Celtic Discussion

Quote:

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Originally posted by Silvio Dante
Owner: Dermot Desmond (Irish)

Manager: Martin O'Neill (Irish)

Hardly waspish I would have though....

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Wrong Dermot desmond is not the owner he is the largest shareholder with i think about 10% of the shares.

the largest shareholders would be British Pension Funds.

Celtics prime aim as a public quoted company is to make money. its one of the main reasons they are always trying to crawl into the english premiership. i doubt if you will see them appplying to join the eircom league. if they do ill give you €500.

REal Madrid in the other hand are owned by members and ther prime aim is to win trophies and entertain. hence maybe the difference in stlyl and flair.

I don't have a problem with anyone supporting a British club or indeed any other although I'd prefer if they supported an LoI side. I do have a problem when they say our league is rubbish though.

I'm a football fan and will watch any game but Limerick and the RoI national team come first.

Indeed I thoroughly enjoyed watching Celtic beat Ajax in a thrilling game in 1982 the night before Limerick met AZ67 in the ECWC eventhough our blue & white scarves got funny looks.

I would prefer to see other Scottish sides other than the Old Firm do well but then I also wanted Real Madrid to lose La Liga and Man Utd to lose the premiership.

My "problem" with Celtic however is that a sectarian element of their support has attached itself to our national side and associate the RoI national side with sectarian catholic nationalism/republicanism. This has already damaged the reputation of our team and our fans.

I've been following our national side home and away since I was 8 years of age and am justifably proud of the excellent reputation our fans have at home and abroad. My first away trip was Rotterdam 81 and 5,000 Irish fans had a party while England fans rioted in Oslo. We got treated with disdain on arrival in Stuttgart on June 11th 1988. I was genuinely concerned that the "black shoes, white socks and moustache" brigade would have responded to any trouble. They did but responded with good humour and a smile and the legend of Irish fans was born that weekend. A week later we were knocked out by a lucky offside goal 8 minutes from time and the response was to go have a party with the Dutch. Everywhere we've been since from Tehran to Tirana or from Brussels to Bursa we've enhanced that reputation. We have fans from all walks of life and all religions (or none). I met 2 Iranians (living in Germany) in Bursa who have been following us since Euro 88. I know of a Rangers fan who had to choose between Marseille for a champions league semi final in 93 or the Baltics so he couldn't and went to both. Any football fan over 30 will be conscious of bigotry from another code from glass been scattered over football pitches to Liam Brady being expelled from school for captaining his country at that "foreign" game. Anybody that tried to start any sectarian or racist stuff was quickly put in their place. A group of teenagers with Belfast accents tried to start some sectarian singing in Vilnius in 93 and they were quickly shut up. During that time Celtic were struggling badly - one championship from 1988-2000 and limited exposure in this country meant that they were not well supported. Celtic failed to even get 2nd place any season between 89 & 95 and only once got within 10 points of Rangers when they ran them to 8 points and also managed a creditable 4th place only 4 points behind 3rd placed Motherwell. I now realise how lucky we were that our first 3 appearances in major finals coincided with a dismal time in Celtic's fortunes and football fans in this country were more concerned with Man utd or Liverpool.

Now contrast that with today. Celtic have been discovered in this country (Donegal excepted where they always had good support) in the past couple of years. The success brought by Martin O'Neill along with Sky and later RTE's live coverage has given them exposure they never had. Many fans have discovered Celtic and the sectarian filth associated with a minority of their fans. Celtic have many many genuine non sectarian fans and I know a few of them however it appears to suit the club to allow this to continue and indeed encourage it. I was one of a handful of RoI fans at the Packie Bonnar testimonial in 1991 - Celtic v RoI XI. The prematch entertainment included Sean South and an IRA song I didn't know which I heard afterwards was "The Boys of the old Brigade". I was staggered by the size and passion of the support though.

