Attending a football match should not adversely impact on your health and safety.
Is that such an outrageous statement?
People should return to their homes and loved ones unharmed after the game is over.
Is that too much to ask?
For sure the emotional trauma of a football match can be palpable, but much in the same way that you agree to be terrified when you buy a ticket for the roller coaster.
There is an emotional contract that the whirly whatever is going to convince you that you’re seconds away from death.
Of course, you know that it is make-believe.
The thing is perfectly safe or the authorities wouldn’t allow the operators to admit the public to ride on it.
Ah yes, the authorities.
Those killjoys who insist that buildings have to adhere to fire safety regulations and the like.
For the avoidance of doubt, there are excellent reasons why the unauthorised use of pyrotechnics is illegal inside sports stadia.
Regular readers will know that I have consistently called of the pyrotechnic fusiliers among the Celtic support.
Whatever the colour of the burning flare it is indefensible.
Quite simply it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or worse.
At the Livingston V Sevco match two supporters, one of them a child, were injured by a flare that was thrown in the away end.
As ever the pyro chaps think that they operate to a different set of rules.
That is why the ultra virus is always ultra vires
I have seen similar from their counterparts at Celtic Park.
If it really is “no pyro no party”, then it is no party I’m afraid.
However, this is a false choice.
Of course, there can be a party sans pyro.
I’ve been attending Celtic matches for over fifty years now and when I was first taken to Paradise the fireworks were always on the pitch.
That is what I was there for.
Now it would appear that some believe that there is no matchday experience without flares and smoke bombs.
This fairly recent development on Planet Fitba and adds nothing beneficial to the occasion and endangers the public.
Sadly, there appears to be no end to the sense of exceptionalism that ultra fans group demonstrate any time their behaviour is over the line.
I fear that it will not end well…
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I’m still waiting on the SFA and the referees association releasing a statement after one of their assistant referees was felled by a coin thrown by “away fans” last season.
Utterly contemptible that there was no outcry.
Whenever there is an incident involving a match official and supporters, the stock photo of Hugh Dallas crouching after being struck by a coin thrown by a stupid criminal clown in our support is used. Every time they can trot that one out they do. Yet we have an assault in more recent history that has been completely whitewashed.
I’m not surprised that nothing is done about any incidents involving Sevco from their statement bringing the game into disrepute on a regular basis to their support.
This is Scotland 2019, they are not a dying breed, they are wounded, they are angry, they have their own persecution complex which is worse than ours ever was, they are vocal, they are brash and they are left unchecked to do so.
To think that Sevco think that the authorities and m(h)edia are against them.
There have been several issues which would have merited at least a rebuke from both the football authorities and civic authorities or the revoking of their license to play in the leagues and SFA cup competition.
What is it that they know or hold that they have on the authorities other than handshakes, temples and aprons?
Why were Sevco not fined for their shocking disciplinary record last season? Why did the Eastern Star Chairperson at Hearts not kick up an almighty stink about her club being thumped last season for their record? Why did she not kick up a stink about Sevco gaining a European place at her teams expense a few seasons back despite them hosing all over FFP regulations? Why do no other clubs say “hold on a minute these guys are spending beyond their means and putting our clubs at a serious disadvantage?”. Surely not all of their directors are on the square and level and dream of ascending the marble staircase one day themselves?
Why is it left to Celtic? Perhaps that is the main reason why we keep quiet and keep winning. If we pipe up to regularly it gives fuel to the rivalry fire.
We are watching a corrupt rigged game that the participants are only too willing to endorse.
I actually sometimes wonder if they actually DO have a secret so powerful that even our own club won’t rock the boat. I can’t think of a another reason why we haven’t put them to the sword years ago. The evidence is irrefutable and is already in the public domain, but no one, including Celtic, will pursue it.
It’s not like, as is the case with most clubs, that we need their gate money, we DON’T.
Charger is Peter ‘I’m not a Hun…Honest’ Lawell perhaps a Mason and is keeping VERY quiet about it. This would perhaps explain his craven and cowardly actions in relation to the Ibrox mob…they are after all a secret society and have to keep everything in-house…or should that be in-temple?
As long as this eejit is busy counting his money, he does not give a flying f**k about our club. This man is worse than Pete Mclean or Ian Macleod ever were…and we all know EXACTLY what those two were, do we not?
