Celtic 'decided as a group' against giving Rangers a guard of honour

Celtic players and management decided “as a group” against giving rivals Rangers a guard of honour when the teams meet at Celtic Park this coming Sunday.

Celtic receiving a guard of honour from Hearts after winning the Scottish Premiership title in 2019. Picture SNS

It is customary for champions to be given the congratulatory gesture by opponents after wrapping up the title before the end of the season.

However, Rangers chose not to do so when Celtic visited Ibrox after winning the title two seasons ago and John Kennedy has told Sky Sports that his side will do likewise.

The club’s interim boss has revealed the decision was reached after having a discussion about it with his first-team squad.

He said: “It's something we’ve discussed. It’s a subject that’d been brought up and I’ve seen several people chatting about it.

"It was the same two years ago when we were champions and, if I’m being honest, I don’t think as much was made about it.

"I don’t see it as a big issue. For us, we've spoken collectively about it and we won’t do it.

"It’s nothing to do with lacking class or anything like that, because we’re a club that always shows class and dignity and do what’s right. But this same group of players went in as champions [to Ibrox in 2019] and didn’t get the respect at that time.

"They are the same players who would have been asked to stand there. So we’ve just decided collectively as a group that we’ll just get on with the game. We’ll park that, focus fully on the game and just put all that to bed.”

Message from the editor

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.