Celtic manager Ronny Deila wants the small minority of troublesome fans to behave following the club’s latest fine from UEFA. The club were fined around £7,300 on Wednesday following crowd disturbances at their Europa League match with Dinamo Zagreb last year. Celtic were reprimanded by UEFA on the eve of the second leg of their Europa League tie with Inter Milan in the San Siro after flares were set off and fans clashed with police at the away end during the 4-3 defeat in Croatia last December. It is the sixth time in just over three years that European football's governing body has taken action against Celtic following incidents involving a small element among their fans.
Deila said: "You saw last Thursday what the Celtic fans could be and the atmosphere in the stadium was unbelievable. That is something to be proud of. We have a good support all over Europe when we play and 99 per cent of them are acting and behaving in a very good way. Sadly, we have one per cent who haven't done that and have made problems. It is so important for us in the future that we stop this and get known as good supporters and as I said, last Thursday was just world class in my opinion."
Assistant manager John Collins believes the club have to "weed out" the transgressors, who have failed to comply with the club’s requests to stop the pyro displays. He said: "We are obviously disappointed. We had 60,000 last week and it was unbelievable behaviour from every one of them and that is what Celtic is all about. One or two are causing problems and hopefully that is the last we hear of it. They are representing a wonderful football club and throughout the years the vast majority of them have been impeccably behaved and we have a great reputation throughout Europe."
A Celtic spokesperson said: "Clearly everyone is extremely disappointed that the behaviour of only a handful of people and in particular the use of flares, have led to a further fine from UEFA. We have repeatedly called for the use of flares to stop. We cannot and will not allow the safety of our supporters or the reputation of our great club to be compromised by the actions of a tiny minority. It is time those responsible understand the damage this does to the club they claim to support."