Ange Postecoglou couldn’t resist the m word as he took a left-field question at today’s media conference to preview a FOOTBALL match against Ferencvaros.
There are a multitude of playing issues around tomorrow’s match to be discussed with the Celtic boss giving up 17 minutes of his time to the broadcast media.
The decision to leave Boli Bolingoli out of the Europa League squad is one that Postecoglou could be asked to explain, the impact of Tom Rogic on his return to the side, the continuing goal threat of Jota and a first domestic clean sheet away from Celtic Park could all have been aired. Not to mention the comparison with the Ferencvaros side that beat Celtic last season.
Instead a reporter from BBC Scotland opted to spend time asking about Vaccination Passports. They will be in force at tomorrow’s match, from the tone of the question and the follow up it seemed that the man from the state broadcaster was hoping to discover that Celtic were unprepared for the development.
When Ange uses the word mate in his answer you know his contempt for the question being put. A day ahead of facing a side that played in last season’s Champions League Postecoglou has more pressing issues to deal with than the readiness of stewards to check for vaccine passport documentation.
6 minutes 50 seconds
BBC Scotland reporter asks about how the club is enacting the new protocols for supporters:
Yeah mate……….(laughs) the machinations and details behind that are well behind me. Look, again, I guess that it is the kind of world that we are living in where there are certain regulations.
I think for the most part that they are done for the health and safety of people. Yeah, it has obviously been a challenging game for us, mainly because of the kick-off time, again, the reports that I’ve got back from the club, again the supporters are getting right behind us.
It is obviously going to be a bit of a sacrifice for some of them to get to the game. So, I think, you know we are all appreciative of everything that our supporters go through to get behind us.
The key thing for us is as many as there are will be there tomorrow, its going to be a cracking atmosphere again tomorrow. We’ve got to make sure that we play our part in rewarding our supporters for the sacrifices that they making.
Not contend with that brush off there was a follow up question.
BBC: So as far as you are aware there is no actual concerns that the actual passport will affect the attendance more than an awkward kick-off time, perhaps
Yeah, again, you’d be better for people at the club to answer that question but from my perspective the feedback that I’ve got is that we can understand the difficult situation that this fixture has caused. Again, our supporters have been brilliant in backing us.
After that the man from the BBC asked if he expected Ferencvaros to attack Celtic, hardly the most original thought in the world after Celtic had lost four goals in each of their first two group matches.
Celtic media conference are by invite only with the club setting the order in which questions are to be asked.
The major ‘broadcasters’ are infiltrated by the same bigotry/bias that referees, SFA personnel, politicians, judges, police, etc. are. That’s how they ‘get ahead’ in the first place. Everyone ? Anyone ?
I can’t recall if it was BBC or STV but the first-half footage of the “4-2 Game” was duly despatch to Broadcasting Headquarters during the interval, as was the custom at the time. A new ‘custom’ was created when the second-half footage ‘failed to arrive’.
For my own part I couldn’t even advance from a position of ‘warehouse labourer’ (in Scotland) once it was known I had anti-Rangers sentiments.