Police Scotland have banned flags and banners from the boxing day match between St Johnstone and Celtic at Perth . They claim banners are used to hide people with pyro and they fear a repeat of the scenes recently witnessed at Fir park . What a crock ! Our police authority seem intent on sensitising football to the extreme . Knee jerk seems to be their default setting these days . Blanket bans are preferred to them actually doing the job clubs are paying a fortune for them to do . Whole fanbases are being demonised because of the behaviour of the mindless few . This is nothing new in Scotland though . Nor is it particulary surprising given the police attitude to football supporters that has always been prevalent in this country . The same brush approach has always been the preferred option . Supporters are treated like ****e , herded and corralled like cattle on the off chance that there maybe trouble and the cops may have to earn their pay . Play nice , watch the game , say or sing nothing and go home . God forbid there be any atmosphere . Celtic have a problem with numptys and recently those numptys have , much to all our amusement , made an utter arse of themselves and their club . That does not mean however that the Celtic support on a whole should be tarred with the same brush . If you think they do then think on because it won't be long before the leap forward is made and everybody will be tarred . Perth will just be the start and this nonsense will be rolled out across the country. So police Scotland need to rethink their strategy . Here's a radical plan . Do your ****ing jobs .Arrest the dicks holding the smokebombs . They are easy to spot . Just follow the smoke. It's why our clubs pay the big bucks .
It's getting to the stage where they may as well just ban supporters from entering the ground and replace them with canned noise and computer generated images in the stands. My lot (Watford) are in trouble with the FA because of eejits letting off flares - as you say it should be easy to weed them out without the need for banning flags and what have you. That said, it would be nice if people could just have the brains to understand what is and is not acceptable beahviour in a football ground - it realy shouldn't be rocket science.
I`m all for banning flags and banners, but a blanket ban is a whole different thing. What if it gets a bit chilly ?
On a serious note, yes, I agree - wade in and arrest the dicks ; there seems to be this myth that the police cant do this but instead should act retrospectively with cctv etc ..... I actually think the reaction of the majority would be to applaud this rather than kick off in some mindless riot.
It isn't rocket science Dan but unfortunately there will always be the idiots . That's true in every walk of life not just football . There are ways of weeding out the idiots and the police must be expected to earn the cash they take from the game . Standing back and admiring should not be an option.
Totally agree . And automatic bans or suspension should follow . Get the dicks out and keep them out . Gambol is especially fond of that approach
That is one of my major hobby horses these days - too often I see coppers standing around just letting antisocial behaviour go unchecked. They seem to be too worried about infringing people's human rights to actually do what they're meant to. I do think clubs need to take a stand on this as well though. We played Spurs away years ago and I have to say the anti semtiism and general nastiness coming from our end was quite appaling allbeit perfectly accepted at the time. In his programme notes for the next home game Graham taylor absolutely slated the support threatening to walk out and all sorts. Although some of the chanting carried on it never happened anywhere near that scale ever again. Players and managers have a huge influence on the support and can help to shape their behaviour, Of course it shouldn't be necessary but if you want to avoid fines and other sanctions then it might now be the time to take more drastic action - the actions of a small number of morons should not be allowed to harm the enjoyment of the many.
If a club decided to put a prohibition on all natives of Florence and Milan attending the matches would that be known as a Taliban?
I'd pay good money to see that Dan.................oh hang on a minute...................slight flaw there.
Guaranteed somebody sets of a smoke bomb anyway. The only way to stop it is to arrest the culprit at the time. They should never have let midgets join the police as they have all been scared ****less to do there job.
The only sensible solution is to cut off their hands. And for those that have high dexterity cut off their feet as well.
smoke bombs are harmless though are they not? they give you them to fling at each other at paintball ffs
Ah I see where the confusion was caused . Celtic phoned and asked if banners and flags would be banned from the stadium when next the two teams met . The answer the got was . No siree Bob , perish the thought , bring your banners they will be welcome here . So Celtic fc released the good news so as to give their support a wee Crimbo lift . Unfortunately CFC had phoned ICT instead of the Saints . An easy mistake to make
