They can shove their 700 tickets. Sad to see Jota leave, but good luck to him.

[Joe O'Rourke]

I wrote to Neil Doncaster last week with regards to the fixtures for the SPL for season 2023/24. In response I received an email trying to outline the thinking behind the fixtures and how they are formulated. The fixtures are scheduled by an American Company called GotSoccer, the man who deals with them is SPFL Chief Operating Officer Calum Beattie, and aye I know, I’ve never heard of him either. And while I understand there are challenges in trying to achieve a home/away status each week, I definitely believe having Celtic play four matches out of five away from home can be avoided. So this morning I have written to Neil once again for his views.

Hi Neil, Michele,
Thanks for sending the information on how the League fixtures are formulated. My problem is, that it doesn’t explain why Celtic play four games out of five away from home in September/October. I understand that it might be impossible to get a home/away setup for each week, but surely four out of five away could be avoided, not only for the team’s sake, but for the most important people, the fans like myself who go every week home and away.
I also think if you can reasonably forecast the top six at the split with a decent degree of certainty, then we could avoid Celtic having probably already played the other five team away from home twice.
Kind regards,
Joe,

Joe O’Rourke,
General Secretary,
Celtic Supporters Association.

As per usual the Scottish Sports Writers are wetting themselves with the transfer business being done over Govan way, I’m not surprised one bit, I wonder if the majority of them, and the pundits from Radio Clyde will predict a Sevco League title triumph, as they did last season, they must be really hurting at the dominance of Glasgow Celtic, and long may that continue.

Like every other Celtic Supporter I was sad to see Jota leaving for Saudi Arabia, but who can blame a young man for securing his future at 24 years old, even at that young age he has guaranteed he won’t need to work ever again after his football career has ended. We have already dipped into the market with the arrival of Macko Tilio and Odin Thiago Holm, and I expect a few more over the coming weeks, it’s important to have players in as early as possible to let them acclimatise to the club and what we are trying to achieve, which is more domestic dominance, and progress in the Champions League.

It was a massive boost to us all also to hear the Daizen, Kyogo, and now Callum have extended their Celtic contracts, I was certainly concerned that Big Ange might have chanced his luck to get the three of them to Spurs, so getting Daizen and Kyogo on new four year contracts is brilliant, and even better with Callum signing for five years, great work by Celtic, hopefully we can do the same with a few other players as well. I think we will also see some players going the other way, we have lost Jota and Aaron Mooy, and I think a few more will move out, either on loan, or on a permanent basis.

It was interesting to hear the mob from Govan telling all the hacks that they would again make 700 tickets available to the Celtic Supports for the coming season, well I’ve got a very short answer for them, “Shove your 700 tickets” unless they start offering at least the 5% that all UEFA teams are offered, and until they can offer a guarantee of safety for not only our players and staff, but also our supporters, they can keep their 700 tickets, and we’ll keep our full stadium. It’s actually a big bonus to play them and not have to listen to their sectarian bile all through the game. I will be meeting with Michael Nicholson as soon as possible to discuss the matter.

Glasgow’s still Green & White.