When the Sydney Super Cup was first mentioned at the start of this year there was certainly some disquiet among our support that Celtic were allowing theRangers to hang onto our coat-tails, in a similar way that they do as they desperately want to be co-branded as the defunct Old Firm – remember those embarrassing banners that they displayed back in April at Ibrox?
When it became clear that theRangers fans saw the danger in their latest club being exposed on the World stage as Celtic’s global reach as a football club dwarfed their own, The Celtic fans sat back and watched the fall-out as their supporters protested then theRangers board had to go back on their contractual agreement to participate in the Sydney Super Cup.
That cost them around £3m in lost income and there could be a further cost in settling any legal dispute that might be coming their way after they pulled out of the Sydney competition after they were announced as contracted participants.
Ange Postecoglou’s first media conference after the Sydney Super Cup was announced was post match after a home game against St Mirren and the hacks were certainly keen to stroke the flames that night. The Celtic Star was there and we asked The Celtic manager if Celtic should also be considering heading to Japan to play some games to capitalise on the rekindled interest in the country after his arrival as Celtic manager from the J-League and with four Japanese players now at Celtic.
Ange said that time constraints on this month’s trip to Australia prevented that from happening at the moment but Celtic touring Japan was very much under consideration.
Ange returned to this subject before Celtic left him behind in Australia to enjoy a week’s working holidat back home in Melbourne. Asked if heading to Japan was still part of the wider plan for Celtic, Ange confirmed that it was.
“Absolutely. I know how big a market that is as well. That’s not me driving it, that’s Michael (Nicholson) and Chris (McKay) and the commercial and management team.
“They understand it but we have to buy into it as a football department. We have to acknowledge it helps us in the long run. Sure, it puts some extra demands and it would have been easier to give the boys an extra week off,” Ange stated, as reported by Celtic Way. “This has been an important week for the football club. That’s how big clubs operate and that’s what we have to want to be.
“That’s what we are, we just need to be disciplined about what we do and not get side-tracked by other things if we are to be the club we know we can be.”
Expect Celtic to be heading to Japan maybe at the end of this season.
