Celtic have confirmed that the club’s working relationship with Celtic fan media will continue this season, after declaring themselves very satisfied with the way the revolutionary politics that began last summer have unfolded.
There was some concern within the club over plans to open up media events to Celtic fan media and despite one or two setbacks during the season – mainly due to some images being used in breach of the agreement by some of the sites – Celtic have confirmed that they are happy with the way the working relationship has gone and are happy to continue it for the new season.
This means Celtic fan media will have access to the first team, women’s team and Celtic B team for the new season. And it looks like Fran Alonso and Tommy McIntyre’s side will continue to play their home games at Airdrie’s Penny Car Stadium, despite talk last season of finding a new venue closer to Celtic Park in order to increase support during these matches.
Celtic have confirmed that the club are happy to continue the working relationship with Celtic fan media and explained what this will entail:
For the coming season, we will operate a similar arrangement to last year:
Just to confirm that we aim to provide the following media opportunities for fan media:
Media conferences for fans of the group ‘All in’
* All Fan Media conferences with key Club staff/players on an ad hoc basis.
* Fan Media Event twice per season with the Manager
* Occasional events for fan media around key club activities
The way first team press conferences work is that two representatives are selected in turn from Celtic Fan Media to attend either the pre-match press conferences, usually with manager Ange Postecoglou and a player from the first team team and the same happens for post-match press conferences for home games at Celtic Park.
Representatives of the fan media at these home matches will sit in their usual place at the match before proceeding after the match to the front gate of Celtic Park for access to the post-match press conference. match.
Pre-match press conferences used to be done via Zoom due to the pandemic, but that is expected to change this season, with some of the conferences being “in person”.
Here’s what the club has to say about Celtic fan media and why they use a rotation policy regarding access.
“The Celtic fan media landscape is rich, diverse and has many outlets, however, around matches, as we have recognized in our feedback sessions, we cannot accommodate everyone at The fairest approach, we believe, will therefore be to allow access on a rotational basis, which means that as many outlets as possible receive equitable access throughout the season.
“Fan media do not own the rights to all first team, B team and women’s team matches. This means that no one should broadcast from Celtic Park or film the pitch with videos posted on your channels. This happened a few times last year at women’s team and B team games with goals posted on Twitter channels and live reports from Penny Cars. As non-rights holders, this is not allowed.
A feature of last year’s press conferences with Ange Postecoglou was the way the manager was more open to the last two questions of each pre-match conference which would come from Celtic fan media rather than mainstream hacks. Ange provided some of his most informative and interesting responses to the fan media, with the manager well aware that he was now speaking to a Celtic supporter and then directly to Celtic support.
It’s also worth noting that many of these fan media questions and Ange’s answers made mainstream media headlines.
The final point on this news is to note that the club have received many other media inquiries from fans who were not involved last season, all wanting to join us. The plan is to stick with the venues – including The Celtic Star – which were involved last season, but try to open up access to some of the new venues throughout the season.
