The Champions League is Rigged

We all love hearing the Champions League anthem blaring at Celtic Park. There’s nothing quite like it. It’s a musical signal that this is the big time; that sets your heart racing. This is what it’s all about. The pinnacle of club football and Celtic are in it. Every Celtic manager this century has been judged in Europe and the Champions League is where we have to be to consider ourselves, “successful.”

Ronny Deila is the only Celtic manager (Brendan hasn’t finished yet) to have a 100% league win rate. He also won the League Cup and was cheated out of a Scottish Cup Final place in his first season. Yet he was replaced because he couldn’t get us to the Champions League and his European record wasn’t good enough. In the 90’s, winning the league would have assured him of a place in Celtic folklore, but now winning it twice in a row means nothing. All that matters, apart from ten in a row (such arrogance!) is getting to the Champions League.

But getting to the Champions League isn’t really good enough either. We have to be “competitive” once we get there. We are chasing rainbows.

When Celtic won the European Cup in 1967, one Inter player, Sandro Mazzola, cost more than the entire Celtic team. Fast forward to 2017, and we’re playing teams whose most expensive players (eg Neymar), cost maybe 10 times the entire Celtic team. Even Jock Stein couldn’t have overcome those odds and we’d be wasting money if we started buying even £10m players for the Champions League.

I’ve fallen out of love with the Champions League over the past few years. I watched the first ten minutes of our matches v PSG and Bayern before switching it off. Watching Celtic get hammered is not my idea of a good night’s entertainment. I’ve sat through countless defeats, but those matches were not simple defeats. It was like watching Floyd Mayweather get pounded by Anthony Joshua. There’s no point to it.

I did though thoroughly enjoy the 3-0 win over Anderlecht and I look forward to playing them at Celtic Park in a few weeks. That’s a proper European game to me – two national champions, evenly matched and a game that could go either way.

But apart from that Pot4 v Pot3 match, I’ve little interest in our section, let alone the competition. The Champions League is rigged and it has been for years.

It’s been rigged quite deliberately and openly, and we’ve all gone along with it in the chase for the filthy lucre that goes along with qualification. No one kept it a secret that it’s been rigged. It’s been rigged to ensure that the business end will always be dominated by the same select group of teams from the same select group of countries to ensure their TV companies get to show exactly the games the viewing public of those countries want.

We all know who those teams and countries are. England, Spain, Germany and Italy are the biggest TV markets for European football. Their teams generate the biggest TV audiences and attract the most sponsorship. The Champions League is designed so that every year teams from those countries will dominate the latter stages of the competition.

This is achieved partly by having a group stage. This ensures that even if one of those teams from the Big 4 countries has an off-night, they’ll still have another couple of chances to put things right again.

Let’s take a look at the semi-finalists in the ten years before a group stage format was adopted in 1991-92.

 

Year	Semi-finalists *eventual winners	No of semi-finalists from outside Big 4	Big 4 Final
1982	Aston Villa* v Anderlecht	2	yes
	CSKA Sofia v Bayern Munich
1983	Real Sociedad v Hamburg*	1	yes
	Juventus v Widzew Lodz
1984	Liverpool* v Dinamo Bucharest	2	yes
	Dundee Utd v Roma
1985	Juventus* v Bordeaux	2	yes
	Liverpool v Panathanaikos
1986	Anderlecht v Steaua Bucharest*	3	no
	Gothenburg v Barcelona
1987	Porto* v Dynamo Kiev	2	no
	Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
1988	Real Madrid v PSV Eindhoven*	3	no
	Steaua Bucharest v Benfica
1989	Real Madrid v AC Milan*	2	no
	Steaua Bucharest v Galatasary
1990	AC Milan* v Bayern Munich	2	no
	Marseilles v Benfica
1991	Bayern Munich v Red Star Belgrade*	3	no
	Spartak Moscow v Marseilles

 

