Celtic finally released the independent review into the club’s fans being kettled before the Glasgow derby earlier this year.
Incredibly, the club have yet to address any of the fans that were kettled or forced to walk miles to the stadium due to Police Scotland’s actions.
And zero action has been taken by the club to hold Police Scotland to account.
“The club will explore” and the “The club will seek” seem to Michael Nicholson’s go-to buzz words these days.
We get it, you’ve done nothing.
“A number of significant concerns have been raised regarding police actions on 16 March, concerns which I share and which the Club will seek to address with Police Scotland,” CEO Michael Nicholson told the club website.
He could have said that on 17 March after the game.
But instead a third party was brought in to communicate with fans, something the club clearly did not want to do.
A BOX TICKING EXERCISE
The club has done exactly nothing to prevent this disgraceful situation happening again.
It speaks volumes that Fairhurst were prepared to listen to the fans, take them at face value, and raise some very pertinent questions for Police Scotland.
Celtic were not prepared to do this.
We pay our money and are ignored by the club. And should Police Scotland decide to detain a few hundred of us for five hours, the club has got nothing to say.
“Celtic has already sought, through the SPFL, to engage in wider discussion with regard to the concerns raised by supporters concerning policing of football in Scotland and we look forward to these discussions progressing,” Nicholson added.
The Celtic CEO is now getting the SPFL and Fairhurst to speak up for him.
That isn’t leadership, that’s cowardice.
ZERO COMMUNICATION
The Fairhurst report concludes: “Celtic may also wish to consider how best to engage with supporters and those who have provided feedback following this Independent Review and reporting exercise”.
Even the third party is recommending the club start communicating with us fans.
The Fairhurst report has basically listened to the fans, grouped all their views together and come up with questions for the club and Police Scotland.
There is absolutely nothing in the report that justifies it taking six months to be published.
Had it not been for the formation of the Celtic Fans Collective and the publishing of the fans open letter it is doubtful we would ever have seen the report.
Believing Celtic fans, including members of the Green Brigade, then asking Police Scotland to explain their actions just doesn’t seem to be something they are capable of.
LEADERSHIP VACUUM
LEADERSHIP VACUUMUntil we have proper leadership at Celtic that reflects the views of the fans then we had better be prepared for Police Scotland doing the exact same thing again.
The report covers Police Scotland telling the Celtic SLO that the kettled fans could be given drinking water but then subsequently placing the water on the central reservation out of reach of the majority of the fans.
There are also numerous reports of Police Scotland mocking supporters and also of a parent trying to comfort his son who had a panic attack within the kettle.
Does anyone seriously believe that the boys in Blue would not do the exact same thing again at another home game of their choosing?
Celtic were keen to distance themselves from suggestions that they had colluded with Police Scotland over their actions that day.
That’s a very low bar to clear.
Instead of speaking up in support of the clubs fans, the club were left to deny actual collusion with the police.
All the more reason to join in today’s silence organised by the Celtic Fans Collective.
It may not be everyone’s choice of protest but protest we must if we are ever going to get leadership with a backbone at our club.
The present leadership at Celtic has to be removed, as evidenced by their awful handling of the 16 March kettling outside the Celtic Social Club.
They have done exactly nothing to back the supporters worst effected that day or prevent those disgraceful scenes being repeated.
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1 Comment
by charlienic
it wasn’t just our fans that suffered, I read of2 french football fans who were just visiting and were kettled as well with pigs Scotland illegally demanding to see passports, so even if the board didn’t collude with pigs Scotland there refusal to look after fans affected normal paying customers, that board has to go and please fuck off soon.
Keep up the good work Celtic365, we’ll get there as tens of thousands of our fans have had enough of being ignored unless the board wants to sell more, more and yet more jerseys