We Need To Nip Fan Trouble In The Bud

Date: 23rd November 2021

This past weekend should’ve been a weekend for celebrating! 

Teams and supporters should’ve been celebrating reaching a cup final. Players should’ve been celebrating scoring great goals, like the one scored by Raith Rovers. Football clubs and fans should have been celebrating league wins up and down the country.

McGlynnball at its very best 🔥#cinchChamp | @RaithRovers pic.twitter.com/8T3SXtoGxs

— SPFL (@spfl) November 22, 2021

Yet we have had another weekend marred by crowd troubles. 

Aberdeen midfielder Fonsu Ojo was ridiculously sent off in The Dons game against Dundee United, after he was shoved and assaulted by a United fan. I think Bobby Madden should have handled that situation differently. No player should be attacked when they are just doing their job. Thankfully the police and Dundee Utd reacted quickly to punish this supporter. 

I honestly think Ojo should be congratulated for showing such restraint and not punished for receiving such treatment from a person who had no right putting his hands on the player. 

There were also major incidents in Glasgow.

On Saturday, we saw fans attacking people outside a pub in the city centre. This is when the city was extremely busy with families starting their Christmas shopping. We shouldn’t see any violence inside our stadiums and we 100% shouldn’t see it erupting on our streets, terrifying civilians just going about their business. 

We also saw pyros being let off once again inside the national stadium. Hampden has these nice, new fancy lights and they look great so we don’t need fans bringing in dangerous fireworks to add to the occasion. I know it happened at the moment people were celebrating the life of Bertie Auld but the Tifo was superb and it didn’t need the extra lighting, in my opinion. 

The next day brought more of the same. 

Images emerged of fans having a full-scale brawl on a motorway close to Hampden Park. Again this sort of behaviour shouldn’t be seeping back into our society. We are talking about grown-ups that should know better. Those that were guilty of those violent acts should be brought to court and given stadium bans! 

We also had pictures of objects lying on the turf near Hibs goalscorer Martin Boyle after his final goal. Bottles and cans can injure a player and they shouldn’t be in the ground in the first place. 

On social media; grown men were also abusing a young Hibs supporter who was going to Hampden for the first time. I get that some fans won’t want to see his team win but there’s absolutely no need to attack the youngster and his family with warped comments. Seriously this is disgusting behaviour and it will drive people away from the game in which they love! 

Enough is enough. We need to stand up and tell these hooligans that we no longer wish to see violence at our games or in our streets. The time for singing bile and letting off unsafe pyros should be gone too. 

Football should be a celebration and a game that includes every right-minded person. The antics from this past weekend will only have families and others thinking twice about going and that’s the biggest disappointment of it all! 

 

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