The Old Firm

The first Old Firm game was played on May 28, 1888. About 120 years later I attended my first installment at Celtic Park in Glasgow, also called Parkhead or Paradise. The Old Firm are the two Glasgow football teams Celtic and Rangers, they are referred to this way because they have a stranglehold on the Scottish Premier division. The history of the two teams is long and full of great and not so great moments. The teams have long been associated with sectarian differences often leading to violence. Celtic is the traditional Catholic team in Glasgow, sympathising with Irish politics. Rangers is the traditionally Protestant team, associated with British unionism.

These differences can incite strong feelings between the teams and more so their fans. Over the years there have been many attempts to work together to tone down the partisan rhetoric, but there is no love loss here. As you can see in the second picture (if you look closely) there is an entire section of seats open to separate the two teams fans in the stadium. Each row has a police officer posted at each end and many more come out on to the field to attend a corner kick. In fact, if the ball rolls into the visiting fans corner, opposing players will not venture in to get it for fear of being pelted by coins.

The game my cousin, Gregor, and I attended began at noon - they would start at 9:00 a.m. if they could to keep the fans from drinking too much before they get to the game. We had received two box seats from my Nike clients who are a Celtic sponsor . On the way into the game I saw more police than I have ever seen before, making sure the Rangers fans were well separated from the Celtic faithful. Once safely in the box we were treated to a pre-game breakfast. The first half was very exciting, with both teams scoring two goals a piece. At half time we were treated to soup and Scottish pies. The second half saw Celtic go ahead on a penalty kick that ultimately decided the game.

After the game there was a big lunch with steak and potatoes and the drinks began to flow (there was no drinking during the game). We were in the box with several other people, four of whom were the manager and sales staff at Auchterlonie's Golf Shop in St. Andrews, which lead to some great conversation. The game was over at around 2:00 p.m., but we did not have to leave the box until 6:30 p.m., so we stayed around watching the other games on TV and having a few drinks. When we finally got kicked out of the box, we decided to stop in downtown Glasgow before heading back to Edinburgh to see if there were any fans around on a Sunday night. Needless to say the Celtic fans were still out in full effect. We managed to catch the last train back to Edinburgh around midnight and luckily I got to sleep in the next day while Greg had to head off to work. I felt normal again on Wednesday, so all in all a pretty good day (and night) out in Glasgow.