LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - JUNE 21: Sadio Mane of Liverpool takes a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement during the Premier League match between Everton FC and Liverpool FC at Goodison Park on June 21, 2020 in Liverpool, England. Football Stadiums around Europe remain empty due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in all fixtures being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Jon Super/Pool via Getty Images)
Disillusioned Celtic supporters staged a mass boycott of their pre-season clash with Middlesbrough, leaving the majority of Parkhead sitting empty.
The protest was a deliberate show of dissatisfaction directed at the club’s board, with entire stands left completely unoccupied throughout the match.
Even a sizeable away following of around 5,000 Middlesbrough supporters could not mask the extraordinary scale of the empty home sections.
The upper tier sat entirely vacant as the two sides battled out a 1-1 draw in what was billed as a pre-season friendly but carried unmistakable tension throughout.
Martin O’Neill’s Celtic side ultimately shared the spoils with the Championship promotion hopefuls, though the result felt secondary to the events playing out in the stands.
The striking visuals of an overwhelmingly empty stadium served as a powerful illustration of the growing discontent brewing within the Celtic fanbase.
Camilo Duran provided the one genuine moment of celebration for those supporters who did attend, netting his first goal in green and white to level proceedings.
His fine strike came after some neat play from Luke McCowan, offering a glimpse of something positive on an otherwise uncomfortable afternoon for the club.
Celtic had fallen behind when David Strelec, a former transfer target for the Hoops, opened the scoring for the visiting side earlier in the match.
A smattering of boos rang out from the sparse home crowd before Duran’s £6 million arrival justified his fee with the equalising goal.
The warnings of a large-scale fan boycott had circulated in the build-up to the fixture, and those warnings proved to be no idle threat on the day.
For the watching board, the scenes at Parkhead will have made for uncomfortable viewing, with the scale of supporter dissatisfaction now impossible to dismiss or downplay.
Pre-season friendlies are rarely moments of great consequence, but the imagery from this particular fixture is likely to linger long into the competitive campaign ahead.
Whether the board responds meaningfully to the protest or presses ahead regardless remains the central question now facing everyone connected with the club.
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