Hugh Keevins: Lies, damned lies and the honest truth

I have roughly the same amount of followers on Twitter as the combined number of people who watched Rangers draw at Alloa, Motherwell lose to Kilmarnock and Hamilton Accies share the points with Dundee United on Saturday.

Then again, there are, like the man said, lies, damned lies and statistics.

For example, if Rangers had been playing at home against anyone at the weekend I wouldn’t have had any excuse to mention Twitter followers because their attendance figure at Ibrox would have dwarfed mine and closed my mouth to the sound of cheering on a countrywide basis.

You can manipulate figures to prop up, or destroy, any argument, but there was one figure which stood out from the rest on Saturday. Or, more correctly, there was one figure not given out on at the weekend which was conspicuous by its absence.

Celtic moved three points away from Aberdeen at the top of the Premiership table by virtue of beating Ross County, but no official match attendance was released as per normal. Not even the one where the club legitimately counts its season ticket holders, whether they’re at the game or not, as part of the crowd.

Television evidence suggested there were enough empty seats to justify calling the attendance at Celtic Park sparse, and that prompted a serious observation.

How can it possibly be the case that Celtic are engaged in a contest to retain their league title and become champions for the fifth season in succession and yet interest in watching them play has waned?

The temperature was, admittedly, uncomfortably low on Saturday afternoon, but this is Scotland in February and that kind of thing tends to happen without significantly reducing crowd figures at the pre-eminent club in the country.

Peter Lawwell, Celtic’s Chief Executive, is rightly engaged in trying to maintain the integrity of the Champions League by enlisting the help of Ajax and others to head off the would be revolutionaries at the pass.

The idea to create a closed shop that restricts the Champions League to clubs from Germany, England, Italy, France and Spain, put forward by Bayern Munich chief Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, is unarguably restrictive and an affront to the integrity of the game.

But principle, like charity, begins at home.

And the principle of a team going for a league title while their attendances drop off at the same time is surely worthy of internal investigation.

Celtic are rightly campaigning for the continued existence of the pathway which provides Champions League pre-qualifiers for clubs like themselves. But there is also a domestic need to make sure that they are the club who fights for the right to gain access to the group stages of European football’s elite competition.

And right now Aberdeen are, until their temperament or their form, or both, deserts them, viable challengers to Celtic for the Premiership title.

The title that was described as Celtic’s “Overwhelming priority” by club chairman Ian Bankier in the statement which accompanied their half yearly financial figures last week.

That’s why the size of the crowd when Inverness Caley Thistle go to Celtic Park on Saturday will be fascinating. By then, Derek McInnes’ side could be three points ahead of Celtic in the title race if they win the games against the Highlanders and Partick Thistle which come before then.

Ronny Deila is already on record as saying he wouldn’t expect to survive in his job if he didn’t win the championship. The chairman has written that qualification for the group stages of the Champions League is the other “Overwhelming priority” on Celtic’s bucket list.

If that doesn’t encourage season ticket holders who’ve already paid for their seat to attend the match on Saturday then it’s time to ask why that’s the case and what it would take to have them turn out in their previously impressive numbers.

By the end of the week Rangers could theoretically be out of the Scottish Cup, courtesy of Kilmarnock, and Celtic could be trailing in the league race. That’s supposed to be good for business because it traditionally brings out the defiant side in the Old Firm’s fans.

If you don’t care enough to go and see your team when they’re possibly in the position of having to win to keep pace with a side who want to de-throne them and take their league crown then what disillusioned you in the first place?

Or could it possibly be the case complacency has reached such an advanced stage that Celtic falling to second place still wouldn’t be enough to convince absentee fans the title is anything other than a foregone conclusion?

That’s one way of turning up for the first Champions League qualifier of next season and being told it’s actually taking place at Pittodrie.

It’ll be too late to complain if that’s the case.

If you turn up for games and show signs of irritability then that’s an allowable reaction because you paid to be entertained. But absenteeism is a concern.

There are lies, damned lies and sometimes the honest truth. Something’s up at Celtic in the box office department and denial isn’t an option.