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The people organising this thing should have had the common sense to keep Johnston as far away from the event as possible.

I can see why some might be offended by the boycott thing, but to be brutally honest, I have to side with the fans on this one. For me personally (and it's purely a personal choice) football comes before ANYTHING. To simply ask Celtic fans (and the large amount of Rangers fans who didn't like him) to "forgive and forget" purely because it was a while ago shows not only a lack of understanding about football, but a SHOCKING lack of knowledge on the Old Firm. I couldn't forgive a player for stabbing my club in the back, like the Figo example. I'll never forgive him. Ever. I won't even consider it.

Frankly, it IS an insult to even consider asking Johnston to play. They must have been looking for trouble with that nonsense, and now that he won't be involved, I think you'll all find the fans who were going to boycott will want to go now. To me, that shows that it's purely a problem with Johnston and not the actual idea, which surely is understandable.

 

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Me too- a massive Rangers fan that is. As I said above everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I just find it disappointing. Even Caesar was on Real Radio last night backing the boycotting fans. I expected more from a man I have alot of respect for.

My last idea on the thing. At full time the players swap shirts. Each shirt is then signed by the player who was wearing the shirt and the player receiving the shirt then auctioned off. The must have made shirt for Mo so get them signed by the man himself and the corresponsing teams to auction off too. Just a thought.

I don't have a problem with that idea. But there is always a fine line between trying to reduce the sectarianism and mixing that up with the natural rivalry between two city rivals AND constant title challengers.

The Johnston thing was purely about football, he had paraded in the Celtic top then decided to join Rangers AFTER doing so. For an ex-Celtic player, it is unforgivable, simple as. I can hope that people do more to lessen the bigotry element of the derby, but you CANNOT ask people to turn off their feelings about football issues "for charity". People wouldn't ask the actual Old Firm players to swap shirts and wear each other's scarves, because it would be stupid. People would react badly to their players showing such a lack of understanding for the depth of the rivalry between the 2 clubs, and there is no reason to believe people would be any different for charity matches, friendlies, whatever. The very idea of the guy who humiliated and stabbed Celtic in the back worse than anyone else actually wearing their colours on a pitch again is obviously going to offend people.

The "problem" was never the players, it was the FANS. The guys organising it should ask the FANS to swap shirts and scarves, if people are talking about this as some way to "end the fighting", getting players to do it won't make any difference. Players on both sides have already been friends, and went out drinking. The hatred comes entirely from the fans. And so, doing something like asking Johnston to take part for both teams is seen as nothing more as a slap in the face. They should be trying to ACTUALLY fix problems, not incite them. It's like trying to deal with racism by hightlighting how different black and white people are. Instead of that, they should be trying to integrate the two sides where the actual problems are, not divide them further.

People don't choose how they feel, it just happens. I'm sorry if I offend anyone, but I take my football EXTREMELY seriously, something I cannot control. Sometimes I wish it was different, but it never will be.

 

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I have to ask, if it's not a "purely football issue" then what is it? I've seen people in the papers using the tired old "bigotry" crap, failing to realise it cannot possibly be bigotry. There is nothing sectarian in this situation, there is no way this COULD be bigotry.

Unless Celtic fans have taken on the quality of being bigoted towards whites/catholics? :googly: :googly:

You can't compare this to other derbies, because the Old Firm isn't like other derbies. The depth of feeling goes FAR beyond anything in England, for example.