It’s been just over two weeks since Celtic banned Sky presenter and pundit, Andy Walker from entering Paradise. Walker was outspoken about the clubs January winter training camp to Dubai and the former Celtic striker accused the club of being “extremely arrogant” and “lacking backbone” in an astonishing attack after the 1-1 home draw with Hibernian back in January.
The full rant can be viewed here.
Speaking on The Go Radio Football Show, the man that gave Andy Walker his shot at punditry, Paul Cooney, had a furious rant about the ban live on air and left Celtic in no doubt about his feelings on the matter, “We live in a democracy and people should be allowed to speak out. And I think, actually both clubs should have a think about what they’re doing with Andy Walker on Sky, in the last couple of weeks.
“Andy Walker is now a journalist. He’s a pundit, and he says what he thinks and he cares passionately about Celtic and he spoke against Celtic and surely Celtic will treat him well and the same with Rangers who apparently didn’t like something he said.
“For goodness sake this isn’t Russia. It’s not Pravda. We are in a democracy, and we can’t lose this.
Were Celtic right to ban Andy Walker from Paradise?
YES
NO
“It’s a democracy, we’re in and be careful of people who want to shut you down and shut down opinion, because they don’t like it.”
“The Andy Walker thing I think people at Celtic should also have a look at themselves, if that is the case, and at Rangers. He is a really good pundit, who deserves to be treated properly and allowed to do his job.
“He wasn’t an he wasn’t at the gantry the other week of the game, and that’s ridiculous. I mean it really is. I hadn’t known too much about it, I found out a bit more. And it all comes together. Let’s treat people properly and be fair. We’re in a democracy.”
It is fair to say that Walker isn’t popular amongst the Celtic fans as they see him as a constant critic of the club but strangely, the board decided to ban the pundit on a subject most fans agreed with. It clearly wasn’t Walkers comments on the trip that seemed to bother the board but the criticism of the board itself that spurred them to ban him. Which is strange seeing as Peter Lawwell has since apologised for the trip.
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