Flag ban feels provocative

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It all seems a bit cloak and dagger to suggest that pyrotechnics are smuggled into football grounds inside flags and banners.  I’d always assumed the ‘stick it up your jumper’ technique would have been the delivery mechanism, not that I’ve any experience of the subject.

Flares have been an increasing menace at football games across the UK in recent years, including earlier this season at a Europa League qualifying game at McDiarmid Park, which passed off without mention in the media, but police have previously limited their interventions to lectures and the occasional arrest.

Football clubs are dependent on Police Scotland for safety licenses for games, and in their wisdom, the police have determined this action will remove one method of entering a stadium with pyrotechnics and discharging them without detection.  The ‘stick it up your jumper’ technique remains, as does ‘light it while pretending to tie your laces’.  Jumpers and tie-up shoes are the real enemy here.

This is an arbitrary over-reaction to the criticism Police Scotland came under for failing to properly police the vandalism at Fir Park, it will not prevent anyone intent on letting off flares inside a football ground from doing so.  Over-reacting after under-policing is a well-known phenomenon.  Going after flags and banners feels provocative. Coincidence?

You’re likely to find out if you’re in a provocative mood on Thursday; Police Scotland will know that provoking a crowd seldom quietens things down.  The reaction to Fir Park made me hopeful that we’d seen the last flare from the Celtic support, now who knows? We’re deep in muscle flexing territory here.
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  1. How many have been arrested for m.well damage? When the names and occupations of these vandals are known then we can deal with this not before

  2. bigchipsuk – there are only two spl teams in glasgow… celtic and partick thistle

     

     

    14:20 on 23 December, 2013St.

     

     

    Is that for real? If so it really makes a mockery of giving a refund.

  3. Is anyone else having problem getting an answer from the ST Johnston ticket office I have phoned about 5 times in the past hour and its just ringing out

  4. SSN “after the break we will see how Motherwell are planning to strengthen during the Transfer Window” cuts to a shot of guys moving broken seats………..

  5. bigchipsuk –

     

     

    Feel I should say yes I have but can’t use that excuse so I will have to go to my default one of my infinite stupidity. :)

  6. jude2005 is Neil Lennon \o/ on

    Do the employees past and present realize that they will likely need to work till they are 75 to get their maximum State Pension cos sumdae at Sevco nicked their contributions?

     

     

    ps Tho I think fat sallary will be ok!!

  7. We await celtics statement. I guess it depends if your are dumb enough to accept that people hide flares under a flag and not a jacket. Are your ready to suspend your disbelief?

     

     

    What’s next Scotland? Crosses on our clothes?

  8. Well I remember getting my tricolour flag taken off me by a big Edinburgh polis as I tried to get into easter rd. I had it rolled up to conceal a bottle of El D’ inside. I was 14 at the time. Now if I had only thought 40 yers ago to hid it up my duke.

  9. Sky Sports News has been running a story from Fir Park showing the repair and replacement of 167 seats.

     

     

    I would like to congratulate Sky Sports News on being the first sports or news channel worldwide to show people repairing seats in a football ground. It is amazing that no other broadcaster before has ever realised just how important such a film is in the world of sport.

     

     

    Just think of all of the occasions that have been missed by broadcasters in the past. Manchester, Celtic Park on numerous occasions……They must all be kicking themselves

     

     

    By the way, Sky Sports News is also making it clear that these seats were destroyed by Celtic fans.

  10. jude2005 is Neil Lennon \o/ on

    That wee burd fae Motherwell mentioned the flares Well fans threw but forgot to mentioned they wrecked the away fans toilets at Douglas Park. Hamilton struggled to get them fixed in time for their game.

  11. If theres 45K season book holders and it takes 3K of them to pay Lawells salary….thats 6.66% of the seats.

     

     

    I wonder how many shares he bought back in the day?

     

     

    Personally I bought enough that it constructed/ built 6 seats pro rata……oh and I only ever sat/sit in one?

     

     

    See what I just done there?

     

     

    Just saying like……..

  12. To those incredulous that the media can be so biased ask yourself why are our club allowing it to go unchallenged?

  13. leftclick Together we will get justice for the Dam 5 on

    A refund and tell SJ tae shove it sounds good to me .

     

     

    If our fans take the money away attitudes will change (IMHO) of course

  14. I am all for banning flares from football grounds, but as is hinted in the above article… http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/?p=14412… it appears to me that the heavy hand of the law and saturation coverage by the media on this matter seems to fall unerringly on Celtic and their fans.

