letters 106

free the Glasgow 6

Dear NTV,

TalkSPORT has joined the campaign to Free The Glasgow Six. The Free The Glasgow Six campaign believes that it was the fault of the air-crew and of course the fan who had a smoke but that the over-reaction was ridiculous.

Since launching the campaign talkSPORT has received a particularly detailed e-mail from one of the female passengers on board who says that it was a panicking air-hostess who was at the centre of the problems. She says that the air crew over -reacted.

Says Mike Parry, Co-host of the No Nonsense Sports Breakfast 'We've already had a fantastic response towards the campaign. We've been inundated with people who had been on the plane and who were outraged at being branded louts.We've also received a huge number of messages from Rangers fans supporting the Celtic boys. This is about football fans being treated in the usual shabby manner by authorities. Everyone knows that the Scottish fans are some of the best and friendliest in the World'

The full e-mail transcript from the female passenger is available at http://www.talksport.net/celtic.asp. We're asking talkSPORT listeners wanting to get behind the campaign to send their support to webmaster@talksport.co.uk.

A FREE THE GLASGOW SIX committee has now been formed by Peter Jordan. Jordan told talkSPORT listeners on Monday morning that he is Òplanning to organise a white hanky protest at the next Celtic game and to start involving MSPs, MPs and even Euro MPs.' He mentioned in particular that he is hoping that George Galloway, his constituency MP will be getting involved.

Regards,

Matt Davis
talkSPORT 1089/1053am
talkSPORT.net
18 Hatfields,
London,
SE1 8DJ

we should be so lucky

Dear NTV,

Firstly I'd ask for patience in my ramblings. I will get to a point I promise!

In the 'Godfather', at the meeting arranged after Sonny's death, Don Corleone calls a truce. He has accepted what has happened and asks for no retribution. He then goes on to say his other son Michael is in enforced hiding but when he brings him back if anything should happen to him he will not be so lenient. '....if he is struck by a bolt of lightning, I'm going to blame some of the men in this room'. As far as I can work out, he will not accept being unlucky as an excuse.

We went down 3:2 to Attilla's hordes at Ibrox in a game where I'm sure most Celtic fans like me (not quite so mad I'm sure) would agree we were more than unlucky. But when does this change?

Okay, that's not easy to answer and without question Martin O'Neill is the greatest Celtic Manager in my life of watching Celtic. But I for one will not accept being unlucky any more. I'm not suggesting Martin is making this excuse, but this is an overriding feeling I sense from Celtic supporters when we play TFOD.

We must get our act together and stop allowing them to look good. As far as I am concerned the vast majority of the goals they have scored against us of late have been defensive mistakes. As painful as it may be look at the goals of previous games again, am I the only one who can see De Boer and Moore all alone at the edge of our box just waiting for the ball? Or Konterman, of all people, in the semi-final of the League Cup. We seem to have a blind spot for the man at the edge of the box. This advice is something I used to hear a guy in the jungle say quite regularly 'Wake up and smell the coffee Celtic!'

IÕm off for more medication.

Respect

John 'Teflon Don' Gotti
aka Mark,
Lower East Side CSC
Saltcoats Branch

The joy of sects

Dear Sir,

The decision of the Scottish Executive to try and tackle the issue of sectarianism in Scottish society is to be welcomed. The difficulty now appears to be agreeing on definitions and forming a meaningful law that the courts can enforce.

The statement of Jack McConnell with regards to this helps to illustrate some of the problems this will throw up. He equated the anti-Catholic chant 'The Billy Boys' with the Irish ballad 'The Boys of the Old Brigade.' The latter song refers to the people who took part in the Irish Uprising of 1916. Many of these men went on to form the Irish Government. This song makes no reference to religion - it is akin to a song from the American war of Independence or even the Scottish patriotic ballad 'Flower of Scotland.'

