The Glasgow side had been charged with three separate offences, including having an ‘illicit banner’ at Celtic Park.
Fans in the standing area of Celtic Park held a banner showing an image of a person dressed in a paramilitary-style uniform of beret, dark glasses and military jumper, along with an Easter lily badge, a symbol that commemorates the 1916 Easter Rising and which is often associated with various factions of the IRA.
The banner was held up by fans next to a banner showing manager Brendan Rodgers inside a road works sign with his hands held up, with the caption ‘Rodgers at Work’. That image bears similarities to a highway code-style sign which was mounted by the IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and read ‘Sniper at Work’.
The club have been charged under Article 16.2 of the UEFA disciplinary regulations, which prohibits the use of any means to transmit messages of a political, ideological, religious, offensive or provocative nature.
Celtic have also been charged with blocked stairways and have been hit with a ‘kit infringement’ charge under Article 62.03 of the UEFA Kit Regulations, which relates to branding on warm-up bibs.
In its decision, UEFA has not taken forward charges relating to the kit infringment.
Celtic were fined £8,615 for displaying Palestinian flags against Israeli opposition last season and were handed a £42,000 fine back in 2013 for banners of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands and William Wallace along with lyrics including: ‘The terrorist or the dreamer?’
