A Five-Star Lie

It won't come as a surprise to any FFers that this tactic is used by Celtic fans in their efforts to airbrush history. Whether it's "faithful through and through", the free-flowing football of the 90s or that bigotry is non-existent at Parkhead, the Celtic fans perpetrate these myths until they're blue in the face, hoping that one day they will become the accepted truth.

One effort appearing more and more often is the claim that it was Rangers supporters who abused Mark Walters on his Rangers debut. This has cropped up on various websites, more so over the last few months, and seems to suggest that there is a conscious effort to push the blame away from the self-proclaimed Greatest Fans In the World. Everyone else should know fine well it was Celtic supporters that dressed in monkey suits and threw bananas that day in the most shameful display of racism this country has ever seen.

Sanjeev Kohli (slum landlord) and Ritchie Moran (a Yahoo who writes for the New Criminologist) are helping peddle these lies by getting them published for a wider audience. The danger is that if these go unchallenged, they gradually become accepted as the truth. Once published, these pieces can be referred to as a source and they gradually warp people's minds as to what really happened that day.

Another lie, albeit a far less dangerous one, is that Celtic Park is rated highly by UEFA. The "proof" of this comes from one (yes one single one) non-Yahoo page on the whole of the internet, where a passing comment suggests Celtic Park may be five star. It's a debate that seems to appear on the FF messageboards every so often, with the thread usually starting along the lines of "My Tim mate told me..."

Here's the deal: UEFA rate stadia as four or five star depending on certain criteria; Celtic Park DOES NOT meet this criteria. There is no rating below four star so the stadium is OFFICIALLY rated on the same level as Cappielow, Cathkin Park or a public field with jumpers for goal posts. See if you can guess which one is pictured below.

In an attempt to settle the argument once and for all, the official five and four star stadia lists are available for download along with the criteria to be met to be given this rating. These were emailed directly from UEFA's media office.