Now Celtic have been discovered in this country in the past couple of years and it is now cool to be a Celtic fan. a minority of these fans have also deemed it okay to sing sectarian songs, boo and abuse current and former Rangers players. Terms such as "Dirty proddie", "Orange *******" and "hun *******" may be acceptable or even encouraged at Celtic Park but they are not acceptable here and paying €27 euro in does not give someone the right to say what they wish. Ironically the morons who directed some of the most disgusting abuse at Peter Madsen of PSV did so because they thought he was Peter Lovenkrands who indeed looks nothing like Madsen.

So now I hope that Martin O'Neill moves to a bigger club like West Ham and that Celtic go back to challenging Motherwell for 3rd place miles behind Noel Hunt & Gary Dempsey's Dunfermline and Alan Maybury's Hearts. More importantly I want the F.A.I. to take action and anyone that screams "dirty proddie" at an opposing player is thrown out of Lansdowne Road and never sees another ticket again and let them save their money for a one way Ryanair flight to Glasgow.

without doubt one of the best answers in a thread that i have ever read.



Tell me gspain. i know i know your name from somewhere.

did you write articles in programmes and magazines?

or help me out with a college assignment in the early 90's?

Although there are also many decent Rangers fans they have a sectarian element too just as bad as the Celtic minority. No point in supporting them although thankfully their crowd don't turn up at our games and pretend to be Irish fans.

BTW 2 former colleagues watch the England game at Italia 90 in a Glasgow bar - everyone cheering for Ireland. Halfway through the 2nd half they started chanting "Packie Packie" to be tapped on the shoulder and told "this is a Rangers pub - you can't cheer for a Celtic player in here" Back to supporting Ireland and no problem. Nowadays the "British identity" is much more common at Ibrox and hence all the england tops.

I was talking to a guy the other day about football etc and when iasked him he supported he replies

"well i dont like the eircom, but i support Man Utd and (chuckles), obviously Celtic".

I sniggered and said "Ya, obviously". Funny thing was is that he thought i was a 'die hard' as well.

Anyway, my new favourite team are in the Peruvian league - Deportivo VVanka.

:D

British identity isn't more common at Ibrox at all. The gruesome twosome are steeped in bigotry hence the abundance of Protestant unionist regalia on one side and republican paraphenalia on the other. Scotland is almost invisible in these games although a lot fo Scottish auld firm fans are getting ****ed aff wi it.

This is worsened by the tens of thousands who come over from northern Ireland each week for the games.

At the end of the day these are just flags not really about identity more about incitement.

......Unless the abundance of Jewish and Palestinian flags on the Falls/Shankhill and now Parkheid and Ibrox suggests that they have something in common with these cultures too :rolleyes:

The point is really being missed here.

If you're proud to be a Celtic fan then fine - go to Parkhead - follow them away in europe. There are ample opportunities to show your pride. Why not go to Rangers away European games and sit with the home fans and hurl sectarian abuse at the whole lot of them?

Why do it at games that have nothing to do with Celtic?

Well i dont care what anyone says because as far as im concerned i am a celtic fan and that doesnt mean gspain that i have to fly over to glasgow to show it. Your points are good but i think even you are missing the point. You cant change a leopards spots and no matter what you say nothing s gonna change that fact. And the majority of so called anti celtic fans are just envious. And for the record i do support an eircom league and go to games regularly. But blaming celtic fans for being celtic fans is just not fair. I can say that i have always felt strongly about supporting celtic and i can say tghis for the majority of celic supporters also. And when some guy wearing a celtic jersey says the eircom league is **** he s got a point but not to us. He compares it to a game on sky sports and to be honest sky do have the skill of making bad games look great so maybe the real enemy here is actually sky sports. so stop this persistent argument. I was involved in the early stages of it but it just got too annoying because the majority of people here have a grudge against celtic and wont be happy till they get the last word in. Now i m not trying to get the last dig in. I am just trying to show skys influence

I'm sure uneducated Irish people are booing as well. Irish people are not all saints.
Finger pointing won't solve this. Action will.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Tom Peppers
i am a celtic fan and that doesnt mean gspain that i have to fly over to glasgow to show it

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That would be what fans of a club would usually do: go to games involving that club to support them.