letters 115

supporter on the board

Dear NTV,

Why exactly are the Celtic board so against a supporters representative being elected to join them? What possible harm could arise from having a supporters representative elected on an annual basis to the board?

Perhaps there wouldn't be a spare seat in the centre stand to accommodate him/her and the current trustees of the club in their devotion to Prudence might view the cost of putting in an extra comfy chair to the Centre Stand as being one financial investment too far?

A definite them and us split between board and support is becoming increasingly evident. While the current board are a huge improvement on the incumbents before the McCann revolution, there is a belief among many of us that they view us as being like Victorian children i.e. we should be seen but not heard.

They are happy to glory in the accolades handed out to the support as witnessed in the award made to the Celtic fans by UEFA before the Lyon game. That reflects well on the club so the board make the appropriate noises. They are also happy to take, take, take what we spend, spend, spend in the name of Celtic. Season tickets, Celtic Pools, Half time raffle, Celtic shops, Superstore, catalogues.

It would appear that they don't doubt our economic competence then.

We don't necessarily want a supporters representative to be privy to all that happens at boardroom level. A belief that the board were appreciative of the supporters would be nice. A link between an annually elected supporters representative and the directors would be a positive signal that we are viewed as more than just cash fodder. Such a post would be token in nature.

No one is asking the directors to give up power. All we ask is that they give some credence to the views of the supporters.

GROUCHO MARX
by e-mail

special request

Dear NTV,

Lapped up the Snake Mountain result. Was the pop tune being played on the PA system at the end 'Bring Back My Sweet L.A. (Bailley's Remix)? I need to know!!! Rewind if you have it on video.

BG FARQUHARSON
by e-mail

late challenge

Dear NTV,

While I've no complaints about Bobo's sending off against Hibs at Easter Road I do wonder at the lack of comment on the late challenge made on him by the Hibs forward Scott Brown. If this had been the other way round and Brown had been sent off for retaliating after a late challenge from Bobo would the press coverage have been the same? I can't help but believe in that case they would have focused on Bobo's late challenge rather than the retaliation.

Interesting how many more column inches were devoted to Bobo's sending off compared to the other recipients of red cards that day. How long till the this racist campaign against Bobo by the Scottish media drives him away?

By the way, did anybody listen to James Traynor on Radio Scotland's phone in the evening after the Hibs match? He claimed that Petrov dived and it was never a penalty. As an employee of the BBC and thus paid by our licence fee contributions surely the least we can expect from this clown is that he at least tries to be impartial.

Hail Hail
GEORGE
Edinburgh

finger the real culprits

Dear NTV,

It seems quite ironic to read that the SFA and Tayside Police are to investigate an alleged gesture made by Neil Lennon towards Dundee supporters.

Even if we leave aside the detail that football supporters seem to believe it is their right to attack players with continual verbal abuse throughout matches, but that they should be protected by the forces of law and order should the player react, there is another point to consider. When one considers that UEFA have imposed fines on nations whose football supporters have inflicted racial abuse on coloured players representing England it is interesting to consider the inaction of the SFA in the long running abuse of Neil Lennon.

Here we have a footballer who has suffered abuse at every ground in Scotland since arriving in the country. Forget the argument that this is because he is annoying / dirty / has bleached his hair / likes going out. Scottish football has been littered with such individuals.

The abuse of Lennon is based purely on his nationality, his religion and the team he represents. It seems that a Northern Irish Roman Catholic who plays for Celtic is fair game for the bigoted element in Scottish society. At nearly every ground in Scotland Lennon is booed whenever he touches the ball and he has allegedly been attacked in the street. Incredibly, after signing for Celtic, he received death threats purporting to be from a terrorist group which forced him to retire from international football. Eventually Lennon reacts and after almost three years of no action having been taken by the SFA, the police, stewards, chairmen or the press suddenly Lennon is being asked to explain his actions.

I hope Lennon in so doing also asks why the SFA has never tackled the sectarianism and bigotry to which he has been subjected.

Now that Craig Levein has proved that this organisation acts outwith its boundaries it is perhaps time we ask whether Scottish football is being properly governed.

Yours faithfully,
JOHN McVEY
Edinburgh

can't stand up for lying down

Dear NTV,

I noticed that Martin O'Neill was at a bit of a loss to understand why it was Chris Sutton had his arse hung out to dry for his comments after the Kilmarnock game while Christian Dailly becomes almost a national hero in the papers after calling the German players 'f'ing cheats' live on air (leaving his manager like one of those parents you sometimes see trying to control their four year olds in the car park at Safeway).

Apparently Gordon Waddell from one of the crap papers justified this by saying that Sutton had time to consider his words while Dailly's were in the heat of the moment. Strange considering that Sutton was still in his playing gear (if my memory serves me correctly) when he gave the interview obviously at the end of a traumatic week and after witnessing Kilmarnock doing all they could (within and outwith the rules) to prevent Celtic getting the goals they needed.