Not once in that ten year period were all four semi-finalists from the Big 4 countries. On three occasions, only ONE of the semi-finalists came from one of the Big 4 countries. In the first four years, both finalists were Big 4 clubs, but in the next six years, at least one finalist came from countries outwith the Big 4. Winners in this period came from Italy (3), England (2), Germany Romania, Portugal, Netherlands, Yugoslavia

Things began to change with the introduction of the group stages in season 1991-92. The process began gradually, but has accelerated over the last 25 years. At first, the group stages replaced the quarter-final and semi-final stages. Clubs had to get past the knock-out rounds in order to reach the group stages and qualify for the finals. This was the case for three seasons and below are the group stages in each of those seasons

Year	Group A	Group B	No of Big 4 clubs	Finalists *winner
1992	Sampdoria Red Star Belgrade Anderlecht Panathanaikos	Barcelona Sparta Prague Benfica Dynamo Kiev	2	Sampdoria v Barcelona*
1993	Marseilles Rangers Brugge CSKA Moscow	AC Milan Porto Gothenburg PSV Eindhoven	1	Marseilles* v AC Milan
1994	Barcelona Monaco Spartak Moscow Galatasary	Milan Porto Werder Bremen Anderlecht	3	Milan* v Barcelona

 

The format was tweaked in 1994 so that there was a one-legged semi-final, with the winners of each group getting to play at home. In this three year period after the introduction of a group stage, there was a maximum of three Big 4 clubs in the last eight of the competition. Two of the three finals were contested by two Big 4 clubs, but one competition was won by a non-Big 4 club, albeit a heavily bankrolled one.

In season 1994-95, the Champions League format was moved to the first round of the tournament, with the top two from each group contesting the quarter-finals. This format was in place for three seasons and the semi-finalists in each year were as follows:

Year	Semi-finalists *eventual winners	No of semi-finalists from outside Big 4	Big 4 final
1995	Bayern Munich v Ajax*	2	No
	Paris St Germain v Milan
1996	Ajax v Panathanaikos	3	No
	Juventus* v Nantes
1997	Borussia Dortmund* v Man Utd	1	Yes
	Ajax v Juventus

 

This new format still did not guarantee Big 4 dominance, and indeed 3 of the semi-finalists were non-Big 4 in 1996. Altogether, half of the semi-finalists were non-Big 4 in these three seasons, as they had been in three seasons previously.

The format was changed again for season 1997-98, and this was the first season that teams other than national champions could qualify for the tournament. This is the second method by which the tournament is rigged in favour of the Big 4. You beat Real Madrid? Let’s see if you can beat Barcelona too. The semi-finalists from that point on are as follows:

 

Year	Semi-finalists *eventual winners	No of semi-finalists from outside Big 4	Big 4 final
1998	Real Madrid* v Borussia Dortmund	1	Yes
	Juventus v Monaco
1999	Man Utd* v Juventus	1	Yes
	Dynamo Kiev v Bayern Munich
2000	Valencia v Barcelona	0	Yes
	Real Madrid* v Bayern Munich
2001	Leeds Utd v Valencia	0	Yes
	Real Madrid v Bayern Munich*
2002	Barcelona v Real Madrid*	0	Yes
	Man Utd v Bayer Leverkusen
2003	Real Madrid v Juventus*	0	Yes
	AC Milan v Inter Milan
2004	Monaco v Chelsea	2	No
	Porto v Deportivo La Coruna
2005	Chelsea v Liverpool*	1	Yes
	Milan v PSV Eindhoven
2006	Arsenal v Villareal	0	Yes
	Milan v Barcelona*
2007	Chelsea v Liverpool	0	Yes
	Man Utd v AC Milan*
2008	Liverpool v Chelsea	0	Yes
	Barcelona v Man Utd*
2009	Man Utd v Arsenal	0	Yes
	Barcelona* v Chelsea
2010	Bayern Munich v Lyon	1	Yes
	Inter Milan* v Barcelona
2011	Schalke 04 v Man Utd	0	Yes
	Real Madrid v Barcelona*
2012	Bayern Munich v Real Madrid	0	Yes
	Chelsea* v Barcelona
2013	Bayern Munich* v Barcelona	0	Yes
	Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid
2014	Real Madrid* v Bayern Munich	0	Yes
	Atletico Madrid v Chelsea
2015	Barcelona* v Bayern Munich	0	Yes
	Juventus v Real Madrid
2016	Man City v Real Madrid*	0	Yes
	Atletico Madrid v Bayern Munich
2017	Real Madrid* v Atletico Madrid	1	Yes
	Monaco v Juventus

