CELTIC FANS PROTEST: IF YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT IT, IT WORKED
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
Reading through the various reactions to the latest Celtic Fans Protest at Dundee yesterday, it seems a lot of fans did not approve of it. My initial thoughts were similar.
I thought: this looks childish and stupid. It’s also halting the game when it’s just kicked off, which can’t be good for the players’ momentum.
However, the more I think about, the more inclined I am to conclude that this latest protest might actually have been the most effective one yet.
Latest Celtic Fans Protest Shows Importance of Getting Attention
There’s an old media and marketing cliché that goes something like this: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
Now, someone like Prince Andrew may disagree with that this week. Apparently, he still turned down the Rangers manager’s job last night though, as he’s worried about the reputational damage.
Anyway, back on topic. What other protest could Celtic fans have done yesterday, where no doubt they were subjected to random police searches, stadium security checks and all the usual nonsense before even entering the stadium?
They knew that Sky TV cameras would be there. So whatever form of protest the fans decided to do, it needed to be eye-catching, it needed to involve something small enough to not draw suspicion, and it needed to maintain eyes on the Celtic end and the various anti-board banners for several minutes.
Yesterday’s protest accomplished all of the above, and I’m guessing it did so on a minimal budget.
This is another important factor. The Celtic Fans Collective has spoken a number of times already about the need for “escalatory actions”. This doesn’t necessarily mean protests that are bigger, more bombastic or more aggressive.
Indeed, cost considerations mean such protests are highly unlikely. It can instead mean disruptions which draw greater attention to their cause for a longer period of time. Just like yesterday.
Of course, the fact that Celtic went on to lose the game 2-0, with the second of the two easily preventable goals conceded during the extended period of additional time at the end of the first half as a direct result of the protest, is unfortunate.
It has also given the Celtic Board, their agents in the mainstream press and indeed ordinary fans who simply don’t agree with the current protest movement a very easy target to aim at. A narrative has very quickly emerged online and in print, that this protest directly contributed to Celtic losing yesterday.
I personally don’t buy that, and neither does Brendan Rodgers, judging by his post-match comments, but that does not mean it isn’t a valid point of concern to raise. As I said initially, getting the game stopped after just one minute of play did disrupt the flow of the game.
However, this interruption impacted both teams. The fact that only Dundee benefitted from it in terms of a result is more down to what Celtic did, or didn’t do, on the park for the remaining 89 minutes of the game.
Visual protests like yesterday don’t need to be universally popular. They just need to grab and maintain the attention of the audience, thereby raising awareness and provoking further discussion about the issues being protested against.
Yesterday achieved that. We may not like or agree with the method, but we can’t deny the result.