Enough is enough, time for action as glass bottle thrown at Celtic goalkeeper

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The Celtic Star

·5 maggio 2025

Enough is enough, time for action as glass bottle thrown at Celtic goalkeeper

We’ve seen and heard it all before, when will the governing body and the authorities act? It’s happening every single time Celtic go to Ibrox and it’s not going to stop unless action is taken…

The Celtic Board and guests at Ibrox. theRangers v Celtic, 4 May 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

A sewer pit of hatred perfectly

Ibrox was yesterday yet again the usual sewer pit of hatred perfectly, illustrated by the home support with their vulgar banners and illicit racist chanting throughout the entirety of the Glasgow Derby. More alarmingly, one of our players subjected to objects being aimed in their direction thrown once again for the known racists – as confirmed recently by UEFA – in the Copeland Road stand.

OneFootball Video

Viljami Sinisalo was the unfortunate player who was the target of Scotland’s Shame within the Ibrox support in the wake of Celtic’s equaliser when a glass Buckfast bottle was aimed in his direction. This was clearly shown on television and here’s an image of the bottle being removed by one of theRangers subs.

Rangers substitute Neraysho Kasanwirjo runs on to the pitch to throw items off the pitch that appear to have been thrown into the Celtic penalty area during the second half of the match. theRangers v Celtic, Scottish Premiership, Ibrox. Sunday 04 May 2025. Photo Stuart Wallace/Shutterstock

Enough is enough

This latest flashpoint echoes the incident three years ago at the same venue, the one that seen Joe Hart exposed to harm when broken glass was scattered across his penalty area just before the restart in a 2-1 win for the hoops. The very same game in which the club physio was scarred for life after being struck with a bottle thrown by a thug in the Ibrox Main stand – the culprit who is currently residing at His Majesty’s pleasure was seated in the corporate area!

And in our last visit in January, despite them winning the match comfortably, Arne Engels was struck on the head by a coin of the same value that their former club was sold for to Craig Whyte, and objects were also thrown at Brendan Rodgers that day.

A Celtic supporter’s head split open at Ibrox after being hit by a Buckfast bottle at Ibrox.

So it is beyond reasonable doubt that this is becoming something of a regular theme at Ibrox throughout the years of Celtic dominance with our players, coaching staff and supporters being subjected to the thuggish unruly behaviour of theRangers support in the form of missiles and even being confronted face to face by pitch invading ‘supporters’ as happened a few years back with Scott Brown.

No one should be subjected to that sort of intimidation, abuse and violence at their place of work

No one should be subjected to that sort of intimidation, abuse and violence at their place of work and footballers are no certainly no different. And their employers have also a duty of care to their staff and they should accordingly be doing something about it. Enough is enough.

Recently a Rangers supporter who plead guilty to throwing a bottle at Matt O’Riley last season after he scored for Celtic at Ibrox last season, avoided a prison sentence and instead was given a small fine. That was a chance for the courts to send a message. That chance was missed and we saw the consequences yesterday.

Celtic physio Daniel Friel was scarred for life after being hit by a glass through from a Rangers fan in the corporate area of the Main Stand at Ibrox. Photo The Celtic Star

A statement from theRangers amid investment negotiations

Last night theRangers issued a statement condemning the actions and rightly so, but we’ve seen and heard it all before and you can bet your life that nothing will be done to stop it happening again. They failed to condemn previous incidents mentioned above, so the cynic in you might think that this out-break of doing the right thing is more to do with safeguarding their potential investment deal rather than anything else.

Arne Engels hit by coins at Ibrox

Doing nothing is not an option

The Governing body and the authorities need to get their act together and start imposing sanctions on the Ibrox club before one of our players gets seriously injured. And I will say it again, Celtic has a duty of care to the club’s employees. Doing nothing is not an option.

Arne Engels hit by coins at Ibrox

Celtic should be issuing a statement on this serious matter today.

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