 

It is now 13 years since a team from outwith the Big 4 has reached the final of the Champions League. On just seven occasions since non-Champions were allowed into the tournament have teams from outwith the Big 4 gotten so far as the semi-final stage. Since 1992, a non-Big 4 club has won the Champions League on only three occasions.

This season may see Paris St Germain win the Champions League, but it won’t be a victory for meritocracy. It won’t blaze a trail for other non-Big 4 clubs. It won’t point to the possibility that teams from outwith the Big 4 can build a team to win the Champions League. All it would prove is that throwing obscene amounts of money at a club can win you the Champions League regardless of what league you play in. It’s still a rich man’s playground.

Three things ensure that TV audiences in the Big 4 countries will get what they want from the Champions League every season – non-Champion participation for select leagues, seeding, and the group stages.

Once upon a time, if you beat the Champions of Spain, you still might have the Champions of Italy, England or Germany to contend with, but with no seeding, there was a strong possibility they’d eliminate each other at some stage. This opened up the way for clubs from smaller nations. It’s not out of the question even now that they could beat Big 4 clubs in a knock-out tie. In 2006, Celtic beat Man Utd 1-0 at Celtic Park and lost 2-3 at Old Trafford. Had that been a two-legged tie, Celtic would have gone through on away goals. But because it was the group stages, Man Utd qualified along with us for the knock-out stages, and in first place, meaning they got a more favourable draw in the Last 16. We got to play Milan.

Let’s say we had knocked out Milan (and we only lost after extra-time), who would we have got in the next round? Well Milan got Bayern Munich. Others in that quarter-final draw were Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Valencia, Roma and PSV Eindhoven. Three English clubs, two Italians, one Spanish, one German and one Dutch club. So that year, just one non-Big 4 club reached even the quarter-finals. Also that year, Bayern Munich were paired with Real Madrid in the Last 16 draw, an anomaly as they were both expected to win their groups so shouldn’t have had to play each other at that stage.

So to sum up the three ways it is ensured Big 4 countries dominate the business end of the Champions League:

1)      Beat a team from one of the Big 4 countries and there are still plenty more of them in your way due to there being 3 to 4 clubs from each of them in the tournament

2)      Due to seeding, these clubs don’t often meet each other in the earlier rounds, so don’t knock each other out before the knock-out stages

3)      If one of these clubs loses matches in the group stages, they’ll still have plenty of chances to turn the situation round again.

 

In the last TEN Champions League competitions, only 15 clubs from across Europe have reached the semi-finals. Real Madrid and Barcelona lead the way with seven appearances each, while Bayern Munich have six appearances. It is now eleven years since there was a semi-final round that did not contain either Barcelona or Real Madrid.

The Champions League is rigged to ensure Big 4 clubs dominate and clubs with great historical traditions such as Celtic, Ajax, Feyenoord, Benfica, Porto,  etc get nowhere near the business end.

That’s why I have fallen out of love with the Champions League but what can we do about it?

It’s not going to happen sadly, but for me, the associations outwith the Big 4 need to stand up for themselves. They need to demand change so that their own clubs have a least a fighting chance of getting somewhere in the competition.

The first thing that needs to happen is the competition be open to Champions only. How can you call a competition, “The Champions League,” when half the teams in it are not even champions?

With only national champions involved, clubs from smaller nations will have a greater chance of reaching the latter stages. They’ll still have to beat a big gun at some point, but having done so, they won’t inevitably find themselves with another impossible task in the next round.

As the semi-final tables above show, the Big 4 countries will still win a fair proportion of titles, but the same handful of clubs won’t be able to dominate the whole competition season after season.

