Green Brigade Statement

The Green Brigade has today released a statement on Celtic's move to close their section of the stadium for two competitive matches, which is breathtakingly selfish and arrogant in equal measure.

I reproduce the statement in its entirety with comments below.

Following the club statement on Friday, we take this opportunity to accept full responsibility for both the pyrotechnics display to celebrate the achievements of the Lisbon Lions at the Hearts match in May and our ‘Brendan’s Undefeated Army’ tifo during the match against Linfield on Wednesday evening.

That's brilliant lads, well done. But you should have just stopped right there because that was all that needed to be said.


While we are disappointed to hear of the impending two match ban that we face, we know that in the sanitised world of Scottish football the actions of an Ultra group like ours may have consequences for our members.

Yes, and the consequence of your Hearts and Linfield displays is a two match closure of your section. You should consider yourselves fortunate that's all it is.


We do however completely oppose collective punishment and a blanket ban on all fans in our block is disproportionate and unjust therefore we call on the board to revise this decision. 

It's a bit late now to think about the other people who share the shiny new standing section Celtic provided for you. The time to think about consequences was before Wednesday evening.


As a group we are defined by our style of support and our politics, both of which the club are happy to benefit from when it suits their agenda. Almost a year ago, after much immediate criticism, we brought worldwide adulation on the club for our show of solidarity with the people of Palestine and the subsequent charity fundraising which was endorsed by the Celtic support.

I don't care what your "style of support" is. If it breaks the stadium rules, there is no place for it at Celtic Park. I've no sympathy for you if you get banned because you can't behave yourselves.

As for your politics, again, I don't care what your politics are. Celtic is a football club, not the sporting wing of the Green Brigade, and your political posturing is tiresome in the extreme.

We're actually getting to the crux of the matter here because your support for Celtic seems to be secondary to the promotion of your pet political causes, as evidence by the Palestinian display last season.

Your fundraising efforts for Palestinian causes were all very commendable, but you could have done that any time you liked. Instead, you dragged Celtic into trouble with UEFA (again) and then used the resultant publicity to push your "charitable" efforts, which really was a quite shameless exploitation of the plight of the Palestinian people to divert flak from yourselves over the bother you had caused for Celtic.

What isn’t common knowledge is if it had not been for this incredible response, we would have faced the same punishment as we currently face.

Yes. As I said, your fundraising efforts for Palestine really dug you out of a hole last season and you milked it for all it was worth.


In light of this, and of the condemnation of banners and songs from Wednesday, we refuse to allow a discredited and corrupt organisation like UEFA or a board which has welcomed war criminals and Tory Lords to dictate our moral compass.

Spare me the pitiful attempts to smear UEFA and the Celtic board, it's all so much piss and wind. UEFA has rules governing its competitions which Celtic and everyone else involved has to abide by. You know that as well as anyone but repeatedly choose to cross the line anyway. If you want to play at being edgy, rebellious "Ultras," be prepared for the consequences and don't cry about it.

UEFA aren't going to change their rules because a crowd of playtime protestors want to show how Ultra they are. They'll just keep punishing Celtic until we're looking at stand closures, or even the entire stadium closed because you selfishly refuse to follow the rules.
 

Our decision to mark the achievements of 1967 by using pyrotechnics was not taken lightly. We took the required steps to ensure that this was carried out as safely as possible and in the knowledge that we as a group may face potential consequences as a result of it.

So once again, in the full knowledge that pyrotechnics are banned from the stadium, you decided to bring them along anyway, no doubt accompanied by your fully qualified pyrotechnic engineers to ensure no one suffered breathing difficulties or serious burns. Cheers for that. I wouldn't have felt the achievements of 1967 had been marked sufficiently if you lot hadn't brought fireworks into that match.

We believe the scenes that day and the response from the Celtic support proved it to be worthwhile. We have engaged in regular dialogue with the club over this matter throughout the summer and believed to be reaching an amicable outcome, however it seems as if events outside of our control on Wednesday have impacted upon the decision which has now been reached.

No, I'm sorry, the scenes that day don't make it all worthwhile. Pyrotechnics are banned from the stadium for good reason and the fact you managed to get a few dramatic photos of guys in masks holding aloft fireworks doesn't make it all okay.

 

The Green Brigade exists to support Celtic in a positive manner and we believe that this current confrontation is unnecessary and avoidable.

You're dead right it is. All you had to do was not bring in pyrotechnics or banners associating our manager with IRA snipers to taunt supporters of a Unionist background from Belfast who were visiting our ground for a football match.

If you didn't insist on continually flouting the rules every other spectator has to abide by, this wouldn't have happened.

If you want to support Celtic in a positive manner, stop deliberately getting the club in bother with UEFA just so you can exercise your "rights," to turn the stadium into your personal political playground.


We welcome Peter Lawwell’s call for dialogue as we have been waiting on his availability for some time. One of our first talking points will be the unnecessary and unsafe policing operation carried out during Wednesday night’s match, which we believe must be the source of one of UEFA’s charges (blocked stairwells) and could only have been designed to antagonise fans in the area. As the evidence below proves, it is bizarre and shameful that the club have not only blamed the fans for this charge but have cited it as a reason for the ban.

