Celtic Fans Were Vilified – Will Aberdeen’s Pitch Invasion Get The Same Treatment?
Aberdeen fans entered the Rugby Park pitch after beating Kilmarnock, raising an obvious question over whether Scottish football will react with the same fury shown towards Celtic supporters.
Phillip Cooney 
Celtic Fans Were Vilified – Will Aberdeen’s Pitch Invasion Get The Same Treatment?
Aberdeen supporters spilled onto the Rugby Park pitch after their dramatic penalty-shootout victory over Kilmarnock.
So now Scottish football has a very simple test.
Will Aberdeen supporters receive anything remotely close to the treatment Celtic fans received after the pitch invasions against Hearts and Rangers?
There has already been criticism of the scenes at Rugby Park, and rightly so. Supporters are not supposed to enter the playing surface.
But that is not the argument.
The argument is consistency.
Celtic fans faced days of outrage
When Celtic supporters entered the pitch following the victory over Hearts, the reaction quickly became much bigger than the pitch invasion itself.
The incident generated days of debate, condemnation and serious allegations about what supposedly happened to Hearts players.
Pat Nevin even claimed he had witnessed Lawrence Shankland being punched.
The BBC later upheld complaints about that commentary after concluding that the claim failed its accuracy standards.
That should matter when we look back at the scale of the reaction Celtic supporters faced.
Now Aberdeen fans have also entered the field to celebrate a victory.
Will the same language be used?
Will pundits spend days discussing Aberdeen supporters?
Will newspapers run repeated stories?
Will radio phone-ins devote hours to the incident?
Or will this simply disappear from the headlines almost immediately?
Aberdeen pitch invasion highlights the Ibrox difference
There is also an important distinction between what happened at Rugby Park and what happened at Ibrox.
When Celtic supporters entered the pitch after defeating Rangers on penalties, they were celebrating.
Rangers supporters then came onto the field from the opposite end and confrontations followed.
That completely changed the nature of the incident.
And Saturday night at Rugby Park highlights exactly why.
Aberdeen supporters entered the field.
Kilmarnock supporters did not then pour onto the pitch and charge towards them.
They did not treat Aberdeen supporters entering the field as justification to confront them.
That is how it should be.
Because no supporter entering a football pitch gives opposition supporters the right to charge onto the field, seek confrontation or become involved with opposing players and staff.
If Aberdeen fans entering the pitch at Rugby Park does not suddenly give Kilmarnock supporters the right to storm the field and confront them, then the same principle applied at Ibrox.
That point should not be blurred.
The initial pitch invasion and the subsequent confrontation are two different issues.
Scottish football now has a consistency test
Nobody needs to defend pitch invasions.
They are against the rules and clubs should discourage them.
But if Scottish football is going to treat pitch invasions as a major national issue, that standard has to apply equally.
Celtic supporters cannot be subjected to days of outrage while another incident involving another club is treated as little more than an unfortunate celebration.
Aberdeen supporters entered the pitch.
That happened.
Now we wait to see whether the reaction matches the standard Scottish football has already established.
Will there be the same fury?
The same headlines?
The same sweeping criticism of an entire support?
Or will the story quietly disappear?
Celtic supporters are entitled to ask those questions.
Because consistency should not depend on the colour of the scarf.
looks like they will have to make aberdeen and kilmarnock play behind closed doors! I think not! Pretty sure it will be conveniently forgotten about;
We all know the story will disappear there is no Anti Aberdeen agenda only one team is hated in this country and we all know why
Days, mate?
The vilification went on for three months and is still happening, as all the cheating refs decisions in the last few games prove.
Where have you been all this time?
Wired that Nevin is taking all the flak for this when Pat Bonnar also said Hearts players were assaulted and he didn’t apologise, Eilidh Barbour on Sky immediately claimed Hearts players were being assuaged and she hasn’t even been called out by anyone, not, even you bloggers, so she didn’t apologise, then TonyBloom said the same thing and that prick didn’t have to apologise either.
And Pat Nevin, sneaky little rat that he is, at least apologised weeks back on some obscure radio show but the club should be demanding apologies from all those other three liars because how four separate individuals could all say the same lie at the same moment reeks of an agenda and deserves to be investigated by someone who observes the game.
You know, like at least one of you writers who never stop complaining about the about the spineless Celtic board every day while behaving in exactly the same obsequious manner yourselves.
I’ll say it again, Eilidh Barbour, Pat Bonnar, Tony Bloom and Pat Nevin all lied that Hearts players were being assaulted yet only Nevin has been carpeted over it.
Pat Bonnar also said it on the BBC and neither they nor you bloggers have even mentioned his name once, the dirty big soup taking rat that he is, and I say that as a Tim who loved big Packy when he played for us.
Now why haven’t any of you picked up on this gross injustice against the Celtic support because as far as I’m concerned every last one of these Hun licking scum should be paying for it with their jobs and Bloom with a hefty dime and censure.
But I bet none of you will ever do it.
Indeed, I’ll be surprised if this comment even gets published as you bloggers are some of the most thin skinned weaklings I’ve ever had the misfortunes to read, one whiff of disagreement with any of you and out comes the petted lip, toys out the pram and the comment discarded and ignored.
Pat Bonnar, Tony Bloom, Eilidh Barbour …
Why do they get away with it?
Unfortunately it will be treated differently bcoz Celtic are the biggest club in Scotland.We win most things and also unfortunately that comes with the territory.Aberdeen are insignificant by comparison so it won’t get the same coverage.We accept that or not,either way it will always be this way.
Eddy fae ra drum 100% correct, well said
It’s fairly simple, we got weeks of outrage because we won games they didn’t want us to win, the pitch invasion was wrong but it was the cloak to hide their utter hatred of us behind. Killie Vs Aberdeen is not a game that many will care about, you will get today’s back pages and that it. Especially if we get anything today that can be construed as the wrong decision. Then the media will be banging on about VAR for at least a week cause we play them again next week. It was never about a pitch invasion it was always about us getting a result. Why does no one but us set out to win, everyone one else is out to stop Celtic. As long as it’s not us people will be happy.
The Scummy Scottish Football Media will be having a fu**in field day today…
Celtic had BETTER buck up next week or the league will be Liebrox bound !