For any faint hearts among our support worried about the league after the weekend results, fear not. We still have the January transfer window to look forward to. This transfer window is of course known in Ibrox circles as the ‘January Sales’ due to them having no option but to sell all their assets at this time…if they are still in existence that is. Yours in Celtic and definitely not paranoid in the slightest…aye right. Hail Hail
Phil…do you have an over-zealous Sub-Editor who’s spiking my copy…??….:0)
Just wondering.
Well no this wan obviously…:0)
I thought I was on the naughty step.
Note this. Whilst Johnson is telling Andrew Marr this morning that their was no interest to declare with his relationship to the American entrepreneur the Sunday Times has printed a story that she has been telling friends that she had a affair with him whilst he was London Mayor.
Given that the PM can lie through his teeth at the drop of a hat whose version should we believe?
Joseph I think the affair is the least of his problems…there is a suggestion of public funds being used to assist her business.
I also think its been referred to the Police.
I’d also have to say that for arrogance and bluster…its one of the worst interviews I’ve ever seen a Prime Minister giving.
He was really bad.
Terencenova, I actually find the bold Boris to be quite an entertaining wee bastard…a total tool, but entertaining. At least our blond bombshell-as he thinks-doesn’t have his finger on the nuclear button…unlike that f*****g nutjob in the White House.
Anyhoo, talking of total bastards, no one, but no one, can match that-thankfully deid-old f*****r Thatcher. Poor ould Dennis…imagine having to live with THAT. Nae wonder he enjoyed a wee scoop now and again. Hail Hail
What’s the point he will only lie about it and deny it ever happened.
Watched the game today in a neutral city centre pub, but as the Huns are at home it was full of the great unwashed.
Silly goal to lose and was a bit disappointed with the result, but hell, these things happen.
Huns in the boozer were celebrating like f**k when the final whistle went at Easter Road…you’d have thought that they’d just won the Ramsden’s Cup or some other such trifle. Greedy bastards…is the close-season cup not enough for them? Hail Hail
Not sure how many people read or will remember my post at the beginning of the year where i said that VAR not being in in place would be Celtic’s biggest obstacle to nine in a row and also the quadruple treble.
Last two games anyone?
Hibs goal is offside and Celtic two stonewall penalties. I said at the time I hoped I would be wrong but so far…..
Kilmarnock’s goal against us came from
a stonewall penalty to us that was denied.
Rangers should have been down to 10 in the quarter final and a Livi penalty when at 0-0.
Let’s keep at track of it as the season goes on.
Sevco have just taken the lead with a penalty.
You couldn’t make it up!
Unfortunately Croppy Bhoy you could make it up. Perhaps both their two penalties were stonewallers. I don’t know. The question is why were our two stonewallers and the one last week not given.
I asked about for various penalty odds before season started. One bookmaker offered a staggering 1/5 on Rangers getting more penalties than Celtic. In a two horse race this is outrageous although odds are obviously based on statistics.
When did Celtic get more than one penalty in a game? How often do Celtic get penalties when they really matter? ( ie not when 2 or 3 up).
Preseason I recalled Celtic getting vital last min pen v Motherwell during the invincibles season.
I suggested that Celtic should have offered to pay for VAR for the whole league ( it wouldn’t get put In place for financial reasons so we Should have taken the hit and leave uefa asking why) as I suspected this was going to happen. If it cost us £10m it would be money well spent IMO. VAR would save/ earn us more points this season than a good striker.
It would also cost them a few points.
We’ll see if I’m right.
Cheers all.
Completely agree with everything you say.
This is the point they missed on Radio Clyde.
They got both their awards while we got neither.
We were not disputing whether their awards were justified or not just that they were given while ours were, as usual, ignored.
2008-2009 season of honest mistakes is being repeated here and now.
Days like today show why we need VAR, so don’t take 9 in-a-row for granted, never mind 10.
It reminds me of 2002/2003. Barry Ferguson won every accolade under the sun as he scored 16 goals from midfield. Very few people remember that only two were from open play.
What is also forgotten about that season is that Ferguson was taken off penalties after missing two in one game at Dundee with 3 games of the season to go.
