Champions League Playoff and Draw

[UlsterGooner]

fuck celtic and fuck rangers, two clubs together who built up fanbases from sectarian hatred, if it wasnt for killings in the north of ireland then either club would be as big as hibs/hearts.

Absolute shite and its Northern Ireland

[the playing mantis]

Anyway back to the besiktas tie, am I the only one worried about this ? Not as fierce as a few years ago but turkey can still be quite intimidating and backbone is not what we are famous for

there shit. we bummed fenebahce 5 nil over 2 legs last year after people said similar things. easier draw than bilbao or lille.

no excuse with this draw not to strengthen before hand as we are nailed on

[spendsum4uckingmoney]

Besiktas are sort of the middle difficulty of what was available. Copenhagen would have been easier but Lille and Bilbao are rather strong so not a bad draw in all. The away game is crucial we have leaders because Turks are mental.

[rigsby]

They certainly do have a massive following, even in the States. But alot of those "fans" will never attend even one match and are sucked in by all the "Celtic are an Oirish Catholic team" sectarian bollocks

Are you serious? That is the majority of 'foreign' support. How many Malaysians last year have been to a home match? now how many have purchased a shirt? There's your money. Stop trying to force something that quite simply isn't true. They're a massive club.

[Poldi's Brother]

We did fine in our qualifier last season against Fenerbache and I expect us to ease through to the group stages again this season. Good draw for us.

[TeeCee]

celtic (and rangers) are massive clubs worldwide

Got to pass just one comment on this.....

Celtic and Rangers have great support, they are not 'massive clubs', they never achieve anything outside of Scotland. I'm not talking about 50 odd years ago, football has changed beyond comprehension in that time.
Newcastle have great support, are they a massive club? No.
I think it's a fallacy that if they came down to England and got TV money that they would be challenging for everything, they wouldn't, they would just be another Newcastle.....but with REALLY annoying fans who keep singing about fucking religion!!

[DB10GOONER]

They certainly do have a massive following, even in the States. But alot of those "fans" will never attend even one match and are sucked in by all the "Celtic are an Oirish Catholic team" sectarian bollocks

Are you serious? That is the majority of 'foreign' support. How many Malaysians last year have been to a home match? now how many have purchased a shirt? There's your money. Stop trying to force something that quite simply isn't true. They're a massive club.

Huh? What? What's going on?? I'm not trying to force anything. Read what I wrote. First line there. You even quoted it!

Who mentioned Malaysians? I'm not talking about Malaysians!

What is a fact though is that the vast vast majority of "die hard Celtic fans" in Oireland also are "die hard Manure fans" or "die hard Mouser fans". They don't go to games. And I'd imagine I'm quite safe in saying the majority of their global fanbase are of similar ilk to Barca's. Plastic as fuck. That's not to say they don't have a huge die-hard support, I'm sure they do, but not on a global level.

As far as being "massive", that's open to subjective interpretation. What defines a "massive" club? Trophy count? Fanbase? Match attendance? History? Popularity amongst plastic fans in their millions in Asia or Africa? A combination thereof?

I'd say Celtic are a big club, not massive. Also if you asked the average European to name the 10 or even 20 biggest clubs in Europe, Celtic would not be on that list, I'd wager.

[DB10GOONER]

celtic (and rangers) are massive clubs worldwide

Got to pass just one comment on this.....

Celtic and Rangers have great support, they are not 'massive clubs', they never achieve anything outside of Scotland. I'm not talking about 50 odd years ago, football has changed beyond comprehension in that time.
Newcastle have great support, are they a massive club? No.
I think it's a fallacy that if they came down to England and got TV money that they would be challenging for everything, they wouldn't, they would just be another Newcastle.....but with REALLY annoying fans who keep singing about fucking religion!!

Well, fucking is a religion to me, man.

Similar to the way sucking is a religion to OneBardEwok.

