So UEFA have charged Celtic regarding The Green Brigade banners and ‘Illicit’ chants. The Green Brigade have now released a statement in response, covered in the article below.
It has been claimed in the printed media in particular since Thursday night’s encounter with SS Lazio that there is no place for politics in football. It’s what UEFA want to have us believe they strive for. For the media here it’s a stick they wish to use to beat The Green Brigade and in turn Celtic.
It’s often said Politics and football shouldn’t mix, but as with everything in life it’s almost impossible to separate politics from sport and football in particular. If it’s your politics and in the case of the Green Brigade message to Lazio Ultras, it is indeed my politics, you obviously find it far more palatable. With regard to the Green Brigade stance on the matter I’m 100% behind their actions.
They’ve long since described themselves as “a broad front of anti-fascist, anti-racist and anti-sectarian Celtic supporters”. The banners and messages to a Fascist element to the Lazio support visiting Glasgow and goose-stepping its way to Celtic Park was an entirely balanced response. It was expected from a Left leaning supporters group and it was welcomed by many in the Celtic support.
Football has regularly been hijacked by the Right Wing and the popularity of the sport seized upon. Mussolini himself used the 1930’s Italy team for his own political ends. Franco used and abused Real Madrid to further his own political ends in Spain and The Argentinian 1978 World Cup was overtaken for the use of Propaganda by the military Junta that had swept to power in 1976.
Now the left side of that spectrum does not sit at the back of the bus. For every Franco controlled Real Madrid there is a Rayo Vallecano in Spain standing firm. In Italy for every Lazio there is the counter, left leaning AS Livorno. In Germany St Pauli stand up to Hamburg. In Argentina it is Boca to River Plate. In Israel it is Hapoel Tel Aviv to just about every other club. In Scotland Celtic are that left leaning club.
You cannot remove Politics from football. It is a predominately working class sport. Many clubs themselves grew from working class origins. Those who watched it historically came from hard working manual labour jobs. They escaped a tough, poor living conditions and the torturous working week by going with likeminded people to watch their football club, sing their songs and celebrate their culture through football. This has been replicated over every continent into the complex web of football clubs and cultures we have today. These cultures regularly clash ideologically.
Football is politics it cannot be separated or left at the door entirely. The clubs these communities formed came to represent their town and cities, people and beliefs. As such Politics is entirely intertwined into football culture.
Let’s not pretend UEFA actually care about this. They know fine well politics is so engrained in our game.
What they want to protect is not the sanctity of the game at all. Instead it is more the overflowing coffers filled by sponsors who do not wish to have their brands associated with anything other than the 90 minutes shown to a worldwide TV audience broken only for advertising breaks that they wish to ‘protect’.
UEFA and the sponsors want a sanitised, palatable version of football beamed into our living rooms, a version that is often at odds with what is happening on the terraces and in the stands, the genuine roots of the game. That’s what they are protecting or at least paying lip service to.
Celtic will not have stadium closures or partial closures for the Green Brigades banners and songs. What they will get is a fine, if that.
Politically UEFA know fine well that to link the publicity of a stadium closure, partial or otherwise would in some way court accusations that they are legitimising the requests and as such the politics of the right wing Mussolini granddaughter, Italian politician Alessandra who has been calling for action against Celtic.
Once again UEFA’s corporate brands won’t want to be linked with that either. Not a chance.
If right wing xenophobia is SS Lazio’s supporter’s political stance then they are entitled to hold it in a free society. As ignorant, divisive and sinister as their views are to me you can’t stop them holding them. You can only hope the long game of education eradicates it eventually and that the authorities deal with it when its illegality is clear. In Glasgow the authorities chose to ignore that.
When Lazio fans minority or otherwise choose to exhibit their political leanings so publicly. That they wish to visit foreign destinations and foist their ignorance on a City and its people so manifestly, then on top if it the authorities allow them free rein to chant and Nazi salute their way to a football match, straight through a peaceful environment, and without challenge then I have no question they should be challenged in some other way.
That is what the Green Brigade did. They met fascist right wing politics with their left wing politics. Not everyone can leave such behaviour unchallenged.
You could ignore it, simply meet it with indifference and many would believe that is indeed the way forward, or you can call it out. The Green Brigade chose the latter. They didn’t attack, they didn’t throw missiles or fight in the street. They publicly showed through banners, chants and songs their political leanings were at odds with their rivals. Peaceful protest if you will.
Politically clubs are often at odds with each other all over Europe and beyond. The Right Wing have often been vocal and powerful, regularly hijacked and used for propaganda purposes. The Left hold a mirror to them and show them their archaic views are not held by all and that they never will be. The Green Brigade did just that. When that is done in the form of protest and peacefully then its clear politics and football should mix.
You cannot remove politics from football. Football is much, much more than the game on the pitch. It will always be this way as long as supporters sing from the stands and remember their history.
As long as that remains then football and politics will remain intrinsically linked.
Niall J
INFO TICKETS LAZIO-CELTIC
From tomorrow, Friday 1 November, starting at 11 am, the sale of the tickets will begin, both online and in stores, to attend the match on Thursday 7 November at 6.55pm between Lazio and Celtic at the Stadio Olimpico. pic.twitter.com/CLRq9Atv6s— The Italian Celts CSC (@ItalianCeltsCSC) October 31, 2019
For any Celtic fans coming to Rome, we have arranged a mass in St Ignazio in the centre of Rome at 9 o’clock on the morning of the match, this has been arranged by us at the Scots college, this is a great chance for Scots in Rome to have mass together before the game !DajeCeltic
— Colm Martin (@ColumMartin) October 31, 2019
