Have hate-filled thickos got no shame?

I DON'T want to make a habit of writing about football or fans.

Apart from anything else, the seething hate mail I get if I criticise either of the Old Firm makes me think some nutter's going to burst in and throw an electric fire into my bath.

However, undaunted by last week's bile from angry Rangers fans after the Battle of Bucharest, I'll press on.

Because what we heard from Celtic yobs singing IRA songs during the minute's silence for the war dead last Sunday afternoon is much more important than football.

It's about the lowlifes who bring shame on decent people at a time when soldiers - men around the same age as them - are coming home in coffins.

It's about real men who died in wars so that future generations could be free. Did these brave men really die in two world wars so that brain-dead yobs could be free to express themselves in vile chants at a match?

Because that's what it has come to, if we allow the pack of morons who wrecked the silent tribute at Falkirk Stadium last week to be called fans.

Who are these people, I wonder? And what will they tell their children who are growing up under their watchful, odious eye?

Will they tell them how they sang "Go Home British Soldiers Go On Home" while the rest of the country weeps for lost sons, husbands, brothers, who would have loved to come home?

Can they really look at the limbless young men, barely old enough to shave, who we saw on Armistice Day, and be filled with such hate? Have they no shame?

Because let's be absolutely clear here. These thugs are not representative of Celtic fans who are proud of their Irish roots, and who totally respected the tribute.

They are cave dwellers who are incapable of evolving and living in the world alongside the rest of us. And there is no better time than now for Hoops fans everywhere to banish these bitter, twisted hooligans from the Celtic family that is loved and respected worldwide.

Even though they were outside of the ground, they still attach themselves to Celtic. And just as I said last week that it is time Rangers - fans and bosses - looked inside themselves and did more to stop the rancid bigotry, so too must Celtic face up to the yobs dragging them down.

It shouldn't really be surprising that the thickos who brought shame on Celtic did what they did. Their sense of history about Celtic and the British Army probably begins and ends with The Troubles of Northern Ireland.

You don't expect them to know that seven Celtic players died in the First World War, and that the only Scottish footballer ever to be awarded the Victoria Cross played for Celtic.

These guys are too thick and too entrenched in bitterness to see the bigger picture. But what angers me more than the actual singing is Celtic's piffling response.

There's no point in chief executive Peter Lawwell being seen shaking his head in disgust if the statement issued from Celtic has no balls. The club declared: "If intentional, it caused offence." But of course it was intentional!

I want to hear Celtic bosses united and having the backbone to ask these yobs: "What right do you have to attach yourselves to a great club like Celtic and mortify us across the world?"

Tell them they don't belong. Not inside the ground or outside it. Tackle them in a way Rangers bosses have not had the backbone to do with their bigots.

Just as gutless are the other folk who refuse to condemn the hooligans, insisting that Celtic fans have relatives in Ireland who are still upset by the British soldiers there. That kind of political diatribe has no place in football.

With dumbasses like these spouting forth, it's no wonder some fans can't come out of their caves.

The fact is, anyone who doesn't wholeheartedly condemn bigotry, is giving it tacit approval. Simple as that. They're either with the thugs or against them.

So, as the English Football Association chucks out the Old Firm's bid to get a seat at the top table of the premier league, it's should come as no surprise.

What league in its right mind would want teams who come with a baggage of knuckle trailers who belong in the dark ages? None.

ANNA SMITH

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