CELTIC PROTEST MOVEMENT FACES CRUCIAL TEST THIS WEEK
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Sep 30
- 3 min read
I’ve written many times on here about the importance of who controls the narrative when it comes to coverage of Celtic. Our board are obsessed with ensuring that their view of the world always takes paramount importance.
Fans on the other hand are tired of being ignored and being told what to think by club media. A club media set-up that, it seems, only communicates when it has something to sell or some kind of lecture to deliver to fans abut behavior.
After Saturday’s disappointing result, and the debate before the game about how silence may affect the team, the Celtic Board and their various proxies in the press haven’t been slow to try and seize the narrative back from the Celtic Fans Collective, which has gained significant momentum in just a few weeks.
No, Silent Celtic Protest Did Not Impact the Result on Saturday
It’s extremely rare for any team to control a game to the extent that Celtic did at the weekend (close to 80% possession) and not win. However, it does happen. Our own victory over Barcelona back in 2012 is proof of this.
As much as our league form hasn’t been the best so far this season, we still haven’t lost a single game, and Saturday’s game with Hibs was only the 2nd time all season we failed to win domestically.
And yet, both The S*n and the Daily Record ran pieces yesterday alleging that the Silent Celtic Protest, which I will remind you was only for 12 minutes of a 90-minute game, “clearly had an impact on the team”.
We then had Luke McCowan, who I don’t think is in any way to blame for this at all, having his comments about the silence feeling “strange” also being seized upon in the media and framed as another slight on the Celtic support.
This is all part of the anticipated counter attack that I indeed told all of you to expect from the board. They simply will not treat as fans as equals until they have exhausted every other option.
This is where it is absolutely vital that fans remain unified. I know that not everyone is on board with the idea of a silent protest. I too had concerns about it ahead of Saturday. But we cannot allow external forces to divide us.
The next two games are a vital test of our resolve. The Celtic Board will, I am sure, turn up the rhetoric in terms of “back the team”, and “more than a club” and all the usual “birthday caird p*sh” as someone from Craiglang famously once said.
As was the case at the weekend, if you don’t want to remain silent during the protest period, then don’t. But please, do not allow these people to turn you against your fellow Celtic fans simply because of a difference of opinion.
Unity is our biggest strength in the face of this opposition. The board are worried, as are their backers in the press. The barrage of negative press about the two fan protests to date, as well as Celtic’s quiet rolling back of media policies and easing off slightly on the aggressive marketing proves this.
It’s only 2 games into this protest movement, and we are already seeing small, yet significant impacts. We need to keep up this momentum.
