Convenient Vow of Silence over shameful Ibrox incident

Almost three weeks on from a bottle being thrown at Matt O’Riley at Ibrox it appears that the culprit is still at large and free to attend football matches.

After scoring Celtic’s second goal in front of the Copland Road Stand a bottle of Buckfast was thrown at the midfielder during his muted celebrations. No Celtic fans were in the stadium.

The incident only came to light when Celtic TV showed their Unique Angle coverage of the goal, broadcasters Sky Sports and BBC Scotland both ‘missed’ the incident despite having multiple cameras at the match.

The following day, April 8 a Celtic spokesperson told The Sun:

It has been confirmed today that a glass bottle was thrown at Matt O’Riley at yesterday’s match.

The repeated targeting of our players and staff with missiles is quite appalling and completely unacceptable.

We have already raised our serious concerns with Rangers and understand that police are investigating the matter.

There has been no comment or statement from the home club, nothing from the SFA or SPFL and also silence from Celtic.

The Copland Road Stand is mainly Season Ticket holders, the only other fans at that match were members of My Gers.

In April 2022 it was claimed that the CCTV wasn’t working when broken glass mysteriously appeared in Joe Hart’s goalmouth during the half time break when the penalty area was being attended to by the Ibrox ground-staff. Again no action was taken by the SFA or SPFL.

With a 12 noon kick-off and most fans seated there shouldn’t be any problem identifying the fan that broke the law by taking a bottle into Ibrox then decided to throw it at O’Riley after he scored.

It appears that Celtic have no appetite to deal with those issues- which probably ensures that they will continue, two CCTV failures in 24 months ought to be an issue of concern to the football authorities, Police Scotland and Glasgow City Council.