[northbank123]

They certainly do have a massive following, even in the States. But alot of those "fans" will never attend even one match and are sucked in by all the "Celtic are an Oirish Catholic team" sectarian bollocks

Are you serious? That is the majority of 'foreign' support. How many Malaysians last year have been to a home match? now how many have purchased a shirt? There's your money. Stop trying to force something that quite simply isn't true. They're a massive club.

A 2012 study by the world's leading brand valuation agency placed Celtic alongside the likes of Stoke, West Ham, Fulham and Sunderland by scraping into the top 50 for the first time, largely aided by the demise of Rangers and their new monopoly on Scottish football. I don't like using a purely commercial argument with regards to how well-supported a club is but even allowing for the PL exposure compared to SPL that says a lot. Celtic are not this massive world-wide brand that some people think they are.

[northbank123]

How fucking dumb was the manager of Legia Warsaw to bring that player on? Fucking idiot

Mate if you actually look at the circumstances it's not his fault. The bloke was suspended for 3 games. He wasn't selected for either of their previous round's fixtures against St Pat's and not selected in the first leg. He'd missed three games, but the club had forgotten to register him for the St Pat's games (even though they couldn't pick him) so they technically didn't count towards his suspension. Clearly a regulatory/admin oversight on behalf of the club, not something I would lay at the manager's door.

Also I appreciate players under 21 don't need to be registered so you can't keep a complete check on it but how hard is it for UEFA to provide the match officials with a list of registered players and any suspensions? It's an official UEFA match for fuck's sake, they should be avoiding this type of embarrassing farce before it arises.

[mcdowell42]

Celtic have a big fan base but to call them a big club is a joke,no world class players ,unable to attract world class players,most of their players are young raw or journey man professionals ,apart from Henrik Larsson I can't name 1 player who would have got into the pl top teams.They have no competition in Scotland ,reckon even the worse manager in the PL could win the league up there.


The old chestnut if they were in the PL they would be top 10,how do you know that would be the case.its like the old if my aunt had balls she would be my uncle nonsense.


Each to their own regarding their fans,I don't knock anyone for following Celtic,to me they are just an irrelevance in the grand scheme of things,I follow arsenal I don't have a 2 nd team regard less of where in the world they play their football.I leave that to the likes of the scouse Scum.

[spendsum4uckingmoney]

Celtic have a big fan base but to call them a big club is a joke,no world class players ,unable to attract world class players,most of their players are young raw or journey man professionals ,apart from Henrik Larsson I can't name 1 player who would have got into the pl top teams.They have no competition in Scotland ,reckon even the worse manager in the PL could win the league up there.


The old chestnut if they were in the PL they would be top 10,how do you know that would be the case.its like the old if my aunt had balls she would be my uncle nonsense.


Each to their own regarding their fans,I don't knock anyone for following Celtic,to me they are just an irrelevance in the grand scheme of things,I follow arsenal I don't have a 2 nd team regard less of where in the world they play their football.I leave that to the likes of the scouse Scum.

Pretty much.

I think Celtic overachieve though considering Scotland has a pop of 5m & the shitty league they are in. They also have good scouts.

[Theoperator]

[q

A 2012 study by the world's leading brand valuation agency placed Celtic alongside the likes of Stoke, West Ham, Fulham and Sunderland by scraping into the top 50 for the first time, largely aided by the demise of Rangers and their new monopoly on Scottish football. I don't like using a purely commercial argument with regards to how well-supported a club is but even allowing for the PL exposure compared to SPL that says a lot. Celtic are not this massive world-wide brand that some people think they are.

Agree, surely Celta Vigo would be above Celtic now, Scottish football has gone so far down the toilet, its an embarrassment .

Talking of which Celta Vigo beat Toffees this week, despite the Toffees "world cup stars"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... about.html

[augie]

Oscar pistorious has sensationally sacked his legal team - instead he has hired the celtic solicitors after hearing that they had lost both legs but still got through

[Theoperator]

Oscar pistorious has sensationally sacked his legal team - instead he has hired the celtic solicitors after hearing that they had lost both legs but still got through