BILLY BREMNER MEMORIAL JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN
Date: 21st October 2024
The news last week that both Celtic and Rangers have been fined by UEFA for their fans’ use of pyros led to both clubs issuing statements asking their supporters to cease and desist. The BBC reported that Rangers’ manager, Philippe Clement, “has urged Rangers fans to “follow the rules” after the club were issued a fine for the use of flares in their Europa League defeat to Lyon at Ibrox.” Given Rangers’ well-publicised financial shortcomings, the fact that UEFA has charged them over £27,000 for their fans use of pyrotechnics in their first two Europa League matches (after a similar incident away to Malmo), means it’s hardly surprising that Clement and interim Ibrox Chairman John Gilligan are begging their fans to stop breaking the law.
Clement was also reported to have said, “I know fans want to give their life for this club.” I think that’s pushing it a bit, even for the most die-hard Bears, but the fact is that the use of pyros is making the possibility of someone “giving their life” more, rather than less, likely.
Also on the BBC, Kheredine Idessane, writing on 17th October, noted that “UEFA’s ethics and disciplinary committee have decreed all Celtic fans will be banned from a European away match if any of them light so much as a single piece of pyro at any point in the next two years.”
Idessane’s piece made no mention of the various surveys that show the majority of fans want an end to the use of pyros, nor any comment about the damage that has already been done by these incendiary flares, most notably the permanent scarring and very-near loss of an eye of a young Dundee fan. That, in my view, is regrettable. A bit more research would have provided a fuller picture, rather than just the news that the Old Firm’s bank accounts are going to be tens of thousands of pounds lighter. However, he is right in that it may take the threat of not being able to travel to a European game (rather than someone being seriously burned) to get people to stop lighting flares at matches.
Even more recently, the BBC reported on the abandonment of the Stockholm derby match between Hammarby and Djurgarden due to fireworks being thrown. The police shut the ground and forced all fans to leave, with the game now going to be replayed, starting from the 76th minute (when the match was called to a halt), and with no supporters from either club present.
In my view and, I suspect, the view of most football fans, if it takes more draconian measures to eliminate pyros, whether that’s the closure of grounds, replayed matches behind closed doors, big fines, strict liability or whatever stick the politicians, police and football authorities want to use, so much the better. The alternative is we wait until someone does lose an eye, or worse. And that would be a lot more serious than a club’s fans not being able to travel to an away game in Europe.
Alastair Blair, Director of Operations, SFSA
Posted in: Latest News
Tags: pyros