Celtic fans, players and officials have been shedding crocodile tears over the exclusion of Celtic supporters from Sunday’s female Old Firm match at Ibrox – the one fact they aren’t discussing is that that decision was Celtic’s own.
Rangers had established that risk supporters from one of the main Celtic fan groups were hosting a group of European hooligans for the weekend and one of the highlights was to be a pyro display and destruction of facilities inside Ibrox. Celtic were made aware of this and given the opportunity to have the individual tickets removed from risk fans and they refused – which led to the en masse banning.
Celtic player Caitlin Hayes displayed a t-shirt at the end of the match saying “Football without fans is nothing” and the whole squad celebrated the irresponsible breaking of the ban by a handful of Celtic fans by congratulating them at the end of the game. Knowingly, or unknowingly, it was a supremely hypocritical act – it’s was Celtic’s own decision to ban all away fans. They had choice to take on their own risk fans and they bottled it.
Or perhaps they didn’t. Celtic appear to be in thrall to the extremist element within their support and afford them great latitude. In fact, I believe there has long been a corporate decision to both tolerate and encourage such groups due to a share ideological commitment to Irish republicanism. As in most relationships there will be ups and downs – yet in this affair no-one ever makes the decision to solve the problem by breaking up. You have to wonder why.
Several journalists have swallowed Celtic’s baloney over this affair with those crocodile tears once again on display with concerns that this will stunt the growth of the women’s game. In fact, stopping a Donnybrook is a service Rangers have rendered to the sport.
The women’s game is different from the men’s. The physical power of the players is the most obvious but the culture in which is is played is also different. On Sunday at Ibrox many young girls were there in groups with their parents and in full strips and home-made signs of encouragement. The women’s game is based on both support and participation not on prejudice and pandering to the flexing of weedy muscles by pimpled youths pretending to be terrorists.
As ever, Celtic have let the game down.
