Fan protest (Covid-compliant)

There is understandable anger and concern among Celtic supporters which has led to a couple of spontaneous protests.  While these were, overwhelmingly, responsible and orderly, there is potential for this understandable anger to spill over and for our fans to become vulnerable to arrest.  Moreover, we are still in the middle of a pandemic and there is a health risk from gatherings of any kind.  On that basis, the Celtic Trust, in recognising that these protests are very likely to continue, have decided to call for a Covid-compliant, organised protest to convey the concerns of the fans to the Club.

Perhaps there will be those who think we should keep quiet and say nothing given the sensitivities around the footballing issues and the health issues, however, we take the view that fan organisations should show leadership in situations like this and that is what we propose to do.

We should make absolutely clear that the Celtic Trust has never, and never will, condone violence or the abuse of employees of the Club.  A robust expression of views is, however, a part of football and cannot/should not be suppressed.

Therefore, we have liaised with the Club and with the police and we are now calling on those fans who wish to protest to come to The Celtic Way on Sunday 13^th December at 1pm and at no other time.

We urge those who wish to come to follow the guidance carefully:

• Please do not travel from outside Glasgow
• Please wear a face mask (face masks will be available from our stewards)
• Please stand 2m apart in the marked spaces
• Please follow instructions from our stewards
• Please do everything necessary to keep yourselves and others safe

We recognise that there will be mixed feelings on this but please be assured that our aim is to ensure that the Celtic support can express their views safely and to avoid spontaneous demonstrations in which our fans are vulnerable to arrest or becoming ill.