SHOCKING FOOTAGE EMERGES, VALIDATES GREEN BRIGADE CONCERNS
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 3 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Celtic’s usual policy when faced when any kind of major problem in recent years has always been “ignore it until it goes away”.
They put this mantra to its ultimate limit last week when they literally ignored a room full of angry shareholders, then told us all to go away.
However, today’s absolutely damning footage, which appears to show a Celtic Steward manhandling a child, I’d go so far as to call it an assault, cannot be ignored. Not even by the Celtic Board.
As Video of Celtic Steward Assaulting Child Goes Viral, Will the Club Now Listen to Green Brigade and Other Fans?
The video footage, circulated widely online earlier today appears to show a member of Celtic’s matchday security staff grabbing what appears to be a child of around 12 years old by the collar and physically dragging him across the concourse.
Now, just to be clear, stewards do not have powers of arrest over and above those of any other citizen. Any citizen of Scotland has the legal right to make a citizen’s arrest, if they believe a crime has been committed or is in the process of being committed.
However, this video only shows one crime being committed, the manhandling of a minor by someone far bigger and far heavier than him.
From my time working at Celtic Park, which admittedly was in the mid-2000s, the policy was always, in the event of serious breach of security, Stewards should defer to the police. It is the police’s responsibility to enforce the law and to do so with reasonable force. There has been no major change in the law governing stewarding of football matches in Scotland since then. So there is no justifiable reason for assuming a more aggressive posture.
Though, I could refer you to last Thursday’s ridiculous scenario of a member of the Green Brigade having his front door kicked in and his house ransacked over a “breach of the peace” charge, which will, in all likelihood not even make it to a courtroom, to perhaps give an indication of what Police Scotland consider to be reasonable force with regards to the Celtic Support.
Now, I did not see what happened at the Celtic vs Falkirk match last month that triggered the latest falling out between the Celtic Board and fan groups. However, if the video footage shared today is indicative of a wider culture of behavior amongst police and Celtic stewards towards supporters in that part of the stadium, then frankly, I don’t blame any fans who felt compelled to chase them that night.
Remember all we have seen from that incident is Celtic’s allegedly “conclusive evidence” that shows blurry footage of a crowd of about 30 people or so running up a concourse. That’s all we have seen of this incident, and yet a fan group whose membership numbers around 200 are now banned for six games, with this, the only evidence presented to the public.
The steward who committed this offence should be easily identifiable by his number which isn’t too hard to make out in the video.
I trust that, in the interests of fan safety and security, both the Celtic Board and Police Scotland will pursue this individual with the same aggressive attitude they pursue members of our own support.
Any less, is totally unacceptable.
Oh, who am I kidding, of course they won’t.
The kid’s parents have already put two complaints into Celtic about the incident and not even received a reply.
The footage was provided by North Curve Celtic, another fan group, separate from the Green Brigade but similar in many respects. They say that such instances are a regular occurrence in and around the standing section at Celtic Park.
They also highlight the fact that a number of other stewards including a supervisor can be seen in this video just standing back and doing nothing. This kind of behavior seems to have been normalized within the standing section of Celtic Park this season.
As I said in my piece about Dermot Desmond, our largest shareholder (not our owner) earlier today, perhaps the only way change will come at Celtic is when those in charge of the club are embarrassed into doing so.
Anyone who saw this behavior from a member of their staff and thought it was acceptable shouldn’t just be embarrassed, they should be utterly ashamed.