The next question is can we do anything about it? The answer, I think, is “yes.”

By acting collectively, the smaller associations can force change. The Big 4 want to carve the competition up between themselves, but it only has any prestige because it is a Europe wide competition.

They don’t want the tiresome task of playing the champions of Croatia in the quarter-finals, but they do need these smaller teams to be in it. They won’t be Champions of Europe if the competition only consists of clubs from four countries.

They don’t want us getting above ourselves. They don’t want to see their viewing figures drop because smaller teams are reaching the latter stages, but they do need us.

Not only would a Champions League of teams from only England, Italy, Germany and Spain not be a truly European competition and therefore far less prestigious, they’d soon get bored of playing each other all the time as well. Real Madrid v Bayern Munich is only an exciting event when they don’t play each other every season.

How much bigger a deal would a Barcelona-Chelsea Champions League Final be, if they hadn’t played each other half a dozen times in the past ten years already?

The smaller associations have more collective bargaining power than they seem to realise. If they set up a competition minus the Big 4 it would be a whole lot more interesting than a Big 4 only competition. There’d be a whole lot of huge clubs with proud histories and massive followings suddenly finding themselves with a chance of winning big deal international club competitions again. And it would be a whole lot bigger than a four nation competition.

We should demand changes be made to the Champions League to stop the Big 4 rigging the competition and not be afraid to walk away and leave them to it if they refuse.

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.

Just Another Saturday

I used to love games against Rangers. There was nothing like the atmosphere at those matches and as a teenager I couldn't get enough of it. There was no feeling quite like scoring against them and the euphoria of beating them would last for days.

I used to love standing in the Jungle and belting out all the rebel songs as the Huns were put to the sword on the pitch. The drive on the supporters' bus to and from the game was brilliant too - giving their buses the finger as we overtook each other on the motorway, then the hairy experience of getting stuck in traffic outside the Louden Tavern near Parkhead Forge, or waiting in a traffic jam as we drove through Dennistoun on the way back.

Those games were without a doubt the highlights of the season and two games at Ibrox in particular stand out for me. There was the 2-1 win in March 1988 when goals by Paul McStay and Andy Walker all but guaranteed the league in the Centenary Season.

Paul McStay was footballing perfection that year and he scored one of his best goals that day, a left-footed volley from the edge of the box past Chris Woods. There was also a sublime turn in midfield which from the Broomloan Road Stand seemed to send the entire Rangers team the wrong way.

The other was in March 1992, in Liam Brady's first season as manager. It had been a difficult year, but from about January he had us playing some great stuff and that day at Ibrox we passed them off the park. We won 2-0 and they were lucky to get the nil. Charlie Nicholas scored a breathtaking volley from about 25 yards and Gerry Crainey added a second, going past Richard Gough in the box before finding the inside of the back post with his left foot, leaving Goram helpless.

Long before the end the Huns were streaming out, the "Oles!" greeting every Celtic pass. It seemed in that moment that things might be getting better after three very poor seasons. They barely got a kick of the ball in the second half and it was like watching one of the continental teams that regularly hammered them in action. Anyone who was there can confirm that is no exaggeration.

But as magic as those games were, the fixture had a habit of turning round and kicking you in the teeth, as happened two weeks later in the Scottish Cup at Hampden when despite David Robertson being ordered off after about 90 seconds, they still managed to beat us 0-1 on the kind of horrible rainy night that Hampden seems to specialise in.

The nineties gave us many more days/nights like that Hampden shocker against them and no Celtic fan who lived through it can say they weren't permanently scarred by the experience. The personal low point for me was the New Year's Day match in 1994 when we lost 2-4 at home. The Huns were two goals up inside 3 minutes and when Charlie Nicholas scored on 81 minutes it was the first goal I ever saw against them at which I could barely raise a cheer.

By this time I was in my 20's and was in the middle of my university years. My university had a large Irish contingent and to my initial confusion, very few of them were interested in the rebels, even the Catholics from the north. Most of them saw Celtic as no more than a quaint second team at best as well but that's another story.

