For decades Celtic have basked in the warmth of their cherished Old Firm branding.
In public, to keep fans sweet they prefer to use the term Glasgow Derby.
Behind the scenes the Celtic board will go to any length to protect and support a brand detested and despised by almost all Celtic fans.
The two clubs that have played out of Ibrox this century aren’t anything that any sane business would want associated with.
UEFA has hammered the racist actions of supporters following both clubs.
They were forced to instruct the reluctant SFA to ban The Billy Boys in 2006.
The new club is currently sitting on the full closure of the Copland Road Stand for repeated racist actions.
Thankfully for fans in that area of the stadium there won’t be any more UEFA matches this season where they’ll have to restrain their hatred and intolerance.
Despite all of that baggage Celtic renew their cherished O** F*** trademark. They encourage an association with a club founded by Charles Green in 2012.
Their favoured media partners are forever promoting that brand. And invited back for tea and biscuits.
The year 2012 terrified the Celtic board as they feared having to go it alone. The secretive Five Way Agreement was enthusiastically nodded through. Neil Doncaster got a job for life on the back of that.
BREAKING: Celtic ‘shocked by disproportionate punishment for small incursion’ as they blast SFA punishment over Rangers shame gamehttps://t.co/SecXpWo4ad pic.twitter.com/uLxxItuTNP
— Scottish Sun Sport (@scotsunsport) August 28, 2026
And now that association came back to bite Celtic. The price of positioning themselves as two cheeks of the same a**e. Twice!
Following the SFA actions the Ibrox club have offered Celtic 300 tickets for the September 13 League Cup ties.
CELTIC SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OF EMPLOYING CEO NICHOLSON
After all of Nicholson’s negotiations and concessions to get The Billy Boys heard inside Celtic Park his mates at Ibrox have gone and done their own thing. Turned over a ‘leading sports’ lawyer’.
Who’d have thought that the CEO that appointed Mark Lawwell, Paul Tisdale and Wilfried Nancy could have judged things so badly?
With the O** F*** branding everything comes 50-50.
When a flare is launched into your own fans you take half the punishment.
When one of your backroom staff gets attacked on the pitch after the final whistle you take half the punishment.
And of course you don’t raise a peep of complaint. Think about it. A Celtic employee was assaulted on the pitch by a home fan in a Scottish Cup tie and both clubs are handed the same punishment!
To protect their brand Celtic have turned a blind eye to the multiple incidents on trips to Ibrox in recent seasons.
The smashed glass appearing in Joe Hart’s penalty area during the half time interval. A complete mystery. No questions asked by Nicholson.
Arne Engels being felled by a missile taking a corner.
The vapes and glass bottles aimed at Vil Sinisalo.
The Buckfast bottle thrown at Matt O’Riley for scoring a goal. Etc, etc.
CEO Nicholson has one achievement on his Celtic CV. Raising the away ticket allocation at the Glasgow Derby to around 2,500.
Racism is welcome at Celtic Park twice a season. But 250 Celtic Season Ticket holders can be suspended based on a grainy long distance video with no CCTV or body-cam footage to back up the allegations.
PUNISHED FOR SUPPORTING THEIR FAVOURED BRAND
Typically Celtic have released a pointless statement about today’s SFA punishment.
The SFA know that there will be SFA follow up to that statement. Celtic will mutter to favoured messengers about their anger, privately seething. Blah blah with no action taken.
On appeal the punishment will be reduced to a capacity of 5,000 or 10,000 fans.
Privately both clubs will be pleased to see that their favoured branding has been reinforced by the SFA.
Two cheeks, exactly as Celtic like it. Saves having to act professionally and create a profile in Europe.
The glass on the goal is the one that gets me… In this day n age no pics or vids!!!! Impossible really, the second worst thing is unless a “missed” pitch incursion it was a Hun employee, the worst thing is nothing really done about it, the media just accepts it as common place, Celtic do zero about a vicious criminal action. Makes you sick
Editor: Strangely the Ibrox ground staff that were in the penalty area during the half time break appear to never have been questioned about the broken glass…
The Huns have broken the agreement brokered by our incompetent CEO so we are entitled to give them nothing for any future matches and make them a pleasant day out at the football again
For the life of me I just cannot understand the difficulty with all this…..just have NO AWAY FANS at any derby games, league or cup.
It’s not rocket science, you don’t need to understand quantum physics.
It’s 2026 ffs and two sets of fans just can’t be in the same postcode never mind the same stadium.
Why let this continue when one simple change stops it all?
There is zero argument to be had for away fans if banning them stops this crap from happening time and time again.
How many things thrown at hun players?, how much glass in hun penalty area?, how many hun staff severely injured?,how many hun players injured by flying coins and other stuff thrown?, how many ground staff attacked or hurt by Celtic supporters?, how many police attacked or injured by Celtic supporters?, how many hun supporters injured or hospitalised by objects thrown into their section of the ground by Celtic supporters?, how many stashes of weapons found in the Celtic supporters end?.
That’s what disproportionate looks like.
Whataboutery fixes nothing regardless of whose to blame, and do u really believe THEY are gonna stop their behaviour? The ONLY thing that stops it is zero away fans.
Same old shame cowards.
Lucan is truly a fu**in CANCER at Celtic…
And one that is not fu**in gonna go away !
Celtic board are cowards one and all, no way should club except equal punishment….any strong board would’ve got legally tooled up and defended the Celtic fans and brought its case all the way to court…..shower of disgusting cowards.
“A brand detested by almost all Celtic fans” yet we all validate it and them by selling out the games against them, celebrating like mental when we beat them.
I absolutely detest everything they stand for, and get driven insane by the survivalists and their engine room subsidiary nonsense.
But unless we as fans stop coveting these games, stop validating them as our “ biggest rivals” then the OF brand is never going away.
I would much rather watch us against Hearts or a strong Aberdeen.
We buy into it every single time a fixture comes round so forgive me if I find it a bit double standards complaining about the OF brand and actually contributing to it.