Issues of Racism could be raised here in that the ethnic Irish Community of Scotland who form part of the Worldwide Irish Diaspora are having our songs, which have no religious content banned just to even things up. Ian McLeod of Celtic referred to these Irish songs as 'political' and I would say that is nearer the mark.

They may have no place at a football match but please don't equate them with sectarian chants.

Yours Sincerely

PATRICK McALEER
Chairman Irish Association Glasgow

new Celtic

Dear NTV,

I feel I had to turn to yourselves. Although I am not an avid visitor to the official Celtic web site, I did have a username and password. I tried to log in one day but to my dismay there was no record of my name or details. They did, however, prompt me to login again. After doing so I was proudly a member again as a registered follower of Glasgow Celtic. We do have a new look to the web site, which is good, but there is a definite change in tone.

Now there seems to be a lot of plugs for the World Huddle Club and, unlike before, you cannot just simply tune into the games live, you have to subscribe which will set you back £4.99 a month. I am a season ticket holder and shareholder, but come on Celtic, why are you fleecing the fans again? I refused to pay the £4.99 and will miss the games live.

This is a great shame or should I say sham and smacks of the Celtic PlC at its worst again, Making the fans pay.

Regards DAN P DOFF
by e-mail

saltire of the earth

Dear NTV, Just a quick letter to say keep up the good work with the fanzine. I feel it necessary to write and throw my weight behind a certain current argument.

My grandparents are from Eire and I am proud of my Irish roots. My father is Scottish and I regard myself a Scot. Having enjoyed both wins over Blackburn Rovers I was delighted to see the Scottish saltire proudly being displayed on both occasions. Surely there is room for both Irish and Scottish flags to be flown by the fans at Parkhead on a more regular basis.

Celtic are a Scottish club with Irish roots, and I was disgusted at Parkhead when we humped Aberdeen 7:0 to find some fans booing Flower of Scotland being sung vociferously by the Dons support. We embrace Ireland and it's about time some people also started to respect Celtic fans who support Scotland and are very proud to be Scottish.

Celtic's Scottish support should not be afraid of flying the saltire at any ground in Scotland. We are, after all, Scottish.

MIK HOLMES,
Blackburn

balls

Dear NTV, My Great Uncle (Albie Green [Forever]) came to visit my husband and I last week. After he left I realised he had left his NTV behind. We had a read and thought it was terrific but my husband thought something was missing and thought I could be the very person to remedy this.

You see, my married name is Ball. My husband's first name is Only Juan. My own first name is Cristal and I have the gift. I wonder, therefore, if you would be interested in me doing a regular astrological and horoscope column for you. We could call it The Cristal Ball and hopefully you will look into it.

As proof of my uncanny skills you will find enclosed with this letter a sealed envelope containing my forecasts for the Celtic and Rangers results for the fixtures on Wednesday 4th December 2002 . In case it goes missing, I forecast that Celtic will overcome Hibs eventually and win by 1:0. Rangers, on the other hand, will squander a substantial lead but will win a seven goal thriller. I have no idea how this will pan out (well I do actually... I'm just being modest) but hopefully you will be astounded and agree to tie the balls up as soon as possible.

We are well rounded people who enjoy hanging around but hate being squeezed into tight corners and if we are to be successful in this application we would have no objection to being handled by the right people.

At the time of writing the Sun is in the trash can - where it belongs - the Moon is in the crescent and should reach the main road by mid-morning, and for those of you who suffer from being on the cusp, it could be worse ... you could be on the commode.

I offer the foregoing merely as proof of my gift and knowledge of all things mystic (actually, that could also be a name for the column, Miss Tic - geddit?? Suit yourself).

In conclusion I will draw your attention to the current sign of the zodiac which is Sagittarius, represented by a half man, half horse. Which brings us nicely to Lorenzo Amoruso. Why is he like Red Rum? Well, if you lift up either of their pony tails you'll find a horse's arse underneath.

I trust my proposal will be of some interest and look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Actually, I know your decision, so up yours as well!

Yours in Celtic,
CRISTAL BALL
Glasgow