Manufactured outrage: how Scotland’s media turned Celtic’s triumph into a public trial

Celtic should have been celebrated. Instead, a title-winning afternoon at Celtic FC became the latest excuse for Scotland’s football establishment to unleash hysteria, moral grandstanding, and selective outrage.

For days, the noise was deafening.

The usual suspects rolled out one after another – Ally McCoist, Kris Boyd, Derek McInnes, Keith Jackson, Jim White, Tom English, BBC Scotland, the Daily Record, politicians, Police Scotland and every outrage merchant desperate for clicks, airtime, or relevance. The narrative was coordinated, relentless and shameless: Celtic fans had apparently disgraced Scottish football, assaulted people, forced an abandonment, and dragged the game into chaos.

And now?

The entire thing is collapsing under the weight of its own exaggeration.

The release of the officials’ audio has detonated the biggest lie of all – Keith Jackson’s absurd “missing minute” conspiracy and the ludicrous demands for the match to be declared abandoned. The audio made one thing crystal clear: the referee had finished the game. Finished. Not abandoned. Not suspended in chaos. Finished properly, officially, conclusively.

Yet for days, people who should know better fuelled a frenzy based on insinuation rather than fact.

Where is the accountability now?

Where are the apologies?

Where are the headlines admitting they got it wrong?

They don’t exist because outrage was always more valuable to them than truth.

And then there is Derek McInnes.

We now know he was perfectly content with the game ending when it did. He knew the match was over. He knew there was no scandal to pursue. Yet while the media circus spiralled into fantasy, he sat silently and allowed the narrative to snowball into another anti-Celtic feeding frenzy.

That silence says everything.

This is a man already associated with footage of sectarian singing of “The Billy Boys” – a stain that should have invited serious scrutiny about standards and class long ago. Yet somehow Scottish football’s moral guardians never seem quite as animated about that. Funny how selective outrage works in this country.

And what of the supposed “assaults” that became instant headline material?

Again: where is the evidence?

Not assumptions. Not social media hysteria. Not inflammatory studio debate.

Actual evidence.

The accusations were thrown around recklessly because once Celtic are involved, standards of proof suddenly disappear. The presumption of guilt arrives before facts do. Every image becomes weaponised. Every incident becomes a national emergency.

Pitch invasions happen every single season in football. Across Scotland. Across England. Across Europe. They are often celebrated as scenes of passion and emotion. Yet when it is Celtic, the reaction becomes volcanic – treated as if civilisation itself is collapsing.

Why?

Because too many in the Scottish media ecosystem are addicted to portraying Celtic through a lens of suspicion and hostility. They cannot stand the scale of the club, the support, the success, or the resilience. So moments that should belong to supporters are instead hijacked into morality plays designed to diminish achievement.

But here is the reality they cannot bury:

While the noise raged, Celtic kept winning.

Seven straight victories through a storm of criticism, lectures, pearl-clutching and coordinated negativity. Instead of collapsing under pressure, this team surged over the finish line and delivered a title in style.

That is not scandal.
That is character.

And now, with the Scottish Cup final against Dunfermline Athletic F.C. looming, Celtic stand on the edge of another domestic double – a fairytale ending to a season that many outside the club desperately wanted to undermine.

Supporters should not let this media frenzy poison what has been an outstanding achievement.

The attempts to rewrite a joyous title celebration into a national disgrace have failed. The “missing minute” narrative has been exposed. The abandonment claims have been discredited. The accusations remain unsupported. And the people who pushed the hysteria now look utterly ridiculous.

Scottish football’s self-appointed moral referees owe Celtic supporters an explanation for why standards suddenly change when green-and-white ribbons are on the trophy.

Until then, the outrage should be treated for exactly what it was:

A pile-on. A hypocrisy-fuelled spectacle. And another failed attempt to diminish Celtic Football Club.

The champions answered it the best way possible – by winning.

Now bring home the double, Bhoys.