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| Endgame |
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| Written by Sparrow Thirteen |
| Thursday, 12 May 2011 20:59 |
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The game, the title decider on Sunday, the title itself, are arguably an irrelevance now. Does it matter anymore? Or does it matter even more? For all the unbridled joy that would have erupted (and may still do so) with a championship victory, the title, like the nation, is stained, vacant, a silver reminder of the soiled disgrace that seeps through the idle conscience of those who rarely open their eyes to see the madness in the midst. Neil Lennon has been a breath of fresh air. He has provided passion, excitement, bravery and class. Oddly, despite Leicester City having three teams as fierce local rivals, he was never once sent an explosive device through the post by a fan of Derby County, Nottingham Forest or Coventry City. His playing style was the same. A winner, who in the capital city of Scotland stood on the touchline at a cauldron of hatred, fear and horror coming to the forefront of his haunted eyes. For all the faults that he may have as a chief executive, Peter Lawwell’s statement was forthright and powerful. This truly is Scotland’s shame, and it is high time that a nation that is on the cusp of a referendum on independence addresses the cancer eating away at its core, wishing to destroy innocent victims without care or justification. For years, wider Scottish society has adopted the playground bully approach, with its bizarre and unintelligible rationale for smearing an entire ethnic group. Oddly, in 2011 the country where both of my parents grew up reminded me of an incident that happened at work this very week. A student who had been bullied by several members of the class in another subject was in the process of being moved groups by the head of this subject. This move would have had an impact on my class too, and as head of my subject I argued that, why is it that the victim is the one being treated as the wrongdoer whilst the perpetrators are free to choose another target? Scotland, backed by its football clubs, football administration, mainstream media, and a large chunk of its population, is the instigator of anti-Irish racism, anti-Catholic sectarian, and a sense of ‘if you don’t like it, leave’ bullying.
So, where do we go? The easiest option is for the victims to move away, to England, to Ireland even, to a wider European league where Celtic will be judged on footballing merits, not the fact that the manager happens to be of a faith that somehow offends large facets of a contaminated country. Yet, this sends out the message that this constant abuse has finally made us crack. The bullies have won, the victims forced out to reconsider what once was. In practical terms, Celtic leaving Scottish football has its obvious obstacles. The away fans quite rightly argued against the 6pm kick-offs in Perth and Inverness; what about the 7.45 starts in Exeter, Wexford and Copenhagen? This is not necessarily the time to reflect upon the feasibilities, but as an esteemed predecessor of Neil Lennon once said, ‘football is nothing without the fans’. The fabric of society in this once proud land, and by definition the structure of the football clubs, needs to alter beyond recognition. This is not a quick fix, sadly. Hatred and intolerance is learned over generations, a bitterness that manifests inside and claws away until an intolerable bruise appears, a visible reminder of the disfigured attitudes that permeate a nation. Alex Salmond needs to stand up to his electorate and issue a zero tolerance approach to racism and bigotry within his mist. Forget travelling down the safe political road where he wishes to reach out to so-called both sides of the nauseatingly titled ‘old firm’. If he offends thousands of bigots then good. History will judge him far more positively than the present may do. It is not a complex matter to state that attacking a football manager because he is an Irish Catholic is wrong, deplorable and unacceptable, and it is not a complex matter to state that sending explosive devices to the club and its workers is despicable and needs to be eradicated before Scotland becomes an even greater source of shame around the free-thinking world. Scottish football needs Celtic, but at this moment in time Celtic Football Club does not need Scottish football. The only Scottish team to have; and the only Scottish club that will ever win European football’s greatest prize are subjected to a sustained campaign of hate for reasons that few are brave enough to admit, preferring to lazily label it as either a Glasgow or West of Scotland problem. If one fragment of positivity can emerge from the immoral events at Tynecastle, it’s that this issue can no longer be ignores, swept away or have ready-made apologists on hand to water down matters. The time for watering down hatred is long since over, as we see Scottish football drowning in its own intolerant past. A championship that goes to the last game of the season with a point separating the top two clubs should be classed as a wondrous season, but it cannot be anything other than tarnished. Whatever happens, the issue is no longer about the title, it is about the man, the manager, the one who will never walk alone. Arguably, an unexpected success in spite of the animosity will see unbridled joy, but in the grand scheme of things, the real success will be the day that Celtic Football Club is no longer targeted for repeated attacks by cowards who seek to destroy the indestructible. In 2011, our greatest victory will be to no longer live in a world where our manager fears for his life just because of who he manages. This highlights the problem that Scotland needs to eradicate. This reiterates how shameful Scotland has truly become. We have now reached Endgame. |
Comments
Yes, it's a minority - but doesn't that sound a bit hollow when it's the excuse we hear from the dark side too?
Yes, celebrate Celtic's Irish heritage, but we need to stop the IRA chanting and singing and weed out our own bigots - in much the same way as the racist prosecuted the other day was fingered by Celtic fans.
We need not only to BE better citizens, but SEEN TO BE better citizens.
"Caesar's wife must be above suspicion."
