Celtic have confirmed that the club’s working relationship with the Celtic fan media will continue this season, after declaring themselves very happy with the way in which the groundbreaking policy that started last summer has turned out.
There were some concern inside the club about the plan to open up the media events to Celtic fan media and despite one or two hiccups during the season – mostly to do with some footage being used in breach of the agreement by some of the sites – Celtic have confirmed that they are pleased with how the working relationship has worked out and are happy to continue with it for the new season.
This means that Celtic fan media will have access to the first team, Women’s team and the Celtic B Team for the new season. And it looks like Fran Alonso and Tommy McIntyre’s sides will continue to play their home matches at Airdrie’s Penny Car Stadium, despite the talk last season about finding a new venue closer to Celtic Park in order to increase the support at these matches.
Celtic have confirmed that the club are happy to continue the working relationship with the Celtic fan media and have outlined what this will involve:
For the coming season we will be operating a similar arrangement to last year:
Just to confirm that we would aim to provide the following media opportunities for fan media:
‘All in’ group Fan Media Conferences
* All in Fan Media conferences with key Club staff / players on an ad hoc basis.
* Twice a season Fan Media event with the Manager
* Fan Media one off events around key club activities
The way the first team media conferences work is that two representatives are selected from the Celtic Fan Media on a rotating basis to attend either the pre-match media conferences, usually with the manager Ange Postecoglou and a first team player and the same thing happens for the post match media conferences for home games at Celtic Park.
The fan media representatives at these home games sit in their usual seats at the game before making their way after the game to the front door at Celtic Park to gain access to the post-match media conference.
The pre-match media conferences have previously been done via Zoom due to the pandemic but this is likely to change this season with some of the conferences being ‘in person’.
Here’s what the club has had to say about the Celtic fan media and why they use a rotation policy regarding access.
“The Celtic fan media landscape is rich, diverse and has numerous outlets, however, around matches, as recognised in our feedback sessions, we cannot accommodate everyone at once. The fairest approach we believe therefore will be to allow access on a rotational basis, meaning as many outlets as possible receive fair access across the season.
“Fan media are non rights holders to all first team, B team and Women Team matches. This means that no one should broadcast from Celtic Park or film the field of play with videos being posted on your Channels. This happened a few times last year at both Women and B team matches with goals being posted on twitter channels and live reporting from Penny Cars. As non-rights holders, this is not permitted.”
A feature of the media conferences last year with Ange Postecoglou was the way that the manager would open up more to the last two questions of each pre-match conference which would be from the Celtic fan media rather than the mainstream hacks. Ange provided some of his most informative and interesting responses to the fan media with the manager well aware that he was now speaking to a Celtic supporter and thereafter directly to the Celtic support.
It’s also worth noting that many of these fan media questions and Ange’s answers made the headlines in the mainstream media.
The final point on this news is to note that the club have received numerous requests from other fan media outlets who were not involved last season, all wishing to join in. The plan is to stick with the sites – including The Celtic Star – who were involved last season but to try to open the access up to some of the new sites throughout the season.
