Mark Wilson spoke tonight on Clyde Superscoreboard about Celtic and Sevco taking part in the Sydney Super Cup in November, and he certainly had some strong views on the matter.
Speaking about the reaction by fans who protested the announcement with banners and songs at both matches last night, Wilson said:
“It’s what I expected if I’m honest, in terms of a negative reaction, from both points of view, if you’re Rangers, Ange Postecoglou has just made your point perfectly clear, he’s all over the promotion, he’s obviously an icon in Australia, it seems like it’s his gig, if you like.”
“From Celtic’s point of view, look, I can see why they would go to Australia, I went to Australia with Celtic, they’ve got a fantastic fanbase, but I’m not a fan of taking Celtic v Rangers games elsewhere and marketing them as friendlies, I think it just takes a bit away from that fixture, and I don’t like the idea of that, whether it be Australia, America, I know it was muted to go to America years ago and didn’t like the idea of it then.”
When asked by host Gordon Duncan what was behind that line of thinking, was it to do with the rawness of this derby and the fact that it hasn’t been over commercialized, the way some of the other big games around the world have been, if that was what people liked about it, Wilson agreed.
“I think so. It is unique to our game here in Scotland. It is our unique selling point if you like.”
“It’s just such an attractive fixture because of what it means to both sets of fans. I’ve no doubt there are millions of fans around the world who would like to sample this, but me and Daz would like to sample sporting occasions as well, but they aren’t on our doorstep, they’re in foreign countries, and we just have to admire them from afar, I don’t think this should be any different.”
“It’s our game, and I think we should keep it here.”
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