Lets be clear, rules are about to be written which will be aimed at targeting some of the songs our fans sing, such as those mentioning Terrorist organisations etc. I suspect even the use of the word "orange" or "hun" will be outlawed. I think only one of our songs mentions the word "protestant". Our Club hierarchy I believe have rested on its laurels in recent years with respect to singing by a section of our songs. Its a sizeable minority of our away support who sing these songs, most of whom are season ticket holders and members of the Away Ticket Club. So most if not all of the perpetrators are known to the Club so there should be no excuses for identifying these people and taking their tickets off them.
That's the apologetic bit. Here is the defensive bit. It was reported today that our Club may be part of some report and action by the SFA/SPL into sectarian singing on Wednesday night. If that's the case then that is an utter joke, not because there wasn't any either. One Club in Scotland was responsible for starting a religious divide in a football context and continued it for a hundred years. In recent years that Club has been fined/punished 5 times by UEFA whilst the SFA did nothing. If any Club should be first in the dock it ain't Celtic. That "honour" of being the first Club punished by the SFA for sectarian singing would be a massive slur on our Club leaving those over Ibrox way rolling about laughing in their seats. I have said for years Rangers wont get punished unless they have a hammer to hit us with too. That hammer, an 8 point hammer is being fashioned right now all as I alluded to in my 2nd paragraph. The galling part of all of this is that George Peat said 3 years ago Clubs would be hit hard, points deduction etc for sectarian singing. They've done zip since because they would only be punishing one Club who have been singing sectarian songs almost weekly for that 3 years and there was no way they would be punished unilaterally. The fact that UEFA has acted 5 times in that 3 years says everything about the SFA that we need to know.
I know I would love to have 30 minutes in a room with Stewart Reagan for a wee discussion.
I haven't seen those reports you mention and hope they are wrong but, given the behaviour we've seen this season - Fat Sally, Bigeary and Haj Duff all getting away with it - as well as Hello hello Broon - I wouldn't be at all surprised.
Depressed now. Stuff the diet. Going for a drink!
One idiot assaults Neil Lennon, and two more send parcel bombs ergo Scottish football is dead. Fucking unbelieveable. Where do you dig this drivel up from?
And now, because we fecked things up last week at Inverness the football doesn't really matter? I can guarantee if we were the ones in front going into the game on Sunday you wouldn't be spouting such melodramatic guff.
Maybe you should save some of your ire for the enemies within - Lawwell, Reid and Desmond who have for the third year running presided over abject failure. I've had enough of their lies, penny-pinching and smoke screens.
I feel that I should respond because I am bemused by your
comments.
First of all, abject failure? Celtic could finish on 92 points! The double could still be achieved. The feel good factor has returned. Hardly failure on the scale of Barnes and Mowbray, is it? Yes, Europe was disappointing but Braga have since proved what a good side they are. The Utrecht game was the worst performance but the team was still in it's infancy
As I stated, I am unsure whether the title matters or whether it matters even more? But in the grand scheme of things the football is an irrelevance compared to the sustained attacks on Neil Lennon's life. If Scottish football cannot protect a manager on the touchline, and if it refuses to accept culpability in the unparalleled levels of hatred towards Lenny then I cannot apologise for stating that the game is dead in Scotland.
Hail Hail.
People trot out the possible 92 points stat - but that is also dependent on how good/bad the other teams are compared to other seasons isn't it? You don't win the league by finishing with 92 points, you win it by finishing ahead of the huns and we've not done so hence we've failed. I've outlined elsewhere the reasons why the failure is abject given the problems the hun faced this season. The fact a poor huns team will finish with 93 points tells me that the other sides have regressed this season. It wasn't that long ago we faced a Hibs team with the likes of Fletcher, Brown, Thomson, Whittaker and Hearts teams with Berra, Gordon in their ranks. None of these sides have anything approaching these players today. Additionally, in some previous seasons we won the league before the split, so that's 5 games which meant feck all and inevitably points likely to be dropped, so we're not comparing like with like.
I'm also not aware of any sustained attacks on Neil's life. Wednesday night's assault was sickening but an attack on his life? The bullets in the post were sickening, but they are not attacks on his life, just scumbags trying to scare the man and his family.
The parcel bombs were made by a couple of half wits who again are so stupid they wouldn't be capable even if they wanted to. The bullets were sent first to Lennon, so how on earth is any package going to be opened by Neil personally? No chance.
I was up at Celtic park on the Tuesday before the Inverness game (when you see the team play so poorly in such a crunch game that's hardly progress in my eyes). Anyway, Neil was signing autographs with one or two security guards pretty close. But if I had wanted to do Neil serious damage I could have relatively easily. Just like the muppet on Wednesday. He could really have caused Neil real physical harm if he had the inclination.
I'll finish by remembering the young lad Mark Scott who was murdered simply for being a Celtic fan. When that happened was there such an outcry about Scottish football's dead, Scottish society is broke blah de blah de blah? The treatment Neil has received has been disgraceful, but let's not go overboard here. What happened to Mark Scott is real tragedy, not some idiots losing the plot about Neil Lennon.
I hope Scottish scoiety is dead, and something much better rises in its place.
There has been a deadly rivalry between the two sides since day one, in football, employment etc. But we have never seen behaviour like this. I put a lot of this down to down to the anti-social yob culure .
In terms of the season, with a manager in his first season you will always get rookie mistakes unfortunately. We left the league behind at Ibrox a few weeks ago in my opinion.
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