I'm going to hold fire on this one for now. I don't know who was blocking the stairway, but I find it hard to believe the club would include the blocking of stairways as a reason for the ban if fans had nothing to do with it.


Other pertinent issues to be addressed are the club’s response to the biggest cheating scandal to shame Scottish sport; the insulting of the Celtic support over the Linfield away debacle and negligence of the safety of those they knew would travel; and the silence over the racial and sectarian hatred directed at our player of the year and manager. Typically, the club are quick to bite the hand that feeds them yet reluctant to unite against common detractions.

Yes these issues have to be addressed, but they are really nothing to do with your antics on Wednesday evening. You're like a motorist caught speeding here and protesting that the traffic officer didn't catch a guy who was speeding on the same stretch of road last week.


We have built a positive relationship with the Celtic SLO however we are concerned that his position is nearly untenable due to the manner in which he is continually undermined by Celtic security staff. The SLO is required to ”collaborate with the security officer on safety and security-related matters” however has been deliberately excluded from discussions of this nature which is in breach of the UEFA SLO Guidelines, as per article 35.

Whether the Celtic security staff consult with the SLO or not has no bearing on your persistent flouting of the rules. You're really just lashing out in all directions now because it's just sooooo unfair!


His exclusion is a deliberate tactic adopted by the police and Celtic security to facilitate the targeting of our members.

Why are your members being targeted? Because you continually and openly flout safety regulations and refuse to accept any restrictions on your "style of support?"

Maybe if you behaved yourselves for a while there'd be no need to "target" you.


For over 10 years now the Green Brigade has withstood attacks from Police Scotland and sadly this will always continue.

You pride yourselves on being an "Ultra" group, so what do you expect? By your own admission, you're not just a group of football fans who like to sing and dance for 90 minutes. You're edgy. You're in-your-face political lefties. You're bad boys. So spare me the wounded innocence over your "persecution," by the police.


This also will not be our first ban or forced absence from Celtic Park. The Green Brigade has not only survived through the years but we have thrived – we are currently as large and strong as we have ever been. We can assure all that we will be back in Celtic Park soon enough and that we will never allow our style nor our politics to ever be diluted.”

So what's in Celtic's best interests is not important to you. As long as you get to play at Ultras and let off pyrotechnics and wave pathetic political banners, you don't care what the consequences for Celtic and your fellow fans are.

It's maybe time you considered whether you are the main show or the support act.




Every time I mention the Green Brigade, I highlight the positives because there are many. The atmosphere they create in the ground, the wonderful creativity and execution of so many of their displays does so much to make the matchday experience at Celtic Park so good.

They also do a lot of fundraising for charity, especially the foodbank collections.

But all that cannot be weighed against the negatives to excuse the problems they are increasingly bringing to the club. Al Capone ran soup kitchens for the homeless in Chicago, but he was still a cold-blooded murderer.

Now as if it needs to be said, I'm not comparing the Green Brigade to Al Capone or any other rogues over the years who have done a lot of work for charidee, but the point remains, it doesn't excuse or make okay, their persistent flouting of safety and other rules leading to Celtic being punished for their actions.

Celtic have asked them repeatedly to conform to safety rules and regulations. They have been asked repeatedly to stop damaging the interests of the club they profess to love. Their statement today sticks two fingers up to that.

They have in effect said they will continue to do whatever the hell they like and the consequences be damned.

Well in that case, there is only one possible outcome to the impasse they have created.

We Have A Green Brigade Shaped Problem

It's becoming almost tedious now. Big European occasion at Celtic Park, UEFA sanction for banner flown in Green Brigade section.

The Green Brigade bring a lot of positives to the club. They create so much noise and colour. They create an amazing atmosphere (most of the time). They do a lot of work for charidee (and they *do* like to talk about it).

But it has to be said that along with the positives comes one pretty serious negative.

They cannot be trusted not to bring the club to the attention of UEFA with attention-seeking, provocative "political" displays at every conceivable opportunity.

They have to realise, surely, that UEFA will not restrict themselves to fines for Celtic indefinitely? Sooner or later, if they don't stop with the self-indulgent political nonsense, UEFA are going to close a stand at Celtic Park for an important European match.

This "ultras" group, which is supposed to be about supporting Celtic, is going to end up hurting Celtic.

They concoct so many excuses for what they do. So many reasons to feel aggrieved at UEFA for enforcing their own competition rules, and none of them actually hold any water.

We hear about how they are somehow honouring Celtic's origins with their left-wing, faux-Irish Republican displays. As if the founders of Celtic were Marxist agitators whose purpose was to raise the class-consciousness of the proletariat of Glasgow's East End, rather than to raise funds to feed the poor.

Or Irish Republican Brotherhood operatives infiltrating Scottish football in order to bring about an independent Republic, at a time when the Irish Nationalist movement was focused on Home Rule. Brother Walfrid may well have enjoyed a rousing rendition of God Save Ireland, but that in no way means he would have approved of taunting Linfield fans with a banner glorifying the IRA.