It was around about that time I lost my enthusiasm for the rebels and my illusions that Celtic was Ireland's team.

If university broadened my horizons it was around this time that I started to feel that the matches against Rangers, as thrilling as they could be, were more about hatred than anything else. The atmosphere was something else, but it wasn't healthy. The kind of feeling that pervaded those matches was the same kind of feeling that motivated Rangers to embark on their EBT fuelled corruption of Scottish football.

That overriding need to beat Celtic that we see so clearly in everything the successor club does today is not motivated purely by footballing rivalry. It's about putting Timmy in his place. It's the WATP mentality that cannot stomach playing second fiddle to Timmy. The same kind of mentality that sees people hospitalised after every game we play against them.

By the turn of the century, I'd fallen out of love with the O** F*** game.

I still never missed a game against them but I no longer enjoyed them. They were a chore to get through. Something to be endured. I welcomed the relief of the final whistle and the end of it for another month or two.

I used to feel uneasy about them for about a week beforehand. It was the one domestic game with an uncertain outcome. It had the potential every time to be a real sickener, watching their bigoted fans celebrate beating us with bucketloads of sectarian bile. Usually as a result of the kind of refereeing display we saw from Mike McCurry at Ibrox in 2008.

And with the knowledge that something was not quite right in how they went about their business. We didn't know what they were doing exactly until the Big Tax Case emerged, but we knew something wasn't right.

Never more so than in the summer of 2008 when they failed to qualify for the Champions League but still splashed out millions on the likes of Mendes, Davis, Bougherra and Miller. We knew they were deep in debt then. Yet still they were splurging millions on players. This lot became the spine of the team that won them three titles in a row from 2008/09 - 2010/11.

They weren't paying their debt down, and unbeknownst to us at the time, they were putting nothing aside to pay their enormous bill to HMRC. In the summer of 2010 they even paid out £4m on Nikica Jelavic, whose goals would fire them to a third title in a row and a League Cup Final win over us.

Rangers gave us competition alright, but it wasn't honest competition. Not by a long way. They had the governing body, match officials, the media and the bank in their back pocket and were operating an industrial scale tax evasion scheme, just to keep up with Celtic. And the end justified (in their minds) the means.

Rangers destroyed the integrity of Scottish football just to put Timmy in his place.

When Rangers died in 2012, it's no exaggeration to say it was one of the most memorable moments of my life. It was beyond my wildest dreams just a year or two before but the reality of it was that Rangers was now gone. Deceased. A former football club. Now defunct. Dead.

Then the Frankenstein's Monster that is Sevco, fashioned from the re-animated body parts of Rangers Football Club, were given a helping hand into Division 3 and while we had four blissful years without them while they toiled to win promotion against part-time bricklayers, plumbers, firemen and postmen, they were like a dark cloud on the horizon again.

Whenever we've played Sevco, it feels an awful lot like the old days. There are the same horrible, bigoted fans who have only too willingly allowed the club to convince them they are still Rangers.

There's the same media hyperbole about the "O** F*** match" as they crank up the hate in the week before, then tut-tut sanctimoniously about the consequences they helped to create (but only if Celtic win).

There are the same friendly match officials bending the rules to their benefit.

I hate games against Sevco almost as much as I grew to hate matches against Rangers.

The real difference between a match v Rangers and a match v Sevco though is what happens on the pitch. Their financial shenanigans always ensured they were pretty evenly-matched affairs. Of our five matches v Sevco so far, all but one were a stroll in the park. Even the one we drew but lost on penalties should have been won.

I'll never be overconfident before we play Sevco. Barrie McKay is right in one thing he says in the papers this morning - they can beat us.

Just like on any given day ICT, Kilmarnock, Hearts, Aberdeen, Ross County or any other Premiership team you care to mention can beat us. What that does not mean though is that they will.

I'll be very surprised if we go through the season unbeaten domestically. We're bound to have an off-day sooner or later. It might have been Motherwell a few weeks ago when we went in 0-2 down at half-time. Our comeback that day won't happen every time we go 0-2 down.

