Pacific Quay Musings?

[26th of foot 6,082]

9 hours ago, Gonzo79 said:

I genuinely struggle to comprehend how you can listen to/tolerate these broadcasts, 26th of foot.  

 

I heard about 3 seconds of Dick Gordon's voice on the bus, after the match, before I shouted at the driver to turn it off (I wasn't alone in doing so).

 

I could sense the joy in the few words I did hear and it resembled an Aberdeen fan show, rather than that of a national, publicly funded, broadcaster.  

You are correct.

 

It was an Aberdeen supporters blog. Earlier, it had been a Yahoos blog. The Jambo, Alan Preston summarised dolefully and signed off with, "good luck Richard". It was a repeat of when Rangers faced Dundee United twice in the Scottish Cup in two seasons, Big Dick going out of his way to offer congratulations to Jum Spence because he knew how much he had been throw and how much those particular games meant to him. Those broadcasting hate our club and our support, it is the Producers of the various shows that facilitate the hatred.

 

They are delighted to continue to take our license fees. 

[Bill 13,717]

And, apparently, we are delighted to endorse them by continuing to give them our licence fees.

[der Berliner 3,744]

31 minutes ago, Bill said:

And, apparently, we are delighted to endorse them by continuing to give them our licence fees.

That is actually the point I tried to make above when saying that the SFA/SPFL should act - regarding the BBC's failure to give the opposition fans value for their license fee (and obviously ours too, but the opposition chaps are not "in dispute"). Not that I care for the opposition's supporters, but it would force the BBC to react or make a statement ... which can be utilized.

[Bill 13,717]

2 hours ago, der Berliner said:

That is actually the point I tried to make above when saying that the SFA/SPFL should act - regarding the BBC's failure to give the opposition fans value for their license fee (and obviously ours too, but the opposition chaps are not "in dispute"). Not that I care for the opposition's supporters, but it would force the BBC to react or make a statement ... which can be utilized.

Well it might persuade the BBC it's self-interest lay in a different direction but it certainly couldn't force the BBC to do anything. However, the SFA/SPFL has zero record of helping its member clubs, as we've seen only too clearly. The idea of the SPFL pygmies standing up to the BBC is stretching credulity beyond its limits.

[cooponthewing 1,139]

18 hours ago, Bill said:

Well it might persuade the BBC it's self-interest lay in a different direction but it certainly couldn't force the BBC to do anything. However, the SFA/SPFL has zero record of helping its member clubs, as we've seen only too clearly. The idea of the SPFL pygmies standing up to the BBC is stretching credulity beyond its limits.

I guess you could withhold your money on the grounds your not getting what you have paid for? As has been suggested a collective effort in the tens on thousands?

[Bill 13,717]

6 hours ago, cooponthewing said:

I guess you could withhold your money on the grounds your not getting what you have paid for? As has been suggested a collective effort in the tens on thousands?

Yes that would definitely get the job done. The slight problem is it will never happen because we're so cowed we won't take the slightest personal risk. That's not to belittle anyone, it's simply a fact of life.

 

I'd like to see that Rangers chairman make a public statement, pleading with all Rangers fans to stop paying their TV licence fees because of inappropriate and false reporting by the BBC. It's debatable how many would rally to his cause but, while risking legal action against the club, it would certainly publicise the problem far beyond the BBC's ability to control.

[pete 2,499]

4 hours ago, Bill said:

Yes that would definitely get the job done. The slight problem is it will never happen because we're so cowed we won't take the slightest personal risk. That's not to belittle anyone, it's simply a fact of life.

 

I'd like to see that Rangers chairman make a public statement, pleading with all Rangers fans to stop paying their TV licence fees because of inappropriate and false reporting by the BBC. It's debatable how many would rally to his cause but, while risking legal action against the club, it would certainly publicise the problem far beyond the BBC's ability to control.

In principle Rangers have totally nothing to do with this. They have only taken the press rights away from one guy. The beeb did the rest.

[ian1964 10,724]

By Tom English

Let's see. In the space of a month we have had an assistant referee being hit by a coin thrown by a Rangers fan in their Scottish Premiership game against Livingston. We had an elderly woman being hit by a bottle thrown by a fan - believed to be a Hearts supporter - outside the League Cup semi-final at Murrayfield. And now we have coins and cigarette lighters and punches and God-know's-what-else thrown at players and management and officials at Tynecastle during the first Edinburgh derby of the season.

