Tarnished: Lennon can't hide his fury at fans who risk Parkhead reputation
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Neil Lennon accused the Green Brigade fans’ group of taking liberties with Celtic’s reputation.
The Scottish champions face a certain fine — a fourth in two years — after a banner was displayed featuring images of Scottish historical figure William Wallace and IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands before Tuesday night’s Champions League defeat to AC Milan.
The Green Brigade, a group of supporters housed in section 111 of Celtic Park, were protesting over Scotland’s Offensive Behaviour at Football Act and claiming it deems ‘expressions of Irish identity, culture and politics’ illegal.
Tainted love: Neil Lennon¿s strong words condemned fans¿ group
But UEFA articles explicitly prohibit messages or banners of a ‘non-sporting nature,’ with the governing body’s control and disciplinary committee set to deal with the case on December 11.
Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s Scottish Cup clash with Hearts at Tynecastle, Lennon insisted the Green Brigade have ‘tarnished’ the club. ‘When I saw it, my heart sank,’ he said. ‘I think it affected the atmosphere in the stadium. There was a lot of head-scratching from other quarters of the stadium.
'I understand they have maybe legitimate reasons to complain about things or make statements about things — but Tuesday night was not the time or the place.
Investigation: UEFA are looking into the banner displayed by Celtic fans before their side's clash with AC Milan
'We don’t know the next time we will be in the Champions League, so those games should have been a celebration rather than a political protest by one section of the support. It was totally unnecessary.
'I think the club are quite sympathetic at times to their points of view, but they assured us there wouldn’t be any political connotations on the banners and that proved not to be the case.
'We were given assurances the banners would be Celtic-related. They feel they are Celtic-related but I think the majority of people — the board here and everyone else — would say: “Sorry, that’s not the case, you’ve taken liberties here”.’
Lennon admitted he has no idea who the ring-leaders are behind the Green Brigade.
The Celtic manager previously offered to meet the group to discuss their grievances after the club were fined £21,000 for an illicit banner displayed during a Europa League game in Udine.
Flying the flag: From the away section at Celtic Park, AC Milan fans show a Union Flag
Branding Tuesday night’s banner ‘self-indulgent’, however, he said his efforts have fallen on deaf ears.
‘Do I personally feel let down? Yes, because I think it’s tarnished the reputation of the club. When I came in, I wanted to bring the club together again and I think the players have done that.
‘We have had great success in the last three or four years. What is going to make people happy? I don’t know.
‘I understand they’re not happy about some parts of the bill, but Tuesday night was not the time and place to do that.
'It is not just costing us money in terms of fines, it is damaging the reputation of the club and I don’t like it.
Showing support: A young Celtic fan cheers his side on during the Champions League loss
'They really showed a case of self-indulgence the other night. We don’t know who these people are. I think some of our staff down the road do, but I certainly don’t.
'I did offer them the chance to come and see us and speak to us to ask what they wanted or how we could help them, but that never materialised.
'Yet they do things through social media or statements through their website. But nobody seems to put a name to it.’
Lennon said he would be sorry if the section had to be closed down after placing the SPL trophy before the Green Brigade following his first title win as manager.
Insisting he has no regrets over his endorsement of the group at that time, he said:
‘That was for all their support they’d given me and for the atmosphere they brought to the ground.
'But since then, they’ve taken things into their own hands, far too literally. They don’t represent the vast majority of the Celtic fans’ voices.
'I don’t regret doing that at all. But they should have regrets about Tuesday night.
'This was the Champions League. I walked out to hear the music and take in the atmosphere, which has been brilliant. But then I end up standing looking at that banner asking: “Why?”
'You could feel it, sense it around the stadium. You could. There was definitely an air of a lot of fans being subdued.
'They were trying to work it out and they were fed up with it.
'I would be sorry to see them dispersed. But Celtic Park is not a place to be making political statements.
'There are many places you can do that. We are here for the football. The fans were there on Tuesday night for the football.’
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