CELTIC VS NEWCASTLE UNITED: AN UNFORTUNATE REALITY OF MODERN, MONEY-DRIVEN FOOTBALL
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 41 minutes ago
- 3 min read
If rumors circulating today are true, Celtic will play a pre-season friendly Vs Newcastle United at Celtic Park ahead of the start of next season.
If they haven’t already started, I expect a string of editorials in the newspapers over the next few days condemning Celtic for accepting “Blood Money from The Saudis” or other such hyperbolae.
Celtic vs Newcastle United is About the Fans and the Players, Not the Owners
Let’s just get something straight before me move forward with this discussion. I’ll take no lectures from fans or journalistic enablers of Rangers about human rights violations or religious intolerance.
The crimes committed by the leaders of Saudi Arabia are well-documented, as is their financial holding in Newcastle United.
None of that is the fault of Newcastle United’s fans, a group for whom I have a lot of respect.
Newcastle United have a huge fanbase, and one of the few stadiums in the English Premier League that still has some semblance of an atmosphere on a matchday.
I think it’s all the more impressive to see such passion and such support for a team that, with the greatest of respect, very rarely wins anything.
Much like Glasgow, Newcastle is a predominantly working-class city, and that is reflected in the outlook of their supporters.
We can debate about ownership all-day but the fact is that the average Celtic fan will have far more in common with the average Geordie than either of us will ever have with the Saudi Royal Family, or the Celtic Board.
I look forward to seeing such passionate, warm and friendly supporters coming to Celtic Park, and I hope it will be a great day for all.
We shouldn’t ignore the atrocious human rights record of Saudi Arabia, or the toxic influence their seemingly limitless financial resources have had on football worldwide over the past decade or so.
These are debates that need to be had, and there is a time and place for them.
However, as I said, I won’t listen to any lectures from Rangers or their affiliates in the media in this regard.
Stop glorifying in the historic murder of Catholics; stop chanting mockingly about the famine/genocide in Ireland in the 19th century, then we’ll talk.
And let’s not forget, all that aside, Rangers are a club whom, at time of writing continue to desperately whore themselves to potential investors from the US.
The head of this US consortium, Andrew Cavenagh, made his millions in private healthcare, an industry to profits directly from the misery, suffering and death of thousands of Americans every year.
These aren’t the sort of people I’ll ever concede a moral high-ground to and neither should you.
I’d rather Celtic didn’t have to play “glamor” friendlies against teams from countries with so much blood on their hands.
But that’s enough about England.
In all seriousness though, the Saudi government has no business owning a football club in the UK, but the reality is they do. That’s not the supporters or the players’ fault.
Also, we can’t ignore the blatant double standards here.
The same people who will no doubt use this game as a stick to beat Celtic with over the next few weeks, are the very same ones who say nothing while Israeli teams continue to compete in Europe without sanction.
If you’re going to ban Russia for similar crimes, then you need to be consistent. Personally, I don’t like the idea of holding any football team, or group of individual athletes responsible for the crimes of their government.
After all, I certainly wouldn’t take too kindly to being blamed for the crimes of the Tory government over the past decade or so, and I doubt you would either.
That is however a side issue, and certainly one where I can see both sides of the debate.
Anyway, this game seems like it will happen regardless of what I or anyone else says. If anyone feels the need to protest that, then that’s their prerogative.
As I’ve already said, all I ask for is consistency.
But consistency, fairness, and balance doesn’t sell newspapers or draw clicks these days, does it?