A month on from throwing a bottle of Buckfast at Matt O’Riley the Ibrox culprit remains at large, unpunished. He has probably got hold of a Scottish Cup Final ticket through the My Gers membership scheme.
After scoring for Celtic in the first half of the Glasgow Derby on April 7 the Danish midfielder had to step out of the way of a glass bottle aimed at him from the Copland Road Stand.
There was no commotion at the time, no rushing of police or stewards to the area, broadcast partners Sky Sports and BBC Scotland refused to mention it despite having saturation coverage of the match.
It was only the next day when Celtic released their Unique Angle coverage from behind the goal that supporters spotted the bottle throwing incident.
Rather than file an official complaint or take any meaningful action Celtic do what they do best, get a source to brief their legacy media partners about their anger and outrage while doing SFA to damage their cherished O** F*** brand.
At 1.26 on Monday The Sun reported:
A Celtic spokesperson said: “It has been confirmed today that a glass bottle was thrown at Matt O’Riley at yesterday’s match.
“The repeated targeting of our players and staff with missiles is quite appalling and completely unacceptable.
“We have already raised our serious concerns with Rangers and understand that police are investigating the matter.”
The Daily Record obviously weren’t to be left out of the loop, despite a day of backing up every decision from Beaton and Walsh, at 6.58pm they were handed as weak a statement as you could imagine:
The club has been in correspondence with the Scottish FA regarding the VAR process throughout the season, and has also played an active part in the SPFL working group which is seeking to work with the Scottish FA to improve standards for all clubs. We have raised our further concerns regarding the VAR process in the match with the Scottish FA and await a response.
That followed a big build up around the Silva simulation, not that you’d know with nothing specific in the Celtic statement.
There is no reference to either of these comments/statements on the Celtic website.
With a noon kick-off there was perfect visibility to identify the culprit who was clearly protected by fellow supporters.
It is illegal to take alcohol containers into football matches but it seems that stewarding at the Copland Road for matches against Celtic is very relaxed, to the point of being non-existent.
Closed Circuit Television is part of the licencing criteria for sports stadiums but it seems that one against the Ibrox system was either switched off or not fit for purpose.
Almost exactly two years ago Joe Hart emerged for the second half at Ibrox and discovered broken glass in his penalty box.
During the half-time break only the Ibrox groundstaff had been on the pitch, with police and stewarding around the pitch no-one noticed the glass appearing in the goalmouth.
With Michael Nicholson a prime backer of the toxic O** F*** brand no action was taken, it seems that the £750,000 a year CEO was quite happy to accept the ‘faulty CCTV’ excuse and ask no further questions.
At the same match, shortly before half-time Celtic physio Daniel Friel was hit on the head with a glass thrown by a corporate client of the home club.
That incident was caught on CCTV with the culprit eventually sentenced to a year in prison.
No action was taken over any of the glass throwing incidents by the SFA or SPFL with Celtic loyally renewing their O** F*** trademark.
CLICK HERE for Celtic fans celebrate in Santa Ponsa.
Rangers told us there was no CCTV after Joe Hart broken glass incident at Ibrox, says Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson https://t.co/2G7sNr15w5
— Scottish Sun Sport (@scotsunsport) November 4, 2022
Celtic v Rangers at Celtic park next and Balogun back in the Rangers side.
Zero done since this spitting incident at his last visit to Celtic. https://t.co/RSDmlNLIcQ pic.twitter.com/nufNpA7bfd
— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) May 6, 2024
