league – then yes its got meaning – but every game – not sure
Look Im not about to stop supporting Celtic because of Ronny’s little rapport with fans – I just think its a bit “amateurish”
As for Wednesday we will score
67ECW
This shiny new look board is as slow as a week in the gaol.
starry plough,
I think you are still trying to be clever.
Let’s leave it there.
I was over in Baku working recently so for anyone travelling, here’s a few pointers (better late than never!)
All I can say is; “It’s different”. The culture, food and language is similar to Turkish but, as a former Soviet, there is a distinct Russian influence. There are a lot of Police (called, funnily enough, Polis) and they don’t seem to be particularly approachable or open to banter! Due to the oil wealth, there is also a modern aspirational feel to the place akin to Dubai – impressive buildings, fancy cars, designer shops – but there’s a huge gulf between the very wealthy and the very poor, with nothing in between. Azerbaijan is technically an Islamic Republic but you wouldn’t know it.
It’s safe to walk around the city but there are areas, like every city, where you wouldn’t want to be after dark but these would be pretty obvious. Food is generally very cheap as is getting around by taxi (always use the Purple London Cabs with the Baku 2015 logo, everything else leads to unpredictable results). If you have to get another purple cab (no logo) or a private cab, agree the price before you get in. Don’t pay any more than 5 Manat for a trip within the city centre or 15 to 20 Manat to the airport.
The local beer, Xirdalan, is perfectly acceptable and Efes (Turkish) is the widely available alternative. Imported beer is also available (Heineken, Tuborg, Stella, Erdinger and American fizzy yellow piss to name but a few) but varies from place to place. Where the westerners drink, expect to pay 4 to 5 Manat a pint (half litre really) but a few places have happy hours. The pubs tend to be open till you want to leave which is a bit dangerous so some discipline is required if you have an early flight to get up for!
Also be aware that the many lovely young “ladies” who will approach you in the bars do so because they are working girls, not because of the charismatic attraction of the average West of Scotland male!
Last night I discovered Belfast Ale, this morning I discovered I shouldn’t try play Golf the morning after having a bellyfull of Belfast Ale.
petec
Aye okay then Pete…
vfr800a8 on 3rd August 2015 1:45 pm
Nearly a very good post !!!!!!
You gave us the economical lay out of cabs and beer but failed to mention the cost of the entertainment in your last paragraph ????
67ECW
67 ECW, I agree with you the the Ronny Roar, it’s not too bad at away grounds where it’s right for the Manager & Team to acknowledge the travelling support but yesterday at an almost empty Celtic Park it made me cringe.
starry plough,
Cool.
For clarification, I don’t think Pride and all that stuff should be promoted, then again, promoting alcohol is also a Sin.
The Word says of that specific Sin, it is an abomination, quite harsh language really.
;))
If that makes me a phobie of homies, well I got 5 on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyDqoLimejg
5 in a row – wowowowowow here we go
bournesouprecipe on 3rd August 2015 12:30 pm
SPOT ON ….NAIL, HEAD, HIT ….. !!!!
petec
Well we all know what we are in the wee small hours of the night..
67 European Cup Winners
Said as much to a few mates in pre-season. The Ronny Roar was to help him unite with the support that was achieved. I would have phase dit out this season.
LB
67 ECW, I didn’t partake but our local Azeri guide did (regularly – it’s “acceptable” for the married men to use the ladies in Baku) and he proffered advice on paying no more than 50 Manat (around £30).
:-) :-)
https://twitter.com/celtic/status/628183055585316864
Bang Bang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pco3GJK22FI
I said at the game that Irine played for the clip, he left his boot in because he wasemt getting that ball, I watched the incident many times and I’m even more convinced he played for the clip, and what capped it was at the very end of the game Craig and Irvine are shaking hands, and you actually see Craig saying to him, he played for a sending off, and you can see Irvine going at the denial on it, if you still have the tape of the game have a look at that incident at the very end of the game, he played for a red for the goalie, trust me, he did.
Paul67 et al
Didn’t actually see/hear McCann’s outburst at the time but have caught it since. Reminded me in a way of Pat Nevin’s rant at half-time in the League Cup final, about the songs that he didn’t actually hear. It is the desperation in their voices and mannerisms that strike me. Tailors’ dummies both.
John Collins on the Qarabag pitch
JC: I have never heard of a game being put off or cancelled because a pitch is bumpy so it’s highly unlikely.
https://mobile.twitter.com/celticfc
Not happy with the roar? What’s next tell big Effy to stop the summer salts, Tell Steph Jo to stop punching corner flags, keep it up, big game coming up, not to many positive things please, were doooooomed, honest to god.
Re Gordon incident
If he got a red no-one would have complained and if same situation happened in a Euro match a red it certainly would be
It is time for Celtic to have a serious word with SKY over McCann’s outbursts. He now has on 3 separate occasions highlighted incidents involving our players in a very negative way to drive the MSM agenda.
Derk Boerrigter penalty incident v St Johnstone
John Guidetti penalty incident v Hearts
Craig Gordon on Saturday
I have never seen him react in such a way watching any other teams
HH
:mrgreen:
Afternoon Timland from a hot Hun free mountain valley
Since you are on spouting your anti amp pish Thompsontwin
Care to answer my question to you that I have asked you on numerous occasions
What of this Labour Party that didn’t want a real labour man in charge?
Feel free to ignore, it tells me more about you than anything
HH