Scotland's Naked Truth - Happy St. Patrick’s Day

I’ve kept my powder dry for so long now, but today, I read a report which has ‘encouraged’ me to put my feelings (and facts) into words.

My feelings are, if Celtic is not the most despised and discriminated club in world football by the British, not just Scottish media, I’ll retire from writing. I expect to be writing after today.

Facts: Kenneth Ward, the Deputy Sports Editor of the Glasgow Times*, as highlighted by Joe McHugh over on Videocelts, has started a protest about Celtic being the dominant club in Scottish football, because…we utilise the same rule which governs every other club in the league, the number of substitutes allowed during a match. (This incidentally is the same publishing outfit who publish that subscription seeking Celtic Way site).

Yes, you read that correctly. Ward is seething because Ange Postecoglou is, like all other clubs, allowed to utilise up to five substitutes, and this has ‘led to Celtic overpowering their opponents at the pointy end of the match!’ He states that, in classic Micky Beale style, Celtic has more cash ‘reserves’ (pun intended) than anyone else, and that the disparity of wealth is unfair, and should be challenged with a rule change. Yes, he did!

More experience-based feelings: At every turn, Celtic are maligned, mocked, falsely implicated or misrepresented, and disparaged by a complicit, succulent lamb guzzling media-press and pundits alike.

We’ve been VAR’d to death, deceived by, not incompetent, but agenda-pushing referees, yes, cheats, from start to finish. Yet, we remain nine (essentially 10) points clear of the chasing pack and only one Glasgow Derby away from a Scottish Cup Final, and a likely, although not guaranteed Treble.

More Facts: During MON’s rein in Paradise, Celtic players were set up on a night out in Newcastle by the Daily Record. When the players responded to the in-your face-photographers, the headline the next day called them, ‘Thugs and Thieves’.

It’s not only Scottish newspapers which are blatantly anti-Celtic, but their sister rags down south don’t miss a chance to warp the facts, or distort the truth, never in Celtic’s favour. Their headlines are astonishingly biased against us, always have been. Ever since I remember, I’ve baulked at the misreported columns and match reports regarding Celtic. I’m at the match but see something completely different to the ‘impartial’ reporter.

Take the BBC. Please, take it! Sportscene. Anything! Full of *Rangers sympathisers in the position of ‘unbiased’ analysts, and, as Chris Sutton rightly called them out, puppets and charlatains! How can you possibly have a fair and unbiased show, or read when the majority of people you employ have either played for or support the establishment club? That’s a rhetorical question, of course.

Like the BBC, take John Beaton…as far as humanly possible please. This paragon of equity, fairness and virtue oversaw, silent whistle in mouth, ‘El Buffalo’ Morelos kick Scott Brown between the legs from behind, ground Anthony Ralston before stamping viciously on his back, (subsequently boasting about it via Twitter), whilst smiling and waving play-on in a most sickening, sinister fashion. Beaton apparently spent part of his after-Ibrox evening celebrating with the *Rangers fans in The Crown, Bellshill if photos and eye-witnesses are to go by.

The press and pundits were limp and shallow in their assessment.



*Rangers had won that game and that was all that mattered.

There are reams of documents and video evidence highlighting such behaviours by Scotland’s finest, both on, and off the park. All at Celtic’s expense. Walter Smith and Graeme Souness managed their club though a decade of cheating, financial irregularities, cups and titles, ones in which, although they were found guilty of obtaining by sleight of hand and deception, were allowed to keep. Yes, they were. Here in Scotland, the ‘best wee country in the world’.

They were never challenged in the media, even after they went into administration, and subsequent liquidation, yet were shoe-horned back into civilisation through a few funny handshakes, and blind-eyed directors within the confines of Celtic Park. They were let off the hook, and the media were, and are, more than complicit.

Today, Celtic, having dominated their rivals for well over a decade now, are being reined in and brought to book, by the same media. Why? Because we signed a man who will take no nonsense. A man who’s only vision is to win, and win with a flourish. The Celtic way. Ange Postecoglou has built a squad which has taken the world of football by storm by playing ‘beautiful, inventive football.” Remember that? Ange has built a squad which is threatening to match any other in the history of this great club. That’s another fact.

So, what to do? Well, let’s start by giving him a handicap, say a limit to his number of substitutes, or put *Rangers men in the VAR room. Yes, that’s what to do. Bent officials and wishful thinking from unscrupulous journalists with only one thing on their minds; stop Celtic at any costs. Blacken our name, twist the truth, lie, lie and lie again.

They do that anyway, but just look at the table, look at our trophy room, look at our players and manager. Celtic are on a path to glory whilst our ‘brothers’ across the city are on the road to nowhere. These superior beings can’t handle the truth!

Scotland will never ‘be a nation again’ in the true sense until one half of her population are fed from the same spoon as their brothers. Peace will never reign until the press and media lead the way in the quest for parity and justice. This isn’t just football, as Ange said when he arrived here and got a handle on who’s who in the zoo, this is a culture, a group of men, women and children who in many cases, have only Celtic and Rangers.

So, as we, on this St. Patrick’s Day, strive to fight the evils of sectarianism and hatred which come at us unabated, I’ll leave you with this, a post from my journo friend here in Oz, Patrick Quinn. It’s a different leaf on the same shamrock, but flowers just as beautifully as the others.

“The Lie said to the Truth, ‘Let’s take a bath together, the well water is very nice.’ The Truth, still suspicious, tested the water and found out it really was nice. So, they got naked and bathed. But suddenly, the Lie leapt out of the water and fled, wearing the clothes of the Truth. The Truth, furious, climbed out of the well to get her clothes back. But the World, upon seeing the naked Truth, looked away, with anger and contempt. Poor Truth returned to the well and disappeared forever, hiding her shame. Since then, the Lie runs around the world, dressed as the Truth, and society is very happy…Because the world has no desire to know the naked Truth.”

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