Recently we’ve had two of our strikers taking up a lot of space in the media, for their words off the park rather than goals on it.
Not so long ago, we’ve had Leigh Griffiths in the paper after he was recorded singing that Hearts may be going bust. A short time after, he was shown to be singing about Rudi Skacel. At this point, I guess I should make it clear that both of these are allegations as they have not yet been confirmed or denied.
The first charge for me is a joke but the second charge is far more worrying. As far as some are concerned, he is a representative of Celtic therefore he should behave himself at all times. It’s also worth remembering that negative stories featuring Celtic will sell newspapers and a lot of people will be more than happy to publish stories about him if it sells papers. I’ve got no complaints there, it’s their job to sell papers. However, it is up to the players and the club to ensure that there is no ammunition given to the people who write these stories.
I’d also like to make it clear that at no point would I attempt to defend anyone who is acting in a racist or bigoted manner. The Skacel song is one that I think most would struggle to argue in favour of or to defend.
So my point is why the double standards ? Two wrongs do not make something right, we all know that but a few years ago, after a League Cup final at Hampden park in Glasgow, Scottish police, politicians and high up figures within the Scottish game queued up to tell us how great sectarianism and bigotry was.
If anyone is unsure on what I’m on about, it was a cup final when we played Rangers. Their fans spent the whole match singing racist and bigoted songs yet we were told that was a great atmosphere and it was how the aforementioned figures wanted the world to see Scottish football.
If we live in a society that actively promotes hatred and bigotry, how can we then slate a young guy who grew up in that same society for singing a racist song ?
For me, I think Celtic and our fans should rise above it and make sure that the player is fully aware that this sort of behaviour is not acceptable while representing Celtic.
Despite what I’m saying above, it’s not the case that I think Griffiths was correct to do what he did. I’m merely pointing out that if a collective society promotes this sort of stuff, then it’s going to be far more difficult to eradicate it.
I’m 31 and I have no idea what children are taught at school but I would like to think that education would be used to change this attitude towards bigotry and sectarianism. I’d also like to think that Celtic will do their part to ensure that employees of the club do their part.
This leads me on to my next point, Tony Stokes has been quoted as saying that he is looking forward to having Rangers “back” in the SPFL – they’ve never been in the SPFL. We all know that they are a new club and have never played in the top flight of Scottish football.
I’d like to think that there would be a press officer or someone similar to go alongside our players when they are being interviewed to step in and just refuse to answer some questions.
Stokes isn’t the first of our players to talk and give an opinion that seems to contradict the majority of fans. Our clubs top man, Peter Lawwell has already stated that we don’t need Sevco to survive so surely our players should be instructed to refuse to answer any questions relating to them?
They would be as well talking about shinty given that a shinty team pose the same challenge to us as Sevco do. We’ve never competed against them and until such times that we do, our players should stop talking about them.