KILMARNOCK FC Director Billy Bowie has been speaking to the Scottish Sun about the controversial incidents that happened at Rugby Park on Sunday but didn’t admit that he is charging Celtic supporters up to DOUBLE the price that visiting Motherwell fans will pay next Wednesday when they visit Rugby Park – see The Celtic Star’s story on this HERE.
“The Celtic directors apologised after the game,” Billy Bowie said to the paper.
“They were embarrassed by what happened with their fans and they did apologise to me personally.
“I don’t doubt for a minute that Celtic will be taking action against those responsible.”
Bowie never revealed whether or not he had asked Celtic to pay for the damage to the seats at the front of the stand, and whether or not Celtic had refused to pay the costs involved in replacing these seats.
Had he asked Celtic and if the Celtic directors had REFUSED then Bowie would be perfectly entitled to shout about this in his grandstanding statement released last night. But as that statement makes clear, there are rules in place which mean that Celtic are obliged to pay for the damage to the seats anyway.
The paper highlighted this point writing: “Under SPFL rule H40, Celtic will automatically foot the bill to fix the damage caused by fans, to the dismay of Hoops chief executive Peter Lawwell.”
Bowie continued: “When you are showing a good game of football live on TV, stuff like that does spoil it.
“But again, it’s the minority. There are a lot of clever fans out there, but a minority is to blame.
“There is a lot of criticism about stewarding and policing and we need to look at what happened on Sunday.
“But the main thing for us is the safety of fans. We will be having meetings this week to decide on a way forward.”
Do you remember the game at Pittodrie in the Invincible season when Celtic were 3 goals up after about 12 minutes played? I was seated in one of the front rows at that game with my son – wee Jay Beattie was in just in front of us.
The three Celtic goals were scored at the end nearest to where the away support are situated and the players came over to celebrate each goal with The Celtic support. The surge got bigger after each goal and seats in our area were damaged. It was crazy, probably pretty dangerous but an amazing quarter of an hour or so in that remarkable season.
The point is these seats were damaged in the surge of fans celebrating a goal or three. It happens. There are rules in place to deal with it. You point out to the visiting club, show them photos, invite them over to inspect the damage before they leave your ground and send them the bill.
Did Aberdeen release a statement about this? No of course not.
Billy Bowie is just sick that Celtic scored that goal and won the match.