But when that defeat does come (as surely it will), it's every bit as likely to be at the hands of a Partick Thistle or Motherwell as it is to Sevco.

Saturday's game went pretty much as I expected it to. Sevco came out of the traps like men possessed. With high energy levels  and aggression, they troubled us for the first 20 minutes or so. Just like ICT or Hearts can.

They even managed to score in that period, just like countless diddy clubs have in the past.

But just like you would expect against a Hearts or a Dundee, Sevco couldn't keep that level of intensity up for very long. Not only did Celtic's class begin to tell around the 25 minute mark, they'd also run out of steam by then. They'd given it their best shot and now had an hour to face a vastly superior opponent with only a one goal lead to show for it.

A narrative has quickly been pushed in the media that Sevco dominated the first half. They didn't. By the last 15 minutes of the first half the tide had well and truly turned.

The second half was a procession towards the Sevco goal. We carved them open at will and only very good goalkeeping and the woodwork saved them from Barrie McKay's proverbial "doing." Not to mention some very dodgy offside calls stopping the game with Celtic in promising positions.

But the biggest difference for me was my reaction as the goals went in. When we scored against Rangers, even in my own living room, I'd be going absolutely mental. I mean bouncing around the living room, fist-pumping at the telly, screaming at the top of my voice mental. That's what it meant to score against Rangers. Not only the horrible stuff surrounding them, but our biggest and oldest rivals. The ones my father and grandfather before me had had the exact same experiences of.

When Dembele scored on Saturday? Don't get me wrong, it elicited a very loud "YES!!!" and a fist in the air, but I stayed very much on the sofa. It just wasn't that big a deal. Same when Sinclair scored the winner. It was great, but no greater than when Rogic scored his winner against Motherwell a few weeks ago.

A match against Sevco is not just like any other match and as long as they're with us (hopefully not too long) it never will be. But that's only down to their fans, the crazy officiating, and the desperate media hype in the build up.

It's nothing to do with them or the alleged threat they pose us. The day will come when they beat us. It's inevitable. But when it happens, it won't signify anything more than when we lose to Hearts or Kilmarnock.

There was a period of time in the O'Neill/Strachan eras when we seemed to lose one match every season to Hearts. It didn't mean they were title contenders, it just meant that with plenty of effort and aggression, and with a big crowd howling them on, on a given day Hearts had enough about them to trouble us. We'd still finish 20+ points above them at the end of the season.

So I'll never head into a Sevco match, especially at Ibrox, confidently predicting a four or five goal victory because anything can happen on the day. But I'll never head there feeling any more trepidation than I would heading to the Caledonian Stadium or Rugby Park. Because that's the calibre of player at Sevco and that's the level of threat they pose to us.

We're supposed to need Sevco in the top league to provide Celtic with competition, but they have fewer points today than Aberdeen had at the same stage last season. The gap this season is not just wider because Celtic have immeasurably improved, it also this wide because Sevco are actually less competition for us than Aberdeen have been the past four seasons.

It's not out of the question that they'll beat us but it'll have no more than symbolic significance if they do.

Sorry Sevco. You might look, feel, behave and smell like Rangers, but you're not Rangers. You're an also-ran.

Do the Crime, Do the Time

Another European match, another UEFA fine for Celtic seemingly coming up, due to the selfish, self-indulgent student union politicking by the Green Brigade.

Think that's harsh? Check out their website where they say this about themselves:

With a vibrant and somewhat controversial history, the Green Brigade aim to fuse together Ultra culture with politics in the stands of Celtic Park and beyond. This aspect has led to many conflicts with the police, security and the Club itself over the years, yet remain the core foundations of the group which has continued to enjoy support from the wider Celtic family.

This group, which does contribute greatly to the atmosphere inside Celtic Park, is not merely a group of diehard Celtic fans willing to stand, jump up and down and sing for 90 minutes. They have an overtly political agenda and their very purpose is to thrust it upon the rest of us. They know full well their politicising of their support for Celtic will get the club into bother, but apparently (if this statement on their website is anything to go by) they are proud of it.