However, Rangers getting beat 2-1 at dens park were awarded a third penalty and Ferguson gave it to Arteta to rescue a point.
Arteta then took three penalties between then and the end of the season including last minute v Dunfermline so the ‘fact’ that rangers got 14 penalties to our 12 are wrong. Ferguson himself took 18 and Arteta 5.
Rangers of course won the league by a goal!!
Anyone come up with an answer to when was the last time Celtic got two in one game can move on to three in one game.
Four? Don’t be so ridiculous.
Oh wait……..
Its a 4 penalty swing over one weekend. Wonder what odds are on Tavernier to finish the league’s top scorer?
The English media constantly knock the Scottish game as a two horse race, well one really in recent times, but here we are 7 games in to the best league in the world and either Liverpool or Man City will lift the title, without a doubt.
Spurs are inconsistent, Arsenal ditto and Man United are nearer bottom than top.
The also rans, many of whom have spent tens of millions on their squad, can only dream of a top 6 finish.
We got 2 penalties when we horsed Sevco 4-0 in the recent Scottish Cup semi-final.
We also got 2 when we beat Aberdeen 9-0 at Celtic Park.
Did you notice it’s not exactly in close contests that we get more than one penalty?
Cheers Croppy Bhoy. As you say not vital but we got them. Good luck with the next question of 3 in one game. Check up the stats v Dundee for the game I mentioned earlier. 2002/2003 and rangers win the league by a goal. 3rd May 2003 with three games left. One report ‘ Lee Wilkie seemed at times to be playing for the wrong team by having a shocker including giving away two penalties but Ferguson failed to take advantage of these gifts.
Fortunately for Ferguson, Arteta slotted away the referees dubious award of a third penalty with 5 mins to go to earn a point that Rangers scarcely deserved.
As I said Rangers win the league by a goal but needed three penalties just weeks previous to earn a point.
Can ever imagine that happening to Celtic?
Did you see Sportscene last night?
Tavernier has scored NINE penalties against Aberdeen including Four Double penalties (!!!!!!) I had to rewind and listen to that again but still assume something wrong with my hearing.
5 of them were when drawing or losing. 2 others when winning by a goal.
So the second/ third best team have been awarded 9 pens v their closest competition.
Why is McInnes not screaming that from the rooftops!!!
Loved Magdalena’s post at the top of the page. I’ve often wondered the same. What exactly do they hold over us if anything. I’ve long been convinced that we would find our chief executive at the top of the list of trying to get new rangers into the Top league.
Agreed. Hate these things, no matter the colour. It needs those in the areas most affected to shop the idiots by whatever means necessary. I was really disappointed with Tierney when he posted that quote.
100% spot on , there is absolutely no need for them.
It’s nothing more than Ultra groups saying ‘look at me, look at me.’
The pyro thingy has been imported from abroad.
We have just returned from Croatia having taken in the Hadjuk Split game at Polduk Stadium last weekend where the home team won and went 3 points clear of Dynamo Zagreb. It’s back to 2005 since Hadjuk won the title.
From a visit the previous year the home fans have taken down their pyro use by far. Previously the whole Torcida end of the stadium, the ultras, looked on fire which was bad enough but on top of that they were constantly letting off ‘bombs’ that scared the shit out of this visitor.
They made enough noise. with their chanting and singing to add atmosphere to the event which wasn’t easy in a stadium with a running track around the field of play.
No doubt our splendid football authorities will leap into action after someone is seriously injured as being ‘pro active’ is an action way beyond their ken.
I was at the Celtic Hibs game at Easter road when the CS gas cannister thrown by a Celtic fan towards Hibs fans went off in 1986
I was at the Dortmund game in the weeks prior to that where the cannister was bought (German market stall) and safely ferried back on a supporters bus, that game had flares too.
I was at many subsequent games where flares were used by Celtic fans as weapons against opposing fans in the intervening years where flares were stolen from boats moored in various places from Balloch to Greenock and the Port.
I’m now 50 years old and see in my youth I was an idiot. We never used flares in the way UB and GB purport.
Manchester, Aberdeen, Arsenal, Ibrox and a few other places in the 80’s and 90″s were all arenas where flares were common.
We never took them took Parkhead simply because they were used prior to the game.
