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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Ewan Paton

Jim White lays into Celtic silence after Queen protests by fans as he reveals talkSPORT request knockbacks

Jim White lays into Celtic's silence after protests against the Royal Family by fans

CELTIC have been heavily criticised by Jim White for their silence after fan protests ahead of Queen's funeral. 

A section of the Hoops support held up a banner reading: "If you hate the Royal Family clap your hands" ahead of their Premiership match with St Mirren on Sunday. 

The match would finish 2-0 to the Buddies, with Mark O'Hara and Jonah Ayunga putting the champions to the sword in Paisley. 

But the main talking point of the game remained on the behaviour of some supporters in the away end during the minutes' applause prior to kick-off, as players, staff and fans took time to pay their respects to the late monarch.

It followed on just days after Celtic fans unveiled a banner in Warsaw ahead of their Champions League tie with Shakhtar Donetsk, which said: "F*** the Crown."

Celtic's supporters were not the only group who protested about the Queen and the Royals over the weekend's sporting action, with Hibs and Dundee United supporters also filmed singing derogatory chants.

Addressing the subject on talkSPORT this morning, host Jim White, alongside Simon Jordan and Graeme Souness, spoke of the damage those fans have done to the image of their clubs. 

And White revealed that the radio station's requests into Celtic for comment had fallen upon deaf ears so far.

He said: "For the record Graeme before we go any further, we have asked 'what are you going to do about it? Are you going to say anything about this?'.

"Assistant producer Joe has been on to Celtic not once, but twice. 

"Now, they haven't. They haven't even responded. 

"Postecoglou was asked about it post-match. He said 'I've already spoken about that'. So he wouldn't expand on it either, after their loss to St Mirren."

He then asked Souness if Celtic should face an investigation by the Scottish FA.

Ex-Crystal Palace owner Jordan waded in to say he could not understand the club's silence on the matter.

Jordan: "Obviously earlier on the week you've got the observation about Michael Fagan breaking into her bedroom as if his lack of success should be remembered. 

"I think it's appalling. I don't understand. 

"You cannot legislate for the hearts and minds of the people who come to support your football team. 

"What you can do as a club is exhibit a better code of conduct than Celtic have done. Which is to come out and say 'we think this is poor'.

"I'm a bit perplexed as to why Celtic wouldn't want to do that.

"We know what this is steeped in. This is steeped in historic feelings about the monarchy, the descendants of the people in that particular part of the world and their Irish origins, Catholicism and all sorts of things. 

"But come on now, come on."

During the ten-minute discussion, White came back in: "Don't you look to the top? Don't you look for guidance?

"Liverpool, to be fair to them, were proactive before Liverpool took to the field against Ajax last week. They were proactive before the event.

"Now, here, after another episode of this, and UEFA have already opened proceedings after what we witnessed in Warsaw, surely it's down to the Scottish FA to say 'Celtic, we'll do something if you don't'."

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