Friday, April 27, 2012

27 April 2003 - A Beach Ball Sunday In Glasgow

On 27 April 2003, visiting Celtic fans created a surreal scene at Ibrox by dumping hundreds of beach balls onto the pitch.

At the time, Celtic were second in the league, eight points behind Rangers, who had already won the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup (the latter over Celtic in the final). But Celtic were doing better in Europe. While Rangers had crashed out of European competition back in September, Celtic had three days earlier beaten Boavista 2-1 on aggregate to advance to the UEFA Cup final in Seville the next month.

The Celtic supporters took the opportunity to taunt their Old Firm rivals by sneaking hundreds of beach balls into the stadium, then throwing them onto the pitch while singing "while you're watching the Bill, we'll be in Seville." Rangers captain Barry Ferguson appreciated the humor in the act and even claimed to have spotted his own father-in-law among those with a beach ball.

Celtic proceeded to win the match 1-2, but Rangers got the last laugh. They won the league title to claim a treble on the season, while Celtic went on to lose to Porto 3-2 in the UEFA Cup final.

1 comment:

  1. This game is on 2004, the sat after we put Barca out the uefa cup. Have you no footage of the 2003 game??

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