I know of at least 6 guys who all received upwards of 2 years and as many as 6 years in prison for using these explosive devices.
None of that deterred the continued use.
Batons were used many times against us to get to the perpetrators as well as statements from fans who saw them being thrown.
I don’t have a solution to stop them except maybe strict liability.
They’re as common now as they were all those years ago.
When they banned alcohol from grounds you were searched before you got through the turnstiles. Surely the time has come for this practice to be reintroduced.
Have you been to a Celtic away match?
The only way to stop this is fining the club responsible, and on further transgressions, points penalty. If there is a need for body searches before entering the ground, so be it. For busy matches, advise that extra time will be needed to get in, so arrive earlier than usual. Additional cost on security, but well worth it. In fact, the SFA, or indeed any football authority with similar issues, could help out here to provide funding for such measures.
Even if the above is not seen as practical, I have to ask why nothing is being done about this behaviour. Its ridiculous
Celtic flair, not numpty flares!
The union bears seem to be not far away from bad news
They’re bad news.
The Union Bad News Bears?
We all know who is responsible. Extra security staff to closely search the relative turnstiles. if it means they miss the K.O. BETTER THAN SOMEONE MISSING AN EYE. It will soon stop.
My mother also had breathing problems and spent the first 8 years of her life in Martin McGuinness favourite fishing area Doocharry.
No matter the stadium, how is it that the match commanders, the chief cuntstabubbles, etc stand there and watch the “light-show”, instead of wading in to make arrests… there and then? Are our police really so spineless? Years ago, they would have waded in, with batons, if necessary. Time to start giving these idiots some serious jail time!
If they attempted to take any form of pyrotechnic (in reality, a Class 1 explosive) into an aircraft, the very least they would be charged with is endangering the safety of an aircraft, under the Aviation Security Act, or at its uppermost, prosecution under the Terrorism Act.
Any nonsense about these flares being safe because they were obtained from a store selling marine equipment is just that – nonsense. Football teams play on grass (real or artificial). If they want to use their marine distress flares, go watch water polo, and give the rest of us peace!
Steven, spot on as usual. The police know fine well who these ‘Union Bears’ idiots are…wee clue: they wear balaclavas for f***k sake. Search them. If they happen to be carrying contraband items arrest them. Given the serious nature of any pyrotechnic offence, remand them to Barlinnie or Shotts prison or wherever until trial. If found guilty at trial they should be absolutely hammered sentence wise by the presiding Sheriff, or preferably High Court Judge.
The sad fact of the matter is that none of these little bastards give a damn about the consequences of their actions. People HAVE been killed in Italy and other countries by the use of flares.
Once these tough guys are all greetin’ for their mammies in the clink-especially if they’re roomed with a big bad-ass called ‘Bubba’-then they may think twice before repeating their crimes.
BTW everything that I have said above in relation to the Union Bears, should also apply to our very own scumbags i.e. The Green Brigade and their hangers-on.Hail Hail
Phil as a season ticket holder with COPD , I don’t need to be in the same section as pyros to be affected, my breathing is bad and can taste the contents in the air. My son has moved me a few times as he knows it affects me.
It would appear the Ultra mentality is it’s all about them.
Look at me,look at how cool I think I am.
Well I for one look at you and just see a self absorbed tool.
No different from the Casuals back in the day in my opinion.
But without the violence obviously.
A different level of fuckwittery but fuckwittery all the same.
The Club should slap the fines on the culprits and not let them back until they are paid up in full.
Did you notice how ‘low profile’ the story was in the media? BBC had it tucked away in a lesser visited corner of their website .. referred only to ‘away fans’ – not that it was Sevco fans.
it also took a day and a half for the story to surface!
Now…. hands up who thinks this reporting would have been do nonchalant had it been at the Celtic v thistle game ????
This behaviour doesn’t make you an ultra fan. Just an ultra f&£@wit.
Only a matter of time until someone loses an eye or a limb or, God forbid, their life. ANYONE caught throwing one of these things should be prosecuted for committing the most serious crime that the law will allow. Then banned from ALL football grounds ANYWHERE for the rest of their lives.
I assume it was a typo Phil. “the authorised use of pyrotechnics”.
Indeed so.
Fixed.
Many thanks.