Oh John Collins: the former Celtic assistant boss, who wants a Director of Football role, may have talked himself out a job.
The former Scotland international, who has been talking to everyone over the last week, said that stadium bans should be issued to rebelling supporters.
There are very clear concerns about groups of Celtic and Rangers fans congregating this weekend. The Glasgow Derby may have the sting taken out on a footballing level. However, rivals sets of supporters have been, as ever, goading each other like any other season.
There’s no such thing as an unimportant Glasgow Derby, after all.
Government discussions and messages from each club have been publicised in the run-up to Sunday’s fixture. As a member of the commentariat, with one eye on a job at Celtic, Collins has waded in. Don’t get us wrong, he was a fantastic player for Celtic. But these comments, lumping us in with our much-maligned rival supporters, won’t do him any huge favours.
Collins told BBC Sportsound‘s Podcast last night:
“I think the clubs can do more.
“If the clubs made a statement: “any fan identified outside the football stadium will be banned from the football stadium for a year, and all football stadia”.
“I think that one statement from a club official would really hit home with any fan that loves going along in that stadium.
“It’s a really difficult situation the police are in. They’re in a no-win situation.”
John Collins at risk of alienating Celtic supporters with latest comments
To be fair to Collins, he’s right on one level. The clubs need to do everything they can. Celtic need to try to convince supporters not to put us into the “rampant fans” narrative.
That’s all fair enough, and for the record, it’d be great if this match could simply pass without incident. It’d be more than frustrating if Celtic supporters gave authorities, rival fans and pundits a stick to beat us with.
However, when we talk about the match being under threat, it’s not because of us. It wasn’t Celtic supporters marauding through Glasgow without masks last week. It wasn’t us that did thousands of pounds of damage to George Square. Celtic supporters are relevant to the discussion as, yes, the club happen to be involved in the Derby.
It may sound petty or partisan. Two things though: John Collins should really try to urge that distinction. Secondly, “petty” and “partisan” aren’t negative words in the context of Scottish football.
Calling for potential stadium bans for Celtic supporters isn’t just heavy-handed. It’s the kind of thing that’ll turn supporters off Collins, who has said he wants to be the club’s Director of Football. If it were a democratic process, the guy’s poll ratings would surely tank.
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