Celtic board’s judgment is backfiring badly

THE problems just keep coming for Celtic’s under-fire directors in this ever-unfolding car crash of a season.

Hard on the heels of fencing off Parkhead from the baying mob and defending the nonsense of flying players and staff to poolside in Dubai during a pandemic, they now find themselves facing unwanted headlines in the likes of The Jewish Chronicle over abuse aimed at Nir Bitton and his wife.

There is no guarantee that those who went after Bitton in the diseased arena of social media after his red card in the Old Firm derby are Celtic followers.

Nothing can be taken for granted in a cowardly world of false names, false avatars and complete idiocy.

However, this is hardly the first time anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli sentiment has found itself swirling around the club and creating bad publicity — with former director Lord Livingston being targeted online over his background in 2015 and UEFA fining the club on more than one occasion over Palestinian flags being flown at European games.

Celtic, for all their statements saying the right things, have never really gone to town on wider, long-standing issues within their support. Just look at how many times UEFA have punished them for all sorts of fan-related offences down the years.

Instead, a politicised group, who make no secret of their views, have been permitted to stay together and strengthen in the same corner of the stadium because they help the atmosphere.

That’s all well and fine. The thing is, the collective forces who form the ‘North Curve’, as witnessed in recent protests in the car park, now have chief executive Peter Lawwell and major shareholder Dermot Desmond in their sights.

They are a big part of the fabric of the club now. They shape outside impressions of the Hoops’ support and they feel emboldened enough to force change far greater than just bringing in drums and pyro to stop Parkhead feeling like a funeral parlour. As you might expect.

This is the monster the board helped create. And just like the decision to focus on trying to win a 10th title rather than progressing as a Europe-facing club, it is coming back to bite them.