Sitting in Brendan Rodgers’ office at Lennoxtown back in April, we got talking about his upbringing.

The trips as a kid from Carnlough up to Ballymena to get his first organised football.

And his deep-seated pride that his coach at Star United, a legendary five-decade servant to community football called Arthur McClean, refused to stand for anything other than a mixed team at a time when the unwritten rule divided you by your religion.

He has since said he wants his legacy in Glasgow to be the creation of a more modern rivalry than one predicated on ancient Irish politics.

Only a couple of weeks ago he was talking about Belfast now compared to the Belfast of his youth.

In a childhood like any other of his time, riven by Northern Ireland’s Troubles, you can understand his satisfaction at achieving any kind of distance from it all.

Rodgers will have abhorred the banners

So the first thing you think the other night is ‘He’s going to hate this…’

Looking up and seeing his image on a banner paying homage to the infamous ‘Sniper at Work’ Crossmaglen road sign?

Right next to another banner of an Easter-lily-adorned, beret-wearing IRA paramilitary image?

Soundtracked by songs not heard for years inside the confines of Celtic Park?

They might be unfamiliar to those who couldn’t care less but the lyrics of the Merry Ploughboy, Sean South from Garryowen and Broad Black Brimmer don’t leave any room for misinterpretation of their IRA support.

At the time Rodgers claimed he was so focused on the game that he couldn’t take it in – but the clarity of his condemnation when it did come was absolute.

That’s the problem with the Green Brigade, though. They think because they make enough noise for the whole Celtic support that they also speak for the whole Celtic support.

They don’t. But they’ve disappeared so far up their own self-indulgence that they don’t actually care.

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Risk upsetting the manager who has just won an invincible Treble? Shrug. Do it anyway.

Consequences with UEFA? So what?

Dead easy to have lofty principles and political conviction when someone else – everyone else, in fact – will pick up the tab for them.

Metaphorically and financially.

It’s the 12th time in the past six years the Celtic support have been pulled up. The running bill on their misdemeanours, no matter how spurious you might see some of them, is sitting at £141,400.

That would pay for a decent academy coach for three or four years. Help fund the living wage for their staff. Make a decent donation to their outstanding charity foundation.

But no. All of it, straight into UEFA’s coffers, because one self-aggrandising pocket of fans think they’re bigger than their club and their rights are inalienable, no matter how offensive.

Dermot Desmond (L) and Peter Lawwell must back Rodgers to fend off English interest
Desmond and Lawwell will be embarrassed by the latest banner

Their statement yesterday did nothing to dispel that – 750 words of pompous guff which refused to even acknowledge their manager calling them out for representing him in such a crass way, or that more than their own band of pitifully-labelled ‘rebels’ won’t be the only ones who suffer in the end.

You have to feel for Peter Lawwell. He’d be as well setting up a direct debit to Nyon.

Celtic’s statement condemning the banners the other night was unequivocal, as was their subsequent one on the safety issues, shutting down their section for two games and warning there may be more. But deep down Lawwell will know their arrogance will prevail.

A few years back in the airport after the Udinese away game, I remember watching him savage a group who had a go at him for not ‘standing up for the fans’.

It was the night they unfurled a banner in the away end which said ‘F*** UEFA’. Along with the pyro which accompanied it, that ended up costing the club £21,000.

And Lawwell quite rightly snapped.

Celts fans display a "F**k UEFA" banner away to Udinese

You could argue he made a rod for his own back the day he empowered the Green Brigade with the prominent wedge of the stadium they now have but he gave them it for the positive influence they have on the atmosphere. That doesn’t mean he gave them carte blanche.

They’re a group who crave the big Champions League nights for the attention, yet aren’t prepared to live by the rules which govern it.

UEFA may be hypocrites at times, their rules may be arcane but the fact is it’s their ball, their playground, their millions.

If that’s where you want to be, you can’t have it both ways. Unless, of course, you’re not the one paying the price.

Like the flying of the Palestine flag against the Israelis last August. Another £8600 fine. They think because they went out and raised £170,000 for Palestinian charities after they were criticised for it that they’re somehow absolved of the original offence?

Celtic fans hold up Palestine flags

As laudable as their efforts were, they’d be more impressive if their motivation was more pure than simply a ‘f*** you’.

The thing is, as long as UEFA don’t actually escalate the punishments, they’ll keep doing it. Which is why Celtic have done the right thing, administering the punishment themselves and warning it will stay that way unless they shape up.

They’ve tried enough dialogue through their Supporter Liaison Officer and it all just falls on deaf ears.

In a week when they announced they’ve officially sold out their 52,500 season tickets, they’ve rarely ridden a bigger wave.

Remember it’s less than 18 months since they were running out week in week out to more empty seats than occupied ones, even when they were winning a title.

That change comes down to one man. Rodgers. He brings unrelenting progress to whatever he does. The people who think they’re the club’s chosen few would do well to realise that.

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