For Fan Media attending Celtic press conferences, something strange is going on under our noses and no-one seems to know for sure what is actually happening.
For the last two media conferences, ahead of the games against Alloa and Hearts, Celtic have chosen to cut the Fan media questions from the version of the press conference that the club posts on You Tube, Celtic TV and Social Media.
Ahead of the game against Hibs, The Celtic Star attended the media conferences with Ange Postecoglou and Greg Taylor, asked two questions, received the answers and these duly appeared on the Celtic Media Conference videos when they were released, alongside all the other questions asked by the Mainstream Media, as you’d expect.
The fan media questions to the Celtic manager tend to come at the end of the media conference and every question has been of real interest and value, we hope you’ll agree. You can certainly see that Ange enjoys the interaction with the supporters, his answers are detailed, he appears engaged and his responses are longer than his usually brief replies to the MSM – and are always very well received among the Celtic support.
The Celtic Star asked Ange for his assessment of his first six months in charge and what we could expect from the rest of the season, we also wanted to acknowledge the excellent work that Michael Nicholson has done delivering the signing targets early in the transfer window. The answers to these questions not only appeared on the Celtic video but also formed the subject matter for a headline soon after on the official Celtic website. So far so good? Well, something changed from that point on.
Moving on to the Media Conference ahead of the game against Alloa, the fan media questions were asked and answered but mysteriously were not included in the club’s video. Nothing controversial was asked. One question concerned fans being back in the ground at the Hibs game, Ange compared the excitement to his kids on Christmas Day, and again that was featured as a story on the official Celtic FC Website at the weekend. As such for it not to be included on the club video was strange omission you might say.
🗣Pre Match Presser
At todays Alloa Press Conference we asked Ange to let us know what Celtic do to help new signings settle in at the club
He spoke about the appointment of Liaison Officers to help them settle and his own experience of moving across the world
Listen below 🔽 pic.twitter.com/tfXiW6POBc
— 4 Tims and a Podcast (@PodTims) January 21, 2022
Couple of GIGPOD questions today that were answered by the manager alongside the @PodTims lads who had a cracking question for Ange too! https://t.co/aflGUcTtzp
— Glasgow is Green Podcast🟢⚪️ (@gigpod) January 21, 2022
Here’s the version of the pre-match press conference ahead of the game against Alloa that Celtic released…with no fan media questions and answers…
The way Celtic have been working this should be explained. The club have a list of participating fan media sites and podcasts who are rotated for the pre-match and post-match media conferences. They join the mainstream media and for the pre-match events get the last two questions. The MSM have recording access for the conferences whereas the fan media folk do not. Instead, the club send an AUDIO file out to the fan media.
Now in the case of The Celtic Star, we received this after the Hibs game, but it wasn’t really much use to us and we simply reported and shared from the Celtic You Tube video. Uncontroversial, no issue at all with this from our end. Here’s the media conference with Ange ahead of the Hibs game.
However, by excluding the fan media content from the pre-match conferences over the last two games this has led to some controversy and maybe some unintended consequences. Last night the BBC posted a video as a news story where Ange challenged the refereeing standards on Saturday and said he told some of his players not to bother going into challenges as they were not getting the necessary protection from the match official.
🗣️ ‘I told some of the lads towards the end to just not bother going into tackles and to just look after themselves…’
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou says his side were not getting proper protection from the referee and feared further injuries against Alloa Athletic ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/bddEfFEbBN
— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) January 25, 2022
Then, the 20-Minute-Tims-Podcast re-posted the link from the BBC, pulling them up for not crediting them for the question. In the BBC’s defence the person asking the question at these conferences is not always clear and the news was in the answer from Ange.
Thanks to @BBCSportScot for clipping our question from press conference and not crediting us.
We’ll ask the important questions. You stick to the injury updates 👍🏼 pic.twitter.com/GmKJM1iSZq
— 20 Minute Tims (@20MinuteTims) January 25, 2022
Now anyone watching that video clip on Twitter and subsequently hearing Ange Postecoglou’s remarks, after the thuggery at the weekend was allowed to go unpunished by referee Don Robertson, will have been forgiven for thinking that this was part of the media conference (it was) and also the video of the media conference that was earlier in the day released by Celtic – spoiler alert, it wasn’t.
So, on the official site this morning the content from the fan media side of the media conference with Ange made the main story for the third match in a row – Hibs, Alloa and now Hearts. Yet the strange thing is that this content which shows Celtic hitting out at the referees isn’t actually featured on the club’ video. Did the official site not realise this when putting together the article? We’ll probably never know.
🗣️ “You want referees to provide that protection for both sets of players, both from deliberate actions but sometimes just by reckless action.”🍀
Ange Postecoglou is looking for protection for his players👇
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) January 26, 2022
However, it’s tough on the sites and podcasts from the fan media to go through the process only to find that they’ve been edited out of the club video – with no explanation at all being given from the club. And given that the content that the fan media questions generate for the club, surely the media conference videos are weakened by these unexplained exclusions?
For Celtic to then run with that story themselves this morning on the website and via social media, having cut it from the You Tube broadcast is very strange indeed.
It certainly could be the case of course that the website team did not realise the editing out of the fan media had actually happened. However, on one hand it looks like Ange’s quotes weren’t fit for supporter consumption served up through the club – a back to the old days approach – yet on the other hand when the BBC ran with their version, the club then ran with Ange’s defence of the players on social media and on the website, and perhaps by complete accident, this has resulted in the club coming out all guns blazing against the standard of refereeing in Sottish football.
More protection for our players may be needed in the future and Ange Postecoglou’s calling out refereeing standards is a good start, but is it a welcome change of tack from the club itself, or did the club try to try to bury the perceived controversy and then back-track when it became public?
I guess the best way to put those doubts to bed, would be to get back to Fan Media questions being included in the social media and You Tube output, then the perception of censorship could be laid to rest and perhaps confusion with the hard working teams at Celtic avoided!
Well done to the fan media crew for continuing to highlight the refereeing problems in Scottish football, The Celtic Star marked Ange’s card on this on day one.
Niall J
