The long list of transgressions by Scotland’s football authorities against Celtic and their supporters stretches back many decades.

My dad’s generation could cite several and they all contributed to a sad outcome: that for many of us the fortunes of the national football team were of no particular consequence.

Why would we be enthusiastic about a national team whose bosses seemed to view Celtic’s players and supporters as a necessary evil, whom they must reluctantly indulge owing to the vast income streams we can generate for other clubs?

It’s not – as has often been suggested – that we would prefer to give our support to Ireland; rather it stems from a growing realisation that Scotland’s executive blazeratti have always been adept at the dark arts of micro-aggressions towards Celtic and, by extension, those who give them support.

The insidious nature of this lies in the fact that they are not direct and obvious malfeasances signifying hostility but tend to be indirect and cloaked in subterfuge. My dad’s generation of Celtic supporters would most often cite examples handed down to them, including the fact that Jimmy McGrory, the deadliest striker in Scottish football, was deemed fit only to be awarded seven caps for his country.

I’ve written before about the decision inexplicably to drop Kenny Dalglish from the Scotland team just as he was about to break the long-standing record, then held by Rangers’ George Young, of consecutive games played for the national side. My uncles always pointed to the decision to build a roof onto the Rangers end at Hampden – and not the Celtic one – despite the Hoops handing over a significant financial donation to improve the stadium.

READ MORE: Why Tomoki Iwata could be Celtic's Scottish Cup semi-final ace in the hole

And, of course, there was the decision to compel Celtic to fulfil a league fixture at Tynecastle in 1966, just hours after our players had touched down at Glasgow Airport following a long and much-delayed journey from Russia where they’d played (and knocked out) Dinamo Kyiv. The exhausted Hoops players lost 3-2 to the Gorgie side, a result which could have wrecked their chances of lifting a first league title in 12 years.  

That one had its modern equivalent in the Scottish league ordering Celtic to play their home matches at Hampden in 1994-95. It considered that playing them at Parkhead in the midst of the stadium rebuild would be dangerous. Fergus McCann had shown them that it wasn’t.

Most of us can call to mind several of these, ranging from Farry-gate and the deliberate delay of Jorge Cadete’s registration as a player to Dougie-gate when a match official attempted to deceive Neil Lennon about the reason why he reversed a penalty decision for Celtic. The innocent linesman took the rap for that one.

If you want to know how far back such misdeeds stretch I’d recommend reading the autobiography of Sir Robert Kelly, the former Celtic chairman and one of Scottish football’s outstanding legislators.

Of course, generations of Scottish football writers are fond of dismissing such concerns as ‘paranoia’. ‘Nothing to see here’ is usually the mantra and one to which people clung even as the biggest story in the history of Scottish football – the financial meltdown of Rangers – unfolded beneath their noses. It was the so-called amateurs of the blogosphere who broke that story, even as others were awarding themselves prizes for it.

Celtic Way:

It’s why, of course, in a terrain which has come to be dominated by statistics and analytics, there is curiously little analysis of one of the most bizarre season-long statistics of them all: why Celtic’s closest title rivals are deemed by Scotland’s match officials to have such a disciplined and tight defence that their players never commit fouls inside their own penalty area. In the world of football, this is unique and potentially something that could be marketed.

If Rangers’ penalty-free run continues for much longer I can foresee UEFA coaching strategists sending emissaries into their training ground to discover the secret of this modern footballing wonder. This could be accompanied by one of those ground-level ‘unique angle’ videos of an entire 90 minutes to show these stout defenders in action as well as the intricate positional awareness that has made the Rangers 18-yard box a penalty-free zone.

It’s been claimed that the old antipathy shown towards Celtic by generations of Scottish football’s ruling fraternities has been washed away by the emergence of a new, younger executive model not thirled to old cultural behaviours.

That may indeed be so. Yet if any of them can offer an explanation as to why Celtic must start their post-split playing schedule with two away games, I’d be really interested to hear it. The Hoops require just one win to be certain of their 53rd title (although two draws would effectively do it, owing to their exceptional goals tally).

In making Celtic travel first to the two clubs who give them the fewest away tickets it seems that someone is hellbent on ensuring that the overwhelming bulk of the support are denied the opportunity to greet a title victory at home.

Why would they go to such lengths? There is no obvious requirement of safety or of Sky Sports programme scheduling that would have mitigated against one of Celtic’s two designated home games occurring first or second after the split.

Celtic’s home attendances are among the top 10 in Europe. A recent study commissioned by the club showed the extent to which their fans boost the Scottish economy. It was reported in 2017 that the club’s contribution to the Scottish economy every year was worth £165million, a quantum that helped to support the equivalent of nearly 3,000 full-time jobs. The report was prepared by the Fraser of Allander Institute, the most respected independent economic think tank in the country.

Celtic’s economic performance since then has improved year-on-year with the exception, obviously, of the Covid season. They are also currently progressing with detailed and sustainable plans to grow their economic footprint in the US, Japan and Australia, thus maintaining the long-term sustainability of the Scottish operation and those in this country who benefit from it.

Yet I can’t think of any other country where tens of thousands of customers whose loyalty keeps the lights on in many sectors of Scottish life beyond football are treated as though they are still at the back of the bus.  

Arranging for one of Celtic’s home fixtures to have occurred early in the scheduling was an uncomplicated and straightforward exercise. Sadly, it seems the multi-generational disdain for the supporters by sections of Scottish football’s panjandrum class is anything but.