I had noticed some scepticism among Celtic supporters about whether or not UEFA had opened a disciplinary case against the club for the anti-monarchy banner at the game in Poland.
Therefore, I decided to break with Stenography Corps protocols and ask a question.
Today I sent an email to UEFA (with my International Federation of Journalists Press Card attached) asking them, and they replied to me within the hour.
Dear Sir,
Please be informed that proceedings have been opened against Celtic FC regarding the banner you are referring to, displayed during their UEFA Champions League match against FC Shakhtar Donetsk played on 14 September in Warsaw. The UEFA disciplinary bodies will decide on the matter in due course.
Kind regards,
UEFA Media & Public Relations
This journalism business is mainly about asking questions.
Of course, there are special rules on Planet Fitba if the story involves the Ibrox franchise.
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UEFA not not allow political comments during matches…..but the banners were (argueably) not political but constitutional.
It seems celtic will be punished for the fans using the occassion to legally show their constitutional right to be anti-monarchy…..despite the best attempts by the club to prevent such demonstration.
Meanwhile, the club over the city, mordor, publicly and premeditated their voice to DEFY the UEFA ruling, and ENCOURAGE the support to do the same.
The depth of uefa’s decision to punish one and leave the other unpunished, especially given thise circumstances, leaves UEFA open to ridicule and shame if it choose WHO to punish and WHO to let off….
The banner was cringe worthy, mot about what it meant but what words were used. There is phrases to use without the inflammatory F word.
Keep it above board and there would be nothing they can do.
I can’t work UEFA out at all. They are against all political expression by clubs/supporters in European competition yet have openly used the political situation in Ukraine to virtue signal. They expressly disallowed Sevco permission to play the English national anthem prior to their game against Napoli yet took no action when it happened. Celtic fans exercise their right to free expression with an anti monarchy banner and the club faces a fine? I’d love to know which F word it is they object to? Must be the sweary one cos I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have a clue who Fagan was.!
What a rotten corrupt shower. It’s times like these we need a Fergus McCann to hand these clowns their arses…
Presume its not the sentiment in the banner they are bothered about. It probably is the political connotation. Dissing the crown is nothing new in Europe where they f****d them over the centuries by abolishing them so its not an unusual sentiment. I am a Republican and an Irish Republican. I have no time for monarchies in the 21st or any other century. As an Irishman I have a particular dislike for the english crown and all its plundered wealth. My old man was offered an obe back in the 70s in Belfast for an act of unbelievable courage ( sheer stupidity in my mothers opinion) and he told them to stuff it. He wanted nothing from their plundered wealth especially that plundered from Ireland. From a continent that has history of beheading and shooting of monarchs, its a bit rich uefa getting their knickers in a twist. BTW, when the incident my old man was involved in gets mentioned in tv programmes, they only mention one of the two men involved. The second, my dad, is whitewashed out of history.
I find it really strange that sevco as a club can ignore a direct order, they actually played the national anthem over their sound system, and escape any punishment, are not even reprimanded. Yet Celtic are being taken to task over something that the club have NO direct control over.