I also heard a story that the Celtic players were greeted in the tunnel by Alan Mahood (remember he broke Maloney's ankle) singing 'championeez'. Sutton apparently lost the rag at this point. It will be interesting to see if Mahood is on the park when we next meet that mob.

It will also be interesting to see what action, if any, is taken against big Eck the next time he makes a less than subtle hint that Aberdeen only really play four games a season and those are against Rangers. Does that mean the cat is suggesting they 'lie down', to use Chris Sutton's words, to everybody else?

Yours lying down
VITOR BAIAAAARGH!!
The Treatment Room

lynch mob

Dear NTV,

Last year many of the 'experts' who make a living writing in the sports pages of the Scottish fish wrappers condemned Celtic for selling Simon Lynch to Preston North End. How short-sighted of Celtic they said. How could MON allow such a young talent to move on? This decision would come back to haunt the club.

This refusal to allow 'talented' young players first team opportunities illustrated all that was wrong with the Old Firm. How could football in Scotland prosper if such 'promising' young talent had to move to the English 1st division to further their careers?

How ironic to read reports in Friday's papers stating that young Mr. Lynch felt he needed to move from Preston - at best a mid table English 1st division team - to further his career as he was getting so few games for the first team. How surprising that there were no enraged comments from Scottish football 'journalists' bemoaning Lynch's lack of first team opportunities.

I couldn't help but wonder if this was the very same player that large sections of the Scottish Fish Wrappers had been criticising Celtic for transferring just a few months earlier. Celtic should give him a run in the first team they said; conveniently forgetting to say who from Larsson, Sutton or Hartson should be dropped to accommodate him.

One wonders if it has ever crossed the minds of our footy journalists that perhaps the reason Lynch didn't get regular first team games at either Celtic or Preston was simply that he wasn't good enough. I know this is a controversial statement but sometimes I can't help but believe that MON knows more about football than all those football 'journalists' who write for our Fish Wrappers put together.

THE SCOUT
by e-mail

revisionism

Dear NTV,

I have thought for a long time that the Huns and their allies in the media have successfully conned the people of Scotland (and elsewhere) by lumping Celtic in with them and talking of 'Old Firm' sectarianism, despite the fact that only one of the clubs operated a sectarian employment policy, or made an issue of religious affiliation.

Childish though it may sound, I feel that the Huns have got away with it - the Scottish media didn't take them to task when they operated their no-Catholics policy, and now that they appear to have abandoned it, the media feel it isn't an issue - and I'd like to see them squirm through having to justify their past (or apologise for it).

his revisiting of a part of their history should be forced on the Huns by any journalist worth his salt, but our media seem more interested in sweeping the issue under the carpet, or taking refuge in blaming both 'sides'.

Is there nothing that we Celtic fans can do to force the media to take the issue seriously, and get at least some justice? It seems to me that Celtic fans have often been good campaigners. I would really love to see a book published or, better still, a TV programme broadcast, which thoroughly investigated this aspect of Rangers' past, and displayed it to a wider audience in all its gory detail. It might uncover why the sectarian policy was introduced, how it worked (how did they weed out suspected Catholics? How did they rectify mistakes? Did it extend to all employees, not just playing staff? Did it extend to players' spouses?, etc.), how well it was supported by players and fans, why it was abandoned, and how the Huns feel about it now.

Most of all, I'd like to see the smug looks wiped of their faces for a while. Does anyone know a crusading investigative reporter?

Thanks for letting me get this rant off my chest. I'm off for a wee lie down now.

Yours, etc.
GRANT LAMB
Fife

bully boys

Dear NTV,

They are easily wound up, the average Huns, but still can't resist it. I have downloaded the Jim Bowen 'Bullseye' theme tune to my mobile, and play it every time I pass one of them wearing that crypto Sunderland top they all seem to fancy themselves in. 'Now let's look at what ye could've won'. You can't beat a bit of Bully, Billy!

Yours Sincerely
JOHN CLEMENTS
by e-mail

silly billies

Dear NTV,

It always amuses me to hear the supporters of Rangers sing the Billy Boys song, followed swiftly by Rule Britannia. The Billy Boys, as surely we all know, were founded by William Fullerton, founder of the Scottish Ku Klux Klan and the Fascist movement in Scotland. He was so loyal to the Crown he refused to fight the Germans in WW2 and was incarcerated in Barlinnie for his troubles.

How then can you possibly have the Billy Boys and Rule Britannia in your repertoire? Could it be that the most odious fans in the world are also the most ill-informed? Yours etc.

WILLIAM TELL THE FACTS
by e-mail