What we also have is the chief executive of the Scottish FA, Ian Maxwell, giving credence to the reintroduction of the sale of alcohol inside football stadiums.

Maxwell needs to take a reality check here. To the many, widely available booze inside football stadiums wouldn't be a problem in the slightest. To the few, who spoil it for the many, more drink is the last thing they need. Or anybody else needs.

If Tynecastle didn't prove the truth of that, then the advocates of a repeal of the ban on alcohol are living in a different world.

It was powderkeg as it was. It always is for this fixture. On Wednesday, it became something else, something unsavoury. Every lover of Scottish football revels in its unique capacity for bonkerdom, but this was too much absurdity. Imagine extra buckets of drink being thrown into Wednesday's mix. It's not a thought you'd want to linger on.

Hearts goalkeeper Bobby Zlamal allegedly getting punched, assistant referees hit by missiles, and, of, course, the physical and sectarian abuse of Neil Lennon.

'Twisted morality around Lennon'

Much of the post-match reaction has centred around the Hibs manager, so let's look at that.

Lennon has lived much of his footballing life in Scotland receiving sectarian abuse. Week after week, year after year, he gets it. We all hear it, but rarely does anything ever happen to the perpetrators. The governing body throws its hands in the air and says there's nothing they can do unless they get the say-so of their members, the clubs.

The clubs flunk it, time and again. When they're asked about introducing a version of strict liability, or some other means by which they can dole out punishments to clubs for the behaviour of their supporters, they hide.

Nothing ever changes and so there is an acceptance that Lennon will be targeted and, well, he just has to suck it up. He sucked it up all Wednesday evening at Tynecastle until the final minutes when Hearts thought they'd scored and he rather enjoyed their moment of realisation that they actually hadn't.

Was his reaction necessary? No. Was it provocative? Yes. Was it seriously unwise given the atmosphere in the stadium at the time? Yes, again.

But we can't look at what he did without stopping to think for a second about why he did it. Lennon didn't just have to put up with 90 minutes of abuse on Wednesday, he's been putting up with it pretty much for 18 years and, as we know, it has become dangerously physical abuse at times. On the touchline at Tynecastle among other places.

It's easy for people to say that he shouldn't react, that he should be professional about it, that he's the manager of one of Scotland's major football clubs and his behaviour should reflect that. We should try walking in his shoes for a week. None of us have much of an idea about the casual sectarianism he has to contend with.

There's a twisted morality at play here when we ignore the abuse but then focus on the abused when he dares to respond.

'We love a rammy, but that careered over the line'

Lennon is a tough man, but coin-throwing? That goes miles beyond what is acceptable in the cut and thrust of a derby game.

And the same goes for Zlamal, the Hearts goalkeeper, who took a punch to the head from a Hibs fan during the game. "Yesterday's result was 0-0, but everybody knows, who the losers are..." he tweeted on Thursday. "You punched me in the face, I was ok - no big deal - but feel sorry for your personal tragedies that force you to behave like this. Our kids are watching the games and I'm sure they can recognise their real heroes."

You felt for Zlamal, for Lennon, for the officials who got targeted. You also felt for the vast majority of fans on both sides who have no truck with this stuff. On social media, their voices tend to get shouted down by the cyber warriors, the hate-mongers, the conspiracy theorists and the whataboutery set. Twitter gives these people a platform to stoke fires.

When the madness is contained to the darkest shadows online, then that's OK, but when it moves from the computer screen to the football stadium and becomes real then we have a problem. Amid the chaos of Wednesday we can get side-tracked about Lennon and the one-eyed claim that "he brings it on himself". That's such a convenient way of looking at it.

You don't need to be the brain of Britain to know who the bad guys were on Wednesday and you don't need to be Taggart to find them and deal with them.

Let's be honest here. We all love a rammy, journalists more than anybody. We like a row as much as we like our next breath in this profession, but what happened on Tynecastle careered way across the line into a grim place. The only relief was that, in the environment of the night, it could have been worse. Nobody was hurt. This time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46062287

[ian1964 10,724]

?

[ranger_syntax 4,323]

There is a twisted morality at work.

 

It is just that it is not one Tom English will own up to.