Sportswriter Bill Leckie, writing in the Scottish Sun, has yet again had another pop at Celtic supporters, and has a dig at Brendan Rodgers thrown in for good measure…
Leckie defends empty seats policy
Leckie in his latest column dragged our supporters through the mud whilst having a pop at our manager. According to him, Brendan Rodgers was out of order for his light-hearted but accurate remark regarding the number of empty seats in away grounds when Celtic visit.
The same empty seats are also seen at these grounds when theRangers are in town and recently St Johnstone’s new owners called time on this madness insisting that they are not going to pass up on around £300,000 next season.
Leckie states that he can listen to Rodgers talk about football all day, but that the Celtic manager sometimes irritates him with his views, and he feels like telling him to give it a rest.
Why not challenge Rodgers on his views at a media conference?
So I have a question for you Bill. Why don’t you do just that instead of venting your anger in print? When not make your point to Brendan at his media conferences of which there are usual two a week, pre and post match. Not got the bottle, Bill?
Leckie continued his tirade by saying the overwhelming majority of our supporters are the reason why have had our ticket allocation slashed at certain venues. He said we behaved like yobs, and the locals at such places were sick of our ‘anti-social’ antics hinting at sectarianism and pyrotechnics as the main cause.
Empty seats clubs Hearts and Aberdeen’s support behaved badly
Maybe he forgot that Hearts recently had a photograph of a Loyalist terrorist on their own big screens, with the club having been duped by their own support. Did he or his paper follow up on this story and has culprit been banned from Tynecastle?
What total nonsense from the bitter washed up old hack. Not to mention it not being true, supporters of these clubs who supposedly feel ‘threatened’ by our supporters have their own element in their support who like to cause trouble, they aren’t exactly the choir boys that Leckie portrays them to be.
The Aberdeen songbook at Pittodrie last week was disgraceful but not a word about that. Or what about the vile racist and sectarian chants from Dingwall yesterday, clearly heard on Sky Sports by anyone tuning in.
Celtic? A different matter entirely
Even St Mirren, the side Leckie proclaims to ‘support’ have their own element of supporters who indulge in ‘unruly’ behaviour. Not that he would like to admit it.
But Celtic? A different matter entirely. It’s safe ground venturing into ‘Scotland’s shame’ territory.
Some thoughts on pyros
As for the pyros, the delays at the semi-finals were always going to cause an issue. UEFA has been very clear on their stance and appear to have cut them out for now anyway. We’ll see what happens tomorrow night.
However domestically both the Scottish FA and the SPFL use pyros at Hampden and last Wednesday night Aberdeen had them on the park as part of their fans display ahead of losing to Celtic.
Mixed messages then or maybe no message. The SPFL took action last week and Brendan Rodgers on behalf of Celtic FC was very clear that it has to stop. But that should be across the board and not just concerning the ultra supporters who will be at Hampden this weekend.
Can the SPFL after the supporters of both clubs heed the warning then set about settling off their own pyrotechnic show as part of the trophy celebrations?
No pyros should mean no pyros
No pyros should mean no pyros. Full stop. It will certainly be an interesting sideshow this weekend.
On empty seats – to be clear – most Celtic commentary on this has been that these clubs should look after their own support first and that all of their fans should have tickets if required.
Then the rest should go to the away club over and above the initial allocation. It’s not rocket science and as mentioned St Johnstone are set to lead the way next season.
When McDiarmid Park first opened Celtic and Rangers used to be given the East Stand and the 10,700 capacity stadium was always busier than it is these days.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
2 Comments
When Leckie was employed by the daily Record ,he was known as Billy Leckie ..that was his title when he was a scoop there .. somethings never change ..do they ?
A friend of mine went to Pittodrie last week and on the way to the stadium was separated from the rest of his fellow Celts who he had travelled with from Glasgow.
A bunch of the sheep’s casuals spotted him and were just about to dish out a beating when his mates ,who had doubled back when they realised he was missing,turned up.
I won’t be disclosing what went down next,suffice to say he proceeded unharmed.
Well,perhaps a wee clue……their team on the pitch weren’t the only ones to cop a sair yin on home turf !