Celtic supremo hits out at sectarian songs

Celtic chief executive Ian McLeod tonight condemned a minority of the Glasgow club’s fans for defiantly ignoring his recent request and singing sectarian songs throughout their side’s 1-0 win at Dundee.

The Parkhead chief sent out letters last week to all the season ticket holders urging them to end those chants.

But songs were still heard from an area of Celtic’s travelling support although McLeod insists he expected some sort of backlash from some supporters over his request.

McLeod said: “Some of the songs today were disappointing, but they were predictable.

“If you have a vocal minority who are fairly entrenched in their views then it’s likely they are going to make some form of vocal demonstration at the first away game since the letter went out.

“So I am not surprised by it, but this is a long-term programme. I am not naive enough to believe that you can change attitudes and behaviour overnight by dispatching one letter.

“But it’s a marker in the ground in terms of where we want to take the club in terms of how our fans behave and conduct themselves.

“As I said in the letter I am not here to dictate to anybody what their political views are, but what we have to do is recognise that first and foremost we are a football club.

“We are non-political and therefore alignment to any sort of political parties is something we would actively discourage.

“That’s the line and it is a line which is overwhelmingly supported by the Celtic support in general.

“The letters I’ve had, the phone calls and the emails have been overwhelmingly in support of the request I’ve made and that gives me and the board encouragement to continue to get the point across.

“I would estimate around 20% of those fans who were here were probably participating.

“If you look at that in context that’s probably less than 1% of our total season ticket holder base so you have to place it in some sort of context accordingly.

“The singing of political songs has been virtually eliminated and what we would like to see is that being the same at away games also.”