Celtic fans mock the Queen’s death with ‘F*** The Crown’ taunts

Celtic fans mocked the Queen’s death with a banner that read ‘F*** The Crown’ and chants of ‘if you hate the royal family, clap your hands’ last night – while Rangers defied Uefa’s ban on British teams playing the national anthem.

Scottish football is divided by sectarianism and many fans who follow Rangers identify themselves as Protestant and unionist, while many who support Celtic identify themselves as Catholic and Irish republicans. 

Celtic fans unveiled the offensive banner just before their Champions League clash with Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk last night, with BT Sport forced to apologise after honing in on it at the game played in Warsaw.

All UK teams playing home or away were allowed to hold a one-minute silence as a mark of respect for the Queen, who died last week. But following a pre-match meeting between Celtic, Shakhtar and Uefa, it was decided there would be no silence before kick-off. Players from both teams did wear black armbands in Her Majesty’s memory.

However, the sentiment clearly wasn’t shared by an element of the travelling Celtic support. Just before kick-off a banner was unveiled that read: ‘F*** The Crown.’ As the Champions League anthem was being played another banner was unfurled that also mocked the death of the Queen. It read: ‘Sorry for your loss Michael Fagan.’

Fagan famously managed to scale the Buckingham Palace walls before creeping into Her Majesty’s bedroom while she slept in 1982. The then painter and decorator spent around 10 minutes talking to the monarch about his family. The Queen thought Fagan was just a drunk member of staff, who was eventually tackled by a duty footman.

The Celtic game took place in Warsaw due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine at the hands of Russia. Thousands of supporters had trekked to Poland in support of Celtic in their second Champions League match of the season.

Meanwhile Rangers defied Uefa’s ban on British teams playing the national anthem before Champions League matches last night as the Scottish side played ‘God Save The King’ through speakers at Ibrox.

Fans in the Broomloan Road stand also held up cards to create a vast mosaic of the queen’s profile on the background of the Union Flag above a banner reading ‘1926 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2022’.

A post on the Rangers official website said: ‘Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was honoured at Ibrox this evening with a minute’s silence, a display created by the Union Bears, and a rendition of the national anthem.’

There was a growing sense throughout the day that Rangers and Chelsea, who saw supporters encouraged by a fan group to ‘belt out’ the anthem before their match with Red Bull Salzburg, would both disregard the anthem ruling from UEFA.

With no visiting Napoli fans in tow, due to policing shortages, the Rangers-only crowd first observed a minute’s silence impeccably before the national anthem was then played out over the PA system.

Uefa said today that it is yet to decide whether to investigate Rangers’ decision to play the national anthem, saying that action will only be considered once it has received the necessary information from its match delegate.

At Chelsea there were plenty of tributes to the Queen and there was an impromptu version of the British national anthem sung by supporters before kick-off, despite guidance not to do so.

Sportsmail exclusively revealed earlier this week that Uefa turned down requests from British clubs to play the national anthem before European matches following the Queen’s death.

Manchester City, Chelsea and Rangers all made pleas to be given licence to play God Save The King ahead of their home fixtures.

Uefa refused ‘on the basis of maintaining a consistent pre-match ceremony with a subdued atmosphere and without any celebratory activities across all UK venues to show respect’.

European football’s governing body elected not to play the Champions League anthem before kick-off and black armbands were worn by teams and staff where requested but the anthem was not permitted.

But Rangers chose to completely disregard the Uefa ruling and the PA announcer confirmed before the silence that the British national anthem would follow.

Manchester City made a plea to Uefa but, having been denied that right, they followed protocol and did not play the anthem out, as Rangers did.

Chelsea did not play it through the stadium speakers but fans rallied for a rendition of the anthem prior to the silence.

In Manchester, both City and opponents Borussia Dortmund did, however, observe a minute’s silence in memory of the Queen.

Thousands of Rangers fans arrived armed with flags in tribute to the Queen, while Union Jack flags adorned the outskirts of the stadium ahead of Rangers’ Champions League homecoming.

Chelsea fans produced their own banner tribute at their Shed End with a message reading: ‘RIP Your Majesty before committing to a version of the national anthem as players emerged from the tunnel.

Earlier this week a Chelsea fan group urged supporters to ‘belt out’ the anthem that evening in defiance to UEFA’s ban. An image to Twitter showed some supporters setting up at Stamford Bridge with Union flags ahead of the game.

The picture showed one end of the ground decked out in Union flags, and in the accompanying post it encouraged fans coming to the game to do the same.

It stated: ‘Setting up for tomorrow. Bring your Union Jack flags tomorrow if you have them. RIP Your Majesty’.

Red Bull Salzburg’s fans paid their own tribute by walking to Stamford Bridge in silence. In a video shared from the Austrian club’s Twitter page, fans can be seen solemnly walking to the stadium in silence.

‘Out of respect for the Queen, our fans walked in silence from Earl’s Court to the stadium,’ a tweet read. ‘We remain united with the people of the UK in this time of grief.’

Uefa said no anthems were being played in order to maintain a ‘consistent pre-match ceremony with a subdued atmosphere and without any celebratory activities across all UK venues to show respect as we did last Thursday.’

A minute’s silence was also observed before the matches at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge and at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, with banners honouring the late monarch also on display at those grounds.

Britain is in the midst of a period of mourning for Elizabeth II, who reigned for seven decades until her death at Balmoral in Scotland last Thursday. Her state funeral will take place next Monday

God Save The King was first sung before Saturday’s third test between England South Africa at the Oval and is set to used at Premier League games this weekend as part of the tributes being paid to the passing of The Queen.

Last Thursday, just hour after the Queen’s death was announced, there were similarly moving scenes at other matches. Thousands of West Ham fans broke into an emotional rendition of ‘God Save the Queen’.