Green Brigade

Celtic Forums & Webpages | Supporters | Banners & Displays

Details

Group Title: The Green Brigade
aka: GB, GB’s, Green Brigade
Formed: July 2006
Motto: “Until the Last Rebel”

Celtic Sites - Green Brigade - Kerrydale Street

Background

“The Green Brigade: One of the most imaginative and politically engaged fan groups in Europe,”
Stuart Cosgrove (BBC journalist in Nutmeg Football periodical, June 2017)

Celtic 0-0 Rangers (Feb 09)

Note: To be clear, on this site we DO NOT have any affiliation to this or any other of the Ultra groups, and have no bias to one set or any others.

Love them or loathe them, the Green Brigade survived the early predictions of impending collapse and made for themselves a mark within the Celtic support.

They began as a bunch of splitters from the old Jungle Bhoys supporters group, after a bit of disagreement over a joint anti-sectarianism banner with some Rangers fans. The Green Brigade made it clear that they are their own men (or boys & girls!) and follow their own rules.

From the start they defined themselves very differently to the now defunct Jungle Bhoys. Markedly more belligerent in their tone than other Celtic groups, they are a politically left-wing , anti-fascist group and are supportive of a united Ireland and independent Scotland (in their words) etc etc. Cynics would say their politics are simplistic and crude (a longer argument for another day for someone else to take on) and sections of the Celtic support are deeply divided on their view on the group. The E-tims website once described them as “…about the best thing that’s happened within the support in a very long time“, but others have remarked to the contrary.

Their membership is generally quite young, although they have more than their fair share of overgrown teenagers in their forties, but in general the group appeals mostly to younger Celts compared to the (now ended) Jungle Bhoys. Their mockingly militant aspect is another factor that attracts some people towards their group (as against the more benign culture of the Jungle Bhoys) but on occasion it can attract unwelcome people too. You just got to deal with them and in fairness the Green Brigade are strict on certain modes of behaviour especially on racism or bigotry.

They have been quite an active group. Whilst most others had spent countless hours debating and bemoaning the state of the atmosphere at Celtic Park and elsewhere, the Green Brigade just went and done something about it. The variety and quality of their banners have been nothing less than astounding, and their humour has been a great advert for the support. Some of their banners have related to various campaigns, such as memorials to the Irish Famine and protests about the exorbitant ticket prices at games, and whilst this area is obviously going to create friction at least it has created public debate on notable issues.

Their banners have even become of cult interest. Clever and smart, pictures of their banner displays have been posted all over the football world effectively going viral. In general, they have reflected the good humorous side of the support, the most famous display being the “Scotland’s Shame” display targeting Rangers fans and the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” banner satirising Rangers liquidation.

A selection of their best banners can be seen in the following link. (Note we’ve marked most of the banners that are the Green Brigade’s work where possible).

The most successful aspect of the group is that they have helped to rejuvenate the atmosphere at games. Their main stronghold is a corner area of Parkhead, section 111 (referred to as the ‘Green Brigade’ section), and from there the group and other like-minded supporters congregate at matches for chants and songs throughout the matches. They helped to popularise old favourites as well as write some new songs along the way, notably the popular Artur Boruc tunes and the St Pauli inspired “We love you….” song. In many ways if it wasn’t for them, there might be little or no singing at Celtic Park whereas once the ground was famous for it. The Jungle Bhoys tried but results were less successful, so the Green Brigade deserve credit for their efforts.

Additionally, they have been a constant presence wherever Celtic go. Their banners can be seen and found wherever the first team play, no matter whether the match is important or not. At a Peterborough friendly away in summer 2008, despite the game being an unattractive and meaningless friendly, they helped to generate a really great atmosphere on old style terracing (much to the delight of the older fans).

They’ll even go to extremes: at the Rapid Vienna away game in 2009, the Green Brigade banner was clearly flown whilst whole loads of supporters were jumping around without their shirts on in temperatures of -8C! It was all in good fun and helped to build an atmosphere that was widely noticed throughout Europe and put the Vienna home fans in the shade. They definitely follow the old lines of “we’ll go anywhere,… faithful through and through…“.

Stances
Despite being lauded for helping to regenerate matchday atmosphere there are criticisms. Unashamedly left-wing, the political aspect of the group leaves some a bit cold (many deem it unfit and irrelevant in the modern footballing environment). One retort is that critics are post-McCann fans which is patently laughable taking in the general age of many members of the Green Brigade. It’s also been claimed that certain of their members start up singing of a number of old militant Irish tunes at away games, which is something that has the potential to cause the club serious problems with authorities (outwith of football as well as within). However this has been much on the wane and doesn’t happen at Celtic Park at least.

