EXTRAORDINARY scenes in Glasgow on Sunday as Celtic lifted the Scottish Premiership trophy with the usual huge compliment of Irish fans there to experience the excitement.
The defaming of the Celtic fanbase – many readers of this newspaper – that we’ve seen since the match ended has been as hysterical as it has been deluded.
Celtic Football Club has for almost a century and a half been a source of pride and pleasure for its huge Irish support. And just as those fans – young and old – have witnessed incredible success and glory, so they have witnessed the club being othered by the establishment as rebels and outsiders. It is a badge of honour for Celts, it is a source of constant, simmering anger for others.
Be in no doubt, the fact-free and fury-heavy pontificating of recent days has more to do with traditional enmities than it does with football or fair play. The Rangers and Hearts sportscapes – both closely associated with Scottish and Irish loyalism and unionism just as Celtic are with Scottish and Irish nationalism and republicanism – have been incredibly vocal in spouting a range of grievances, all of which have disappeared like snow off a ditch.
Before Sunday’s game we were told after a number of controversial decisions that Scottish referees are, at best, uniquely incompetent, at worst, corrupt and cheating. With a timing on Sunday that was bum-clenchingly embarrassing for all concerned, English referees within a matter of hours had displayed a range of staggering incompetence in key games at the business end of the season. These decisions were, rightly and as usual, discussed in the context of the game without sweeping condemnations of the refereeing profession as a whole – and without deeply libellous allegations.
In the 24 hours after the game it was reported that Hearts players had been assaulted by Celtic fans who poured on to the pitch when the third and final goal went in. We now know these claims to be entirely baseless, but have any of the well-known and opinionated commentators withdrawn these very serious accusations? They have not; rather, they simply pretend they never made them.
Delirious fans entering the field of play at the end of a game is something that is to be robustly discouraged at every level. But it happens and it will always happen. That’s why the pitch incursion wasn’t enough for Celtic’s detractors – that’s why lies about physical assault had to be told.
Meanwhile, lovers of the game without a stake in the match weighed in – particularly south of the border – and they were virtually unanimous in deciding that Hearts have been hard done-by. And that’s fine – the fairytale Hearts narrative was an enticing one for sports fans everywhere and most neutrals were left disappointed by how the last day played out.
But hard facts are hard facts. Referees everywhere are fallible. The match had ended. No players were hurt.
Game over.
