Peter Lawwell has distanced the Green Brigade from the rogue element that he wishes to drive out of the club.
While the Celtic supporters received praise for their behaviour throughout the day in Udine the club is likely to be hit with a fine after an offensive banner was unfurled at Thursday night’s Europa League tie.
The Green Brigade have been the whipping boys for almost all of problems associated with football supporters in recent months but as he addressed the issue from Thursday night Lawwell chose his words carefully.
He said: “It is a very small, rogue element. It is not the Green Brigade. It is a handful of people who for some reason think this is the right thing to do. It embarrasses the club. It embarrasses the vast, vast majority of our supporters, who would be sitting there last night.
“We are going to stop it. Even amid that hardcore of Celtic fans coming out here to Italy in December, it is a very small element. I don’t know what their motivation is, but we are going to stop it. These people cannot love Celtic, given what they have inflicted on us.
“This could well be the tipping point. People are sick of it. In 2003, our four supporters’ associations stood at Celtic Park and collected the UEFA Fair Play award. But now, eight years later we get this, and these banners. It’s just not right. It’s not Celtic.
“This is a rogue element that has infiltrated our support, with whatever objective, but it is a very small minority.
“The other thing is, last night was about Celtic from the SPL playing against Udinese, and it was fantastic. The unfortunate thing is that all this has overshadowed it.
“The eyes of UEFA were already on Celtic. There is no logic to this. If it was logical, it would be easy to sort out.”
CLICK HERE for Joe Ledley’s twitter agony
CLICK HERE for Fraser Forster we deserved to win
Follow Video Celts on Twitter, Facebook
What’s going on ? I agree totally with PL again.
I dont want to sound like conspiracy nutter, and it’s just a thought. But the police and other security services infiltrate many organisations that they see as a threat. They do it as a matter of policy these days.
What better way to “smash” the GB than to infiltrate it and influence the dafter element to pull off outrageous crap like thursday night, thus alienating the GB from the rest of the support.
I find it hard to believe that the stupid banner and flares on thursday night were organised by the same people who organised the poppy protest, a protest that whatever you think of the subject was dignified, and, in my opinion, legitimate.
I dont think the GB are stupid, and I certainly dont think they are enough to drag the clubs name through the dirt. So who did orchestrate the banner ? The truth is out there.
Anything is possible, paranoidandroid. Obviously we can’t say for definite but it wouldn’t surprise me.
Agree with the point about the poppy protest too – it was entirely legitimate.
celts know who got tickets ban the 600 and the names will come out then they can get back to the best support in the world,best game for a while on thursday
That banner was embarrassing but why is it ok to sing ‘f@#k the sfa’ but not uefa? we don’t need to focus on any of them we can support the team in a more positive way.
I’d hazard a guess that one reason may be that we were just fined by UEFA, so it’s kinda like swearing at a judge who’s just found you guilty (rightly or wrongly). It’s classed as a new offence.
We haven’t been fined by the SFA (yet!) but if the publicity-seeking self-important wee neds keep up their immature, idiotic antics, that’s something we can look forward to in the not-to-distant future.
I can see why Lawell is embarrassed by it but at the end of the day the banner wasn’t that bad. I don’t see why fans shouldn’t be able to speak out against UEFA if they feel they or the club have been treated harshly.
While I don’t agree they were treated harshly (the chants are outlawed according to the rules were there for all to hear so it’s a just punishment and those responsible should also be punished) there are some that may feel they were.
Just because it contains a swear word and is making a statement that UEFA doesn’t like doesn’t mean it should necessarily result in action against Celtic.
If it’s the act of making statement about UEFA that’s the crime, would they punish “we love UEFA”? Hell no. I’ve also heard worse chanting (racism) than what was said against Rennes at bigger European clubs that’s, rather conveniently, gone totally amiss by UEFA…as usual one rule for rich clubs from England, Spain and Italy but we’ll hammer clubs from Scotland, Bulgaria, Poland and Turkey…maybe if UEFA acted fairly in punishing all clubs rather than letting the headline names walk free (as their presence at the end of the day pays UEFA and affiliation improves the worldwide profile of the organisation), they’d garner a little more respect.
I also wouldn’t describe this as “dragging Celtic’s name through the gutter”. In fact making the thing public and putting it all over the internet and newspapers by doing press interviews makes the crime seem worse than it actually is. There have been far worse banners unfurled at both Celtic and numerous other clubs. All I’ve heard about is the good performance in Udine, not about the club being a disgrace because of a small minority of fans. Sometimes ignoring minor incidents like these is less harmful to the club that condemning it publicly (in fact I’d never have known about the banner if it wasn’t for the numerous stories about it).
So there are Celtic fans that think it’s okay to have fcuk on a banner that could be seenon the TV by women and kids all over Europe. Charming.
.
Didn’t say I condoned it. In fact the guy that unfurled the banner probably deserves punishment as there’s no excuse for it. Actually I’d prefer the banner wasn’t unfurled and perhaps they could’ve made their statement if they felt they had to using less offensive means but nonetheless I think you’ve completely missed or simply chosen to ignore my point.