Now as Celtic fans, with a section all of their own and recently given a shiny new makeover to meet their special requirements, I have no problem with them at all.

I don't even have a problem with their politics, very little of which I share. What I do have a problem with is their imposition of their politics on the rest of us. They present their political opinions, which they take every opportunity to display for all to see in the stadium, as somehow intrinsic to the Celtic identity. This goes further online at least, where any dissent over their politics is met with aggression, abusiveness and bullying, if not by the group itself, but by people who associate themselves with it.

I've taken so much heat on Twitter this past week for saying there should be no pro-Palestinian protest at the Happoel match.

I've been told I can't possibly be a Celtic fan. One Green Brigade affiliate told me on behalf of the entire Celtic support that I am, "not welcome."

I've been told to "Get tae f***," and been called "A right-wing Catholic nut-job," Imagine that - anti-Catholic abuse from a Celtic fan! Here's someone else they would no doubt have thought a "right-wing Catholic nut-job:

That's just a flavour of the abuse I've taken from people associated with the Green Brigade (and I know they don't speak for the organisation, but they seem fairly typical of their type). I'm thick-skinned enough to take it. In moments of weakness I give as good as I get, though I feel awful for descending to the level of the Timtafada political wing of our support.

If you step out of line, you will come under attack. Some of them launch straight into a tirade of abuse, others initially try to reason with you. But when you are not swayed by their arguments, they soon resort to the abuse too.

As a support, we are being bullied into line. We're being told that the Green Brigade's left-wing politics is part and parcel of being a Celtic supporter and what makes you a Celtic supporter is not merely a love of the club, but embracing certain left-wing causes. Deviance from just one is social death.

Anyway, having spent the best part of a week, along with the moderate majority of our support, many of whom are not afraid to speak out, warning that a pro-Palestinian protest would bring us yet another punishment from UEFA, it was with some amusement that I watched the reaction unfold on Twitter last night.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy about the fine. Quite the opposite. What makes me laugh is the ridiculous reaction from the Timtafada to a punishment they were well warned of.

Now one of the things that was endlessly repeated over the course of the past week, was that you were a, "Panty-wetter" if you were worried about a UEFA fine. "F*** UEFA," we were endlessly told, "who cares if we get a fine?"

Well, evidently, the Timtafada cares as they whinged incessantly about the unfairness of the UEFA punishment they wilfully and knowingly brought down on the club.

So we've established one thing at least. Like the similarly in denial Sevco fans, they do care. Like all narcissistic, self-indulgent brats, they long to be loved. They basked for almost 24 hours in the love of the pro-Palestinian movement, then reacted with bewilderment when they realised UEFA didn't love them or their display. They simply can't understand why UEFA have a problem with their display.

Here are eight objections that I have seen constantly on Twitter last night and this morning in no particular order:

