Anyone who reads this and happens to use trains in Scotland will be familiar with the posters all over train stations and on trains which remind us that abuse directed towards staff will not be tolerated.
Nobody should go to their work knowing that there’s a high possibility of being beaten up – unless of course you’re a boxer or a MMA fighter of some other type of fighter.
A few years ago, most people felt that fan behaviour in Scottish football had reached a new low. Neil Lennon was busy at his work when a Hearts fan thought that it was perfectly acceptable to attack him.
Luckily for Neil Lennon, this guy wasn’t able to inflict any serious damage and he either wasn’t carrying or wasn’t able to use a weapon. At the time, both the football authorities and the police could have given the most severe punishment. Doing this would have sent out a strong message to people who don’t realise that this sort of behaviour isn’t acceptable.
Anyone who has watched a football game with me might be reading this and think I’m being a bit two faced, I have never attacked or felt the desire to attack a footballer or a referee. I have wished some pretty unpleasant injuries on players or officials and I have shouted or said some things that I shouldn’t have.
However, I think players, officials etc. almost expect a bit of verbal abuse and I’d be very surprised if it bothered them. I’m not saying this to excuse nasty verbal abuse, I’m just highlighting the fact that a line has to be drawn somewhere.
The Hearts fan that I mentioned who attacked Neil Lennon, you may remember, was told by the courts that his behaviour was OK. He was jailed for invading the pitch but not for attacking Neil Lennon.
At our last game at Hearts, Mikael Lustig had a ball thrown at him which was clearly aimed to cause him pain. It’s also been suggested that fans were spitting on him. I don’t expect fans to come out against this behaviour but I don’t remember Hearts making a statement of any sort. I found this surprising, as Anne Budge has been known to release a statement pretty quickly at times.
Fast forward on to Ibrox and we had the usual songs which are so “normal” for the supporters of Rangers and now Sevco, that they are barely even mentioned – should fans be allowed to sing whatever they like as it’s not really harmful? I said before that if Sevco fans didn’t sing about their hatred of Catholicism, they probably wouldn’t have very much to sing about at all.
However, their fans seem to be getting worse. I’m a fairly regular user of Twitter and I can’t go a day without seeing either sectarian tweets from them or seeing something that is related to child abuse or the colour of someone’s skin.
At the weekend, during Celtic’s demolition of their team, it became too much for some. A wee overweight man decided that he would get on to the pitch and confront Scott Brown and Leigh Griffiths.
A ‘normal’ guy who wants to fight against 2 professional athletes, my money would be on the professional athlete to win that particular fight.
We also had coins and a battery thrown at our players.
When Hugh Dallas, many moons ago, was struck by a coin at Celtic park, the media on the same day had obtained quotes from former players but as far as I can work out, the same level of reporting hasn’t been given to the incidents at Ibrox at the weekend.
The most worrying aspect of that attack was the length of time that took for anyone who tried to stop it. Brown and Griffiths were there and one or two Sevco players moved in to help out as well. I say well done to them for themselves into a dangerous situations.
It ended up taking about 20 odd seconds for stewards to run across the pitch. Is Ibrox an unsafe environment for players? Are the SFA/SPFL considering closing the stadium or closing part of the stadium until the club can show that players will be, reasonably at least, safe, will going to their work?
Celtic have been told, by some in the MSM, that our stadium or part of it could be closed because of flares or because of banners at some European games – if we knowingly break the rules, we can’t really grumble about being punished for doing so.
However, most will agree that physical assaults is far worse than a banner that a player either wont be able to see or won’t really care about.
Who makes the decisions to punish clubs and what do they base these decisions on? There was a so called statement made from Ibrox, I’m unsure on whether or not it came from the football club or their holding company. The statement was actually just one sentence to say that the police were looking into the incidents.
Nothing else, at what point will the club become answerable for their lack of policing and stewarding? I understand that the club can’t really be held responsible for 1 person losing the plot but if they are not responsible for safety on the football pitch, who is?
Should Celtic refuse to play games at Ibrox until safety can be guaranteed? Should we request that future matches v Sevco are moved to a neutral venue? I don’t really know what the answers are but I know that something must be done to protect Celtic players and staff while they are at their work.