It is ahistorical nonsense to justify left-wing and/or Irish Republican displays on the basis of the founders of the club and their motives. I've read so many times over the past 24 hours the claim that Celtic was, "born out of politics."

Celtic's founders did so not to seek election to political office, or to influence government policy. They were acting out of Catholic charity.

Our founders were not the kind of people who wanted the state to help the poor, they were the kind of people who got up off their backsides and did it themselves because that's what their Catholic faith taught them to do.

So if the Green Brigade and friends are so keen to express pride in our origins, when can we expect them to wave Rosary beads and Sacred Heart banners at opposition fans?

That's a rhetorical question of course, I very much doubt many of them could tell you what the First Sorrowful Mystery is, never mind own a set of Rosary beads.

It's The Agony in the Garden for anyone who's interested, or for fans old enough to remember the late 1940's, whoever was playing outside right that day - Hibernian had the Famous Five up front, we had The Five Sorrowful Mysteries.

But I digress. The understanding these people have of our origins as a club is seriously flawed but it hardly matters in the context of what is and is not acceptable in UEFA competition.

The actual rule UEFA have is against banners "not fit for a sporting occasion."

So let's forget about what our founders stood for (or what you think they stood for). When you fly a banner glorifying paramilitaries (and spare me the wounded innocence, they knew exactly what they were doing), UEFA are going to hammer that and no one should be in any doubt about it.

This is not about our identity, or our right to political expression. It's about Celtic playing in UEFA competition and UEFA having rules which we all need to abide by.

It really doesn't matter what anyone thinks of UEFA's rules. We know by now (or we should know by now) that UEFA enforce their rules. So please Green Brigade, spare us your pointless, needless student union political posturing.

We're not all left wing politicians. We're not all Irish Republicans. We're not all of Irish descent. We're not all Catholics. The only thing that unites us is a love of Celtic. Let's focus on that.

Football At War

As the clamour to strip titles from the now defunct Rangers Football Club's historical record grows, I'm seeing increasing references on social media to Rangers now, "Going for 62."

 We're seeing this because if seven titles (1998-99, 1999-2000, 2002-03, 2004-05, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11) are stripped from Rangers' record as they undoubtedly should be, their precious 54 will become 47, leaving them one behind Celtic, even if we are not allotted the seven titles.

The reasoning behind this claim to 61 titles is classically flawed Sevco logic and it goes something like this:

Celtic "claim" league titles won during the First World War, but the league titles won by Rangers during the Second World War are not counted.

Therefore, because Celtic "count" WWI titles in their trophy haul, so too should Rangers be allowed to "count" their titles won during WWII."

Here's why this claim to 61 titles is patently ridiculous.

1) When war broke out in August 1914, the Scottish Football Association immediately suspended the Scottish Cup competition for the duration of hostilities. Therefore, the tournament was not competed for from 1915 to 1918.

However, it was thought that football had a role to play in maintaining civilian morale during wartime, so the (at that time) less prestigious League was allowed to continue.

The Scottish Football League was in full operation during World War One and all clubs competed for it throughout the war years. Celtic were the Scottish Football League Champions in seasons 1914-15, 1915-16 and 1916-17.

Celtic do not, "claim" to have been Champions in those seasons, and Celtic do not "count" those titles in our role of honour unilaterally. Celtic were the winners of the League in those seasons and so the Scottish Football League recognise Celtic as the winners of their competition in those seasons because that is what they were.

2) When war broke out in September 1939, the third round of fixtures of the Scottish Football League for season 1939-40 had just been completed. At that point, ALL official football competition was suspended for the duration of hostilities.

The 1939-40 Scottish Football League season was never completed.

In place of the Scottish Football League during WWII, two leagues were set up - the Southern League and the North-Eastern League.

These two leagues were not official competition but were allowed by the authorities to keep up civilian morale. Due to the disruption caused by the war which saw so many professional footballers called up to the armed forces and so unable to play for their own teams, "Guest Players" were permitted, meaning people like Stanley Matthews was able to turn out for Morton and Matt Busby for Hibernian when they were stationed temporarily in the vicinity.

Rangers won the Southern League every season during the war years and such was their commitment to keeping up a professional operation they were also uniquely able to field an "A" team in the North-Eastern League!

So to address the claim of the Sevco revisionists that Rangers should be allowed to "count" titles won during World War Two in their historical record, there are two reasons why they cannot.

Firstly, they were not official competitions and cannot be retrospectively declared as such. No one at the time was under the illusion that those matches were anything other than glorified friendlies.

Secondly, and possibly more importantly,  they were not even national competitions. Rangers won the Southern League during WWII. They were not Scottish Champions at all during WWII.

So if you see or hear Sevconians claiming Rangers are, "Going for 62," you can treat that with the derision is deserves.

Be very clear to them that the Scottish Football League continued during WWI but not WWII and that during WWII, there was no national Scottish League so they weren't even unofficial Scottish Champions in those years.

So Rangers must (for now) be content with 54, and soon to be 47.