One noticeable point is that at one time they used to display their signature banner upside down at matches! The reasoning is that it’s a common standard amongst Ultra groups in Europe in protesting against any of their own club’s decisions. In this case it was over the appointment of John Reid as chairman of the club. People can view this as they want, but the Green Brigade take it as a political stance, vehemently opposed to his appointment as he was a minister in the UK Government that took the country into the war in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000’s.

Due to their stances, it’s inevitable that they would run into conflict with the club, and this has meant various headaches which again can be left for a wider discussion elsewhere. The Green Brigade did state in their original notice (re-printed below) that they are not willing to co-operate with the PLC board, not exactly helpful. Must note that not all the trouble is necessarily their fault, and any flare ups are usually worsened by people wading in from out of nowhere just for the sake of it, and so matters can spiral out of control. The job of the stewards is tough enough for some. In truth, the Green Brigade have hardly pushed on many of their more tougher stances and they have mainly concentrated on issues surrounding the support and the atmosphere at games.

Celtic is more than a club and doesn’t follow the cliché that the phrase has become for other supports. Throughout the history of the club, the Celtic support has had a general antipathy to establishment culture and have been at the forefront of causes against oppression. Times have changed, but the support for valid causes is still an essential aspect of the Celtic support’s culture. The Green Brigade are another offshoot of this (whether you agree with their methods or not).

Charge of the Green Brigade

Banner - Pic

Despite cynicism, the Green Brigade managed to build on their early successes, and to help turnaround a fall in the attendances at games (following two poor seasons), and in 2010 the Green Brigade managed to obtain Section 111 of the ground (around corner of the Lisbon Lions Stand/North stand), and have built up a strong base of regulars who have helped rejuvenate the support. This is a notable action as proves that the club management (& board) have been fair in assisting the support despite whinges to the contrary. Many people began to openly applaud the Green Brigade and state that they were very much more enjoying going to games now due to the better atmosphere at games as created by the Green Brigade (especially youngsters).

They have planted themselves into the support and they will be around for a long time to come. Many youngsters are attracted to them and it has nothing to do with any supposed crude politics. The singing, the colour and the humour from the group has been wonderful and at their best have made match experiences a joy (much better than the constant moaning that has been the norm from one or two other sections of the crowd).

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the Green Brigade should be chuffed as replica groups (The Comrades/The Rude Bhoys) sprang up on the other side of the ground (Section 122) mirroring them in many ways. Although they couldn’t compete and sadly both ended not long after forming. Even Rangers fans created a version (The Blue Order or The Blue Odour as some dub them) and have even stolen some of the Green Brigade’s tunes & actions! Laughable, but imitations are the sincerest form of flattery.

Into 2011/12, more than established within the support, the club have even used images from their displays for commercial promotional exercises. The group’s songs have become staples not only in their section but across the ground. They became the focal point for generating atmosphere in the support and for that all should truly respect them. Their songs are now most often the standard across the support, and the mass “Huddle” which they began at Celtic is replicated across the stadium during the most important matches.

If one moment more than any other sealed the Green Brigade’s success then it will be from the last league game of the 2011/12 season. Celtic were handed the league trophy for the title, and Neil Lennon later walked over to the GB’s corner and placed the trophy in front of them, stepped back and applauded them. It was respect for their support (vocal and visual) throughout the season both at home and away, and a touching tribute to their efforts. Some sections criticised Lennon for this believing it was unfair to single the GB out, but that was churlish in light of what they had achieved. On the other hand, is this acceptance by the club officials? Surely the GB prefer to be “rebels” and “outsiders”? Joking aside, they deserved their moment as much as the team players and management.

Incidents

Not all plain sailing. In Aug 2013, after repeated warnings the club closed down the Green Brigade section 111 and started to relocate the supporters to other areas. Two sides to the story, but elements covered smoke flares, ‘lateral movement’, health & safety etc. All a difficult situation, but resolved without any matches with the area reopened in the end. See Link. However, matters flared again later in the season and they were papped out again, and then allowed back in and so on.

In season 2015/16, their section was converted to terracing, the first for a senior club in the UK since the Hillsborough disaster (RIP). The Green Brigade had the honour to prove it could work and was workable in modern football, and to date they have been a great example, adding colour and noise, so much so that clubs throughout the UK began looking at aping our new terracing section. Many clubs in the UK and even some in Europe have descended to Celtic Park to examine the terracing system as popularised by the Green Brigade to implement this system in their grounds, so the Green Brigade have been trailblazers.

