I find myself seriously perplexed and perhaps at first I fell into the trap I’m about to describe to you regarding Celtic’s potential Champions league opponents.
Yesterday, Celtic were put on a collision course with Northern Ireland’s Linfield, a club so steeped in bigotry disguised as tradition it would make oldco Rangers blush.
The kicker here is that should Linfield negotiate their first round qualifier, then they and Celtic would meet on the 11th or 12th July – the usual date of second qualifiers. The glorious twelf timmy, if you feel the need to give it’s proper ‘staunchy’ title. The one day a year all the perennial marchers get the boat over to Ireland and hate on the catholics under the banner of tradition and culture – it’s all very dignified. It’s so dignified in fact the very notion that Celtic should be ALLOWED to come to town and PLAY FOOTBALL on that day has been met with sarcastic commentary and serious questions over its viability.
When I first heard the draw yesterday, my initial reaction was the same. But as the day wore on and I looked up and down my timeline I got more and more depressed that in the 21st Century, a football club who are open to all seemingly can’t head over to Belfast on a particular day for fear of backlash, hate and most of all violence. Some may disguise the severity of the situation with humour but no amount of quips are going to make me laugh off the fact that it’s seen as a potential security risk for Celtic and their fans to travel at the same time as an annual troglodytic party is going on.
A Northern Irish crowd safety expert has warned that July 11 would be the “worst possible day” to host the game. We should be asking why.
Yet again the initial reaction is to appease the neanderthal contingent rather than shine a light on to why they wouldn’t be able to behave themselves if they seen a few Celtic shirts as they go about their dignified business.
While I accept these cultural numpties will HAVE to be thought about when this fixture is being set in stone, it does not paint any sort of tolerant picture and shines a light on the monster that has been created by catering to the backwards elements of our society for years.
While the detail and history involved can be invoked and argued to death by the many at the very crux of this we’re talking about a football team coming to play a football match and not being able to because of concerns over their safety – Embarrassing.
