Hanging Effigies and Sectarian Banners

[barca72 440]

“What were cops doing to crack down on halfwits”

 

By BILL LECKIE, Scottish Sun columnist

 

BLOW-UP dolls hung from the rafters with opposition scarves around their necks.

 

Offensive banners draped over balconies in flagrant disregard of public order laws.

 

Gangs of morons rampaging through stadium corridors, reducing toilet blocks to rubble in revenge for losing a football match.

 

If only there was some way for society to stop this kind of disgusting, sinister behaviour ruining what’s billed as a football match.

 

Maybe, off the top of my head, we could set up some sort of state-run “force” to “police” the crowds. Perhaps they could be assisted by civilians who would “steward” major events and help nip trouble in the bud.

 

They could be on duty at entrances to prevent spectators from coming in with said blow-up dolls and banners. They could be alive to 200 fans all going at once to a loo with a dozen urinals. Heavy-handed sarcasm? Perhaps. But maybe it wouldn’t be needed if there was a little more heavy-handed cracking down on the kind of halfwits who have piled yet more shame on the Old Firm.

 

If a six-year-old kiddie tries to take a can of Coke into a game, there’s yellow jackets round him in seconds to get it into a bin. The same wean will have the bamboo stick taken out of his flag at a Scotland game or a cup final.

 

Yet somehow, Celtic punters got into the most high-security match in years with half the Ann Summers catalogue under their arms — not to mention 50ft lengths of bedsheet printed with their vile messages to the away end.

 

How is this allowed? What happens to the dire pre-match warnings that anyone who steps out of line can expect the full fury of the law? Why bother with the Tannoy announcements that nastiness in any form will not be accepted?

 

It’s plainly all just mouth music because time and again clowns on both sides of this horrible, self-styled, barbed-wire-topped divide swan in and do whatever the bloody hell they like.

 

We’ve only just come off the back of the Scottish Cup final where the world looked on as cops and stewards waited until a pitch invasion grew to the brink of a full-scale riot before finally — and, it seemed, reluctantly — stepping in.

 

You would have thought after the stick they took then that they would have been double-focused on letting no one away with a damn thing at the first Old Firm league clash in four years.

 

Yet here we are, mired in the usual he-said-she-said fallout over which one’s worse than the other, with no one seeming to have noticed that the dolls only dangled and the banners only screamed their bile and the toilets were only destroyed because no one in uniform stopped it happening.

 

The vast majority of Celtic and Rangers fans are rightly disgusted and dismayed by the actions of the numbskulls who pile shame on their clubs — and, encouragingly, they have been quick to condemn those in their own colours who stepped out of line.

 

But they are also entitled to ask exactly what their council tax money is being spent on when police react to situations as troubling as these two days late.

 

Over to you, Chief Constable.

 

There is. We took them in, fed them, gave them a chance at low-paying jobs and encouraged them to work hard and do well for their families.

They did, and well done them, and now their generations of off-spring are well-educated and well-trained.

Now to solve the problem, encourage them to go back to where their true loyalties lie. We'll keep those who would rather be a citizen of the U.K. than Ireland.

[LucyBlue 0]

There is. We took them in, fed them, gave them a chance at low-paying jobs and encouraged them to work hard and do well for their families.

They did, and well done them, and now their generations of off-spring are well-educated and well-trained.

Now to solve the problem, encourage them to go back to where their true loyalties lie. We'll keep those who would rather be a citizen of the U.K. than Ireland.

 

It's long gone beyond that.

 

Three generations ago we saw it but ignored it.

Two generations ago it bothered us but we did little.

One generation ago we faced it but felt we could rise above it.

This generation....we're paying for previous mistakes.

 

That's the legacy our young have.

 

I don't condone destroying toilets but I understand the frustration many young Gers have in 2016.

[RANGERRAB 3,731]

It's long gone beyond that.

 

Three generations ago we saw it but ignored it.

Two generations ago it bothered us but we did little.

One generation ago we faced it but felt we could rise above it.

This generation....we're paying for previous mistakes.

 

That's the legacy our young have.

 

I don't condone destroying toilets but I understand the frustration many young Gers have in 2016.

 

And the next generation ? Doesn't bear thinking about does it ?

All it will take is something to trigger it all off into wider society. Once this goes outside football grounds we will have big problems.

The police non-action on saturday was reprehensible. Useless in fact. They were as well not being there.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

The real worry is rangers fans will die if this goes unchecked.

[cooponthewing 1,139]

Totally agree GS. We are in uncharted water. The sectarian hate coming from them is out of control and your correct, the next logical social step is for it to escolate outside of football and into society. Then we have the possible killings of Protestants by Catholics as depicted by C****c supporters with their hanging execution of an Orangeman.

Edited September 13, 2016 by cooponthewing

[der Berliner 3,803]

Not sure about this, but the toilets thing seems merely a distraction and is being "blown out of proportion". Don't get me wrong here, since I don't condone it one bit. Yet, reading a few comments on FF and here seems to suggest that both clubs know the "vandalism" problem will occur - whether toilets of seats or whatever - and have for quite some time a gentleman's agreement to keep that in-house and deal with it internally. Hence, as is being said, the prices for OF games are 10 to 15 pounds higher than normal. I obviously can't verify this information.

[jhunter 0]

You know what gives me the fear?

 

The thing that makes it beyond football?

 

It's the hands tied behind the backs thing.

 

That's genuinely creepy.

 

its an ira reference

 

in the same weekend incidentally that nacho novo has received death threats in Northern Ireland

[BlackSocksRedTops 3,806]

Not sure about this, but the toilets thing seems merely a distraction and is being "blown out of proportion". Don't get me wrong here, since I don't condone it one bit. Yet, reading a few comments on FF and here seems to suggest that both clubs know the "vandalism" problem will occur - whether toilets of seats or whatever - and have for quite some time a gentleman's agreement to keep that in-house and deal with it internally. Hence, as is being said, the prices for OF games are 10 to 15 pounds higher than normal. I obviously can't verify this information.

 

I have to agree. I abhor vandalism of all kinds but this is sadly a common story in Scottish football. Ask Man City, Hearts, Dundee, Motherwell and Rangers after Celtic have came to town over the last decade. To propel this story above the utterly sinister and sickening nonsense that happened on Saturday in full view of the TV cameras, the media, the stewards and the police is bonkers. To make matters more ridiculous, I glanced at the Daily Record website this morning to find that the effigy story was being superceded by a jovial story about Ronny Delia having a joke with a Gers fans man boobs!? Feek me. You could not make this up

[BlackSocksRedTops 3,806]

Peter Liewell on Jim Whyte's Talk Sport show at the moment. I wonder if Jim will ask him about Saturday?

 

Just listened to it. Basically a PR exercise from Liewell. Totally glossed over the whole thing.

Edited September 13, 2016 by BlackSocksRedTops

[der Berliner 3,803]

BTW - and sadly enough, the last game is over now - but we may let our players know (not least Andy Halliday) that should Hun scum banners and hanged dolls are there again, the players / club captain should stop the game and draw the attention of the referee to this. It is no different than thrown bananas and more severe than some smoke bombs.

 

May sound patheric at first, but do keep in mind the mhedia non-reaction and fact-twisting that went on from Saturday onwards. And now imagine if the game is stopped, in front of a world-wide audience, and players pointing to sectarian and shameful banners and hanged dolls. No hiding there ...