In season 2016/7, following a dispute with the Celtic board, again the ‘Green Brigade’ section of the ground (as the club officially even now called it) was closed by the club for following two games after ‘serious incidents of unsafe behaviour’, due to use of pyro. Mainly problem was concerns due to building number of charges from UeFA.

In August 2017, the GB made a name for themselves globally with a display of Palestinian flags in their end when playing against Hapoel Be’er Shiva in the European Cup qualifiers. There was concern of UEFA fines etc but a £10k fine was covered by a fund raiser online with the money going to peaceful Palestinian support groups, and even Roger Waters of legendary group Pink Floyd coming out in support and used the imagery on the big screens in his concerts.

In Oct 2019, in a Celtic v Lazio match, their banners mocking the fascist deposed deposed Mussolini led to his non-entity grandaughter & politician Alessandra Mussolini claiming “Duceophobia” which was to be laughed at & much satirised as it went viral. She wanted Celtic charged for the banners. The Green Brigade replied with a banner of “Alessandra Vanfuncolo“.

In 2022, the Green Brigade went national (and beyond) with some anti-monarchy banners following the passing of the Queen of the UK. This included annoying various journos, politicos, non-entities and shock jocks like: tabloid journo Bill Leckie, shock jock James Whale, GB News TV, UKIP’s Nigel Farage, Jeremy Kyle, Daily Mail, ex-Rangers managers McCoist & Graeme Souness, and so on. It actually made the group a lot of new fans too!

In October 2023, there was an uprising in Israel/Palestine between Israel & Hamas (all details discussions are for outwith this site). The Green Brigade paraded banners in sympathy to the Palestinians. Celtic then made some excuses suspending away tickets to the Green Brigade claiming fears of UEFA fines following flares at recent away match., In fairness it was also in part due to some trouble at a recent away match v Motherwell. After what was a relativley long suspension and repeated meetings, the suspension was finally lifted in December 2023, after some agreements between the parties.

A noteable point was the downturn in the results for Celtic during this time, which depending on who you were debating the point with, was attributable or not to the downturn in the atmosphere at games due to the loss of the Green Brigade (alongside their fellow Bhoys Ultra group who boycotted in solidarity). Reduced atmosphere, intimidation for opponents, reduced morale as well as a divided off-field support didn’t help matters. Many seemd to begin to wish for their return, whilst other cynics claimed that it was playing into their hands (on this site remain neutral).

Notably, there were countless forum threads, social media debates and podcasts over the issue, with many arguing that this was the (umpteenth) end for the Green Brigade group at Celtic and possibly beyond. BUT clearly not yet. A full code of conduct had been put in place between the parties, and on what points the Green Brigade have had to acquiesce to were not clearly made public, see link for full new 2023 Code of Conduct agreed.

Overall

As long as the Green Brigade focus on invigorating the Celtic matchday experience, they’ll do well. We all have an opinion on them (and many have strong words to say on them) but being outsiders is part of their appeal for their members. We should still all continue to look forward to their future displays and everyone should applaud them (grudgingly if need be from the critics) for much of their efforts to date.

Quotes

“What I find weird is RFC fans utterly obsessing with the Green Brigade, and praying for IRA chanting when, such as Saturday, there is none.”
Graham Spiers (Twitter, 25 Sep 2011)

“The Celtic banners. Lord, how many man-woman hours went into dreaming them up? There was a level of genius about some of them, one in particular, a gigantic image of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse with Neil Lennon in the saddle on one and Hector the taxman on board another. Your Day Is Coming was the message underneath this footballing Mona Lisa. All around it, people waved black flags and held mock gravestones, each with its own message – The End, Rot In Hell, Scotland’s Shame, Get It Up You. Not subtle, but then subtlety wasn’t in the plan. Down the other end of the stadium another collection of Celts held up signs with the word Goodbye written in a dozen different languages. This was goading on a grand scale. If there was a Champions League for revelling in the misery of others, then Celtic would be Europe’s pre-eminent club”
Tom English (The Scotsman newspaper, 30 Apr 2012) on Green Brigade’s classic banner (see match)

“The Green Brigade: One of the most imaginative and politically engaged fan groups in Europe”
Stuart Cosgrove (journalist in Nutmeg Football periodical, June 2017)

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