“It’s one I need to let Celtic FC lead on,” SLO John Paul Taylor sits out the Australian matches backlash

Amid lively supporter feedback concerning the breaking news that Celtic will play theRangers in Sydney in November, the Celtic FC SLO John Paul Taylor has for the first time commented on this controversial decision taken by the club.

Yesterday Celtic dressed this up as a Homecoming for Ange – incidentally with many Aussies asking on social media why then is Celtic not playing in Ange’s home city of Melbourne rather than Sydney – and our club failed to mention that theRangers would be the other guest club travelling to the other side of the world to play the first ever match between the clubs since these games began with the League Cup semi-final in February 2015, which Celtic won 2-0 with goals from Leigh Griffiths and Kris Commons.

Here’s the message from the Celtic SLO this morning:

“Apologies for lack of responses on matches scheduled to be played in Australia later in the year, it’s one I need to let @CelticFClead on as I don’t have any specific details. I believe further information will come directly from the Club abut this.”

Apologies for lack of responses on matches scheduled to be played in Australia later in the year, it’s one I need to let @CelticFC lead on as I don’t have any specific details. I believe further information will come directly from the Club abut this

— Celtic FC SLO (@CelticFCSLO) March 2, 2022

This response is worth noting too, not only for what it says but for the screenshot from a year ago that accompanies it.

“Not your fault JP but show the board this & tell them we are not MUGS as they think we are.”

Not your fault JP but show the board this & tell them we are not MUGS as they think we are pic.twitter.com/uKSND9qtOu

— BOXER (@boxertoye) March 2, 2022

John Paul  Taylor is a hugely popular figure within the Celtic support and especially last season he had to front up and deal with a major backlash as a season disintegrated round us and the change that was so necessary was delayed until it was too late. While Ange Postecoglou has steadied the ship and got us back on track on the park off it there remains these unnecessary controversies – for instance the Bernard Higgins madness – and now this decision to play the latest Ibrox club in Australia.

Has anyone thought beyond the money on offer here? What about the damage to the brand as thousands of their supporters over their get the chance to revel on their sectarian Up to their knees in blood, songs about the Vatican and everything else that goes with this assortment of clubs that come and go. Do we want to show the wider world this?

On John Paul, glad that he’s getting to sit this one out. Maybe it says something that he’s telling us that is what he is doing?

It would appear the Celtic board didn’t even consult our SLO on this shambolic move, let alone the rest of the fanbase.

An email was circulated around various CSC’s last night, and unsurprisingly the overwhelming response has been that of disgust towards this fixture. https://t.co/pAE8NOLp1f

— Celtic Shared (@Celtic_Shared) March 2, 2022