1. "There's nothing political about waving a national flag." This the equivalent of the defender caught in the act of raking his studs down the back of the forward's calf then pulling an innocent face, arms outstretched as the referee races towards him with his hand in his back pocket to pull out the yellow card. "What did I do wrong?" he pleads? "I only waved a Palestinian flag," as if this was not clear as day a political demonstration to publicise the Palestinian cause. Celtic, thanks to the Green Brigade, have been caught bang to rights. You weren't just waving a flag.
2. "It's an absurd rule, so it's absurd to punish Celtic." This may well be true. Maybe it is an absurd rule, but that is to spectacularly miss the point. It is the rule and if you break it, you will be punished for it. They were told beforehand. They were well-warned and they said they didn't care. So don't now complain about being punished for something you did in the full knowledge we would be punished for it! Here you may be told "rules are made to be broken." A mindless soundbite. You break the rules, you get punished for it.
3. "Ajax fans fly the Israeli flag." This is classic whataboutery. Some history re Ajax, which I'm positive can't be news to many people - Ajax have a strong affiliation with Amsterdam's Jewish population. Just like Celtic fans can fly Irish tricolours and it is not a political statement but a celebration of our identity, so too can Ajax supporters fly Israeli flags. It's not a political statement.
4. "It's an attack on our freedom of expression." This is kind of the trump card. "I've got a right to express my support for Palestine and UEFA can't take it away from me." Well, the good news is, they don't. UEFA are not stopping you from waving a Palestinian flag to your heart's content outside the ground. But inside the ground, it is their competition, their rules. When you buy a ticket for any football match, you are in effect agreeing a contract between yourself and the organisers. Check any ticket stub next time you buy one. You accept their rules as a condition of entry. So if you don't like UEFA's rules because you feel they are taking away your right to freedom of expression, there's a very simple solution to your problem - don't attend. No one is forcing you to buy a ticket. If you feel the rule is unfair, lobby UEFA to get it changed. Don't go in and deliberately break the rule, then complain when the rules are enforced.
5. "Barcelona fans fly the Catalan flag." More whataboutery. Yes they do. And Barcelona has been punished for it. Next!
6. "UEFA held a minute's silence for Nelson Mandela and that was a political statement." Arguably it is, although I think you'd be hard pushed to find anyone who did not take a broadly positive view of the achievements of Nelson Mandela. But the rules do not prohibit UEFA from making political points. They decide what is, and is not, appropriate in their competitions. As a former Head of State of South Africa, and an almost universally-respected figure of monumental historical importance, it was hardly unexpected that UEFA would ask for silences on his death at their matches.
7. "It wasn't political, it's standing up for the oppressed." That's not how UEFA see it. The problem for the Green Brigade here is that like all leftists, they seek to portray politics in moralistic terms. Then they can vilify anyone who doesn't agree with them as nasty, evil bigots. There are two sides to the Palestinian conflict and this was a demonstration in support of one side, which seeks the destruction of the other. What makes it overtly political for me is, that there are many oppressed peoples around the world. To give just three current examples, the Tibetans, Yemenis and Kurds. Last season, Celtic played Fenerbahce, surely an ideal opportunity for the Green Brigade to show their support for the Kurdish people, treated as third class citizens in Turkey, denied statehood and subject to unfair imprisonment and aerial bombing. Did the Green Brigade wave Kurdish flags en masse to highlight their plight? Muslim-on-Muslim oppression I suspect, may just not be sexy enough for them.
8. "Israel is an apartheid state like South Africa was. The world of sport united in standing against them." This one is just hysterical nonsense. Roughly 20% of the population of Israel is Arab Muslim (Palestinian). They enjoy equal rights in Israel. They have their own political parties, they can vote freely, they have access to exactly the same educational and health institutions as Jewish and Christian citizens. There are high-ranking Arab-Israeli army generals, Arab supreme court judges (one of whom handed a former Israeli PM a custodial sentence), university professors etc. There are no laws in the state of Israel which treat Arab citizens differently from Jewish Actually, there is one - unlike Jewish citizens, Arab Muslim citizens of Israel are not subject to conscription into the armed forces, although they are free to serve if they so desire. Arab-Israelis enjoy far greater rights in Israel than Jews enjoy anywhere else in the Middle East. In fact, Palestinian citizens of Israel enjoy far greater rights than Palestinian residents in any other Middle Eastern country. Israel is not an apartheid state. It is in fact the only functioning liberal democracy in the region. It is not perfect, but certainly preferable to the surrounding Islamist dictatorships which want to wipe it from the map.

Just as an aside, another thing that made me laugh out loud in midweek was the people complaining about the Daily Record reporting on their protest. Honestly, they hold a demo to publicise the Palestinian cause, then complain when a paper... well... publicises it!

And of course to top it off, they insisted they didn't care if UEFA fined the club, then when UEFA charge the club, they have a tantrum about how corrupt and despicable UEFA are for... er... charging the club.

So when you hear Green Brigade sympathisers complaining about the club being fined by UEFA because they insisted on doing what they wanted to do and put their desires above the interests of the club, remind them of the old adage - if you do the crime, you do the time. Just stop crying about it.