A pre-match rant about Rapid Vienna – Celtic

Does it get more simultaneously pathetic and irritating than the whining we’ve had to put up with from Celtic for the past few weeks? In case you’ve missed Celtic stop just short of accusing Rapid Vienna of war crimes, a recap of the situation can be found in today’s Guardian.

In fairness to Celtic’s current crop of players, the hysterics have come from fans and from former players, but, usually, embarrassing undertakings like this are done in the name of something or someone, bigger than the ranting individual, so fairly or unfairly, the whole club has its name attached on some level.

As the Guardian article correctly points out, if Celtic didn’t lose the moral high ground the moment the first object was thrown at Celtic Park, they certainly said so long, farewell, good night, auf wiedersehen to any semblance of it when their supporters physically attacked Rapid players.

I certainly sympathize with obsession and pointless grudge holding, but when it moves from the realm of good humor to yelling about CIA satellites on a city street corner, enough is enough. First of all, you aren’t the first or last team to lose in controversial circumstances. Second of all it’s a nice, little historical connection to the present day, not a Shakespearean injustice.

Leaving the specifics aside for a moment, I guess what bothers me the most is that, ultimately, this is just another instance of a British club being knocked out of Europe and immediately resorting to the ‘we were cheated by those dastardly foreigners’ narrative. The misanthrope in me is really hoping that Rapid Vienna will be awarded a dubious penalty or borderline offside goal deep into stoppage time, right in the middle of You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Category: Europe, UEFA Cup Memories, europa league

Tags: europa league, Europe, UEFA Cup Memories

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