It’s the principle of the matter in relation to both criticising UEFA (who IMO shouldn’t be exempt from it even if they were probably right to take action), their punishment of similar or worse offenses elsewhere, particularly in relation to bigger clubs from bigger leagues, and the way it’s being dealt with in the media that I’ve a problem with.
I agree with some of what your saying. I just cant believe that it was the same people who organised the dignified poppy protest who organised that purile garbage on thursday.
I’ve also been reading comments about this solidly for the past two days now, so I probably did misunderstand part of what your saying. But there are many Celtic supporters that dont think there was anything wrong with the message on the banner. It did drag the clubs name through the mud, and it made us all look like inarticulate morons. Marxists, dont make me laugh. Harpo Marxists maybe. A real Marxists would never hold up a banner so demeening to football supporters and working class people. And even the orcs aren’t stupid enough to write down their filth and show it on the TV.
If your going to have protests and banners, at least make it look like the protest is being done by decent human beings with a legitimate grievance- like with the poppy protest.
Jimbo I agree 100%
I’ve never understood the hand wringing argument ‘it might have been seen by a woman or a child’
Pathetic!
The people that have caused the club these problems deserve to be banned. There seems to be alot of shit stirring in the media just now though about the Green Brigade and Neil Lennon’s thoughts on the subject, which is unwarranted.
We need to be smart and not let those with alterior motives hijack our attempts to remove a small element to include others that are not to blame.
The problem goes back to clowns singing about the IRA, totally unacceptable.
What the hell have the IRA got to do with Celtic anyway?
Stop all that irrelevant political cancer and there is no problem.
Freedom of speech/expression…I do not condone this banner, it’s so stupid, but saying it’s wrong because women and children may see it is off the mark. The word has been around for a long time, everyone has heard it and knows it’s frowned upon. The only way Celtic get fined over this is if PL encourages it. A lot like telling a police officer, Go F yourself, not a crime, just a bad idea. “Nakamura ate my dog” was a million times worse.
We’re supposed to be the good guys. And a lot of people are offended by people swearing, never mind a huge banner being beamed into their living rooms. Just try swearing in front of my dear old mum.
War is fought by indecisions, not the wrong decisions! There is only one way to police the rogue element thats blackening our name! Thats through internal peer pressure! I am against censorship, but decorum and forward thinking is the key to a sustained battle against governing bodies such as SFA and UEFA, not juvenile banner waving. Its not clever or condusive to The Celtic Way, support your team and Peter Lawell to stamp out this insane ranting now and concentrate on what really matters! FOOTBALL!
Can the GB not come out with a statement to distance themselves from the ludicrous banner antics of last Thursday night? (or admit responsibility)
Hail! Hail!
Catch a grip, the banner was idiotic, I’m all for banning the guy(s) responsible but if this is the extent of misbehaviour it’s not so bad.
We are in danger of believing the overhype from the media who are screaming for further sanctions & anything to try & besmirch our club.
Haven’t heard a peep about the foul singing st Easter road last week, in fact more column inches have been given to the uefa banner, than ragers fans giving nazi salutes in Israel!
Gerry the point is that most of us dont give a f**k what the orcs do. We know they’re vile idiots. We just dont want the world to see us being the same as them. That’s being political. Holding up an ugly, undignified, childish banner isn’t; it only helps our enemies to prove to the world that we’re just as bad as the darkside.
How on earth can you begin to compare us to them unless you’ve swallowed the media logic?
A guy wrote ‘fcuk’ at a football game????
Not great but hardly a hanging offence.
I read the travelling support were highly praised by police.
We’ve got to stand up for ourselves a bit here, sorry to say too many are following the medias agenda.
Some of our fans are making it easy for the Scottish media and government to compare us to them. Headline this morning: “Celtic’s reputation in tatters”. I bet they loved writing that. you and I might not believe what we read in the papers, but a lot of people in the world do.
You are following the media agenda then! QED
This is a propaganda war and we’re losing it through stupidity.
We know the first victim of war is the truth!
Truth is I’m totally behind the offender being banned, i imagine it will be a daft laddie,what’s stupid is the excessive hand wringing & over hype.
Stand up for yourself man!
I’m not against people standing up for themselves. But there are smart ways to stand up for yourself, and there are stupid ways to stand up for yourself. And I’m not against people being poitical at football games. however, making things easier for your enemies is not standing up for yourself. It’s cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Plus, what’s the point of these guy’s bleating on about freedom of speech if all they,ve got to say is “fcuk” and “oo aa up the ‘ra” ? They’ve got freedom of speech why dont they use it to say something intelligent. They live in a city with third world poverty levels; why dont these politicos say something about that ?
Sorry mate you’re going round in circles.
One guy put a stupid banner up, hes been banned for life, stop condemning the Celtic support for the deeds of a daft bhoy.
Have you heard of Stockholm syndrome?
Stockholm Syndrome ? Are you suggesting I was kidnapped by UEFA or the Daily Record at some point, although I feel like I was abducted by aliens a few days ago, now you mention it.
I guess we’ll just have to agree to differ. take care man.
You too, 3-0 today!
We can try to analyse this all day long. But there is one thing we all know for certain, this is not the work of real Celtic fans, plain and simple. So the real fans have to stand up and be counted, and expose these retarded individuals for the good of the great name of Celtic and what are the best real fans in world football.