Green Brigade raise over £20,000 for Celtic Park display in Premiership opener

The Green Brigade have raised over £20,000 to produce a full stadium display at Celtic Park on the opening day of the new Premiership season.

The ultra group say the tifo will be in celebration of the club’s title success last season.

The Hoops kick-off their league defence against Aberdeen on Sunday, July 31 as the new campaign gets under way.

They won the title by four points last season in what was manager Ange Postecoglou’s first season at the club.

A success made even more impressive by the fact Rangers had won the previous year’s by more than 20 points.

The Australian won manager of the year as a result of the performance and the Green Brigade are now looking to show their appreciation.

Posting on the GoFundMe page, which is currently sitting at £20,915, a spokesperson for the Celtic supporter group said the banner will “lay down a marker” for the season ahead and be in tribute to Postecoglou’s now famous “we never stop” mantra.

Any extra funds raised will be put towards similar displays throughout the season.

The GoFundMe post said: “On the opening day of the season, we will produce a tifo to celebrate the success of last season while laying a marker for the season ahead: we don’t stop.

“Ange has united our entire club therefore we will prepare a tifo that will involve the entire stadium. To achieve this we need your support.

“We won’t stop at one tifo: we will keep the fund running to support all tifo initiatives throughout the season. This will include bigger, better, more regular tifos as well as at least two full stadium tifos for the season.”

The Green Brigade’s banners and displays have become their calling card over the years with the most celebrated coming in the famous 2-1 Champions League win over Barcelona in 2012.

Another memorable display was a full stadium tifo celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Lisbon Lions European Cup victory in 2017, however others have caused controversy and earned the club fines.

In 2019 then chief executive Peter Lawwell banned the Green Brigade from Celtic Park for a Europa League game and revealed the club had been hit by fines totalling more than £400,000 due to illicit banners and chants.

That same year Celtic were fined £15,000 in part due to a banner depicting the death of Benito Mussolini being flown in the section the Green Brigade are housed in a game against Lazio.

The group reacted by raising the same amount for asylum seeker charities in Scotland and Rome through their Football Against Fascism fund.

And in 2016 the club were fined £8,000 over a Palestine flag display in the Green Brigade section against Israeli side Hapoel Be’er Sheva.

Again the group responded by launching a charity fundraiser that raised more than £100,000 for Palestinian charities.