     

     

    Although it has been mentioned in passing that other club’s fans get up to the same pyrotechnic tricks, the coverage just isn’t the same.

     

     

    Rangers fans have been guilty of this activity on more than one occasion on TV games I have watched, with barely a mention.

     

     

    Perhaps the powers that be think the Ibrox club have enough problems on their plate without adding to them.

     

     

    I have no problem whatsoever with the treatment Celtic have suffered in the last week if the same standard is applied to every Scottish club.

     

     

    But it isn’t.

     

     

    Today Police Scotland are quoted as saying that…”the banning of flags and banners won’t be the start of a blanket ban. Police Scotland have no plans to stop fans from taking banners and flags into football grounds”.

     

     

    Celtic fans being the exception presumably.

  15. This is just another flag of convenience………….for scoddland

     

     

    ………….and “Meeja” House

     

     

    O.B.E

     

     

    Order of the Brutish Empire

  16. Dontbrattbakkinanger on

    Ole Mr Johnny Clash distraught that he won’t be able to get into the ground with his autographed copy of ‘Firework’ by wee Katy Perry.

  17. Dontbrattbakkinanger on

    Also his autographed copy of ‘White Flag’ by Dido [ not a stranger to unrepentance] will have to stay up his jook.

  18. dontbrattbakkinanger

     

     

    14:46 on 23 December, 2013

     

    Is it all pyro?

     

     

    Or just Roman Candles?

     

     

     

    —————

     

     

    Roaming in the….oops, that’s banned as well !

     

     

    Baa Baa black sheep… There I go again!

     

     

    What about….

  19. SSN also reported that Celtic suspended 128 fans from home and away games

     

     

    Weren’t the suspensions lifted? Or in other words, weren’t the banned unbanned?…..if that term is not banned….

  20. pflan76 @ 13.49 provided the contact email.

     

    This is what I sent:

     

     

    “Police Scotland have decided that when Celtic play St Johnstone on Boxing Day, neither flags nor banners will be allowed into the ground. The reason for this policy is that fans might hide pyrotechnics in aforementioned flags/banners. Apart from the remarkable stupidity of such a policy, there is the small matter of selectivity ( I could say victimisation) here.

     

    Both Celtic and St Johnstone fans, in very, very small numbers, have been guilty of this ” crime ” this season…….but so have many other Clubs. So, why this game?

     

    I don`t really know what, if any, influence you have over Police Scotland but I can think of no other avenue of protest over this matter.

     

    Incidentally, since the advent of The Offensive Behaviour etc Act, the behaviour of Police Scotland seems to be more and more a random matter of just what does constitute ” Offensive Behaviour”.The fans of one Club seem to be bearing the brunt of this more than all the others.”

     

     

    I would suggest as many as possible do their own version of the above. We MUST fight against injustice.

     

     

    JJ

  21. Dontbrattbakkinanger on

    nee Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong

     

     

    I see she dropped the ‘O’Malley’.

     

     

    She must be lookin’ for a job with Shortbread.

  22. “He (Efe Ambrose) laughed again:

     

     

    “They got lucky to have somebody like me. I keep playing 365 days a year. I never get injured or tired, I just want to keep playing.”

     

     

    Tempting fate or whit? Doesn’t he know that he trains at Lennoxtown?

  23. Dontbrattbakkinanger on

    I do the lassie a diservice, she’s actually nee Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong

     

     

    She added in the Dido bit, just to annoy Cadizzy, and she added in the O’Malley bit for her da.

     

     

    She’ll be 42 on Christmas Day.

  24. dessybhoy

     

     

    14:23 on 23 December, 2013

     

     

    Why do you need to know the names and what they do for a living ?

  25. I tell you…David Blaine will need to go some to top the Celtic board….magically transforming 18,000 into 46,000….some trick that Peter….well done.

     

     

    HH

  26. I was just about to wish Florian Cloud a happy birthday for Wednesday….but not her brother Rollo because he’s got a stupid name….and it’s not his birthday.

     

     

    Their wee maw was a poet though years ago, she would have been called a poetess

  27. Reply from JPT

     

     

     

    Thanks for your email, having looked into this a bit more, the reason

     

    for the ban is that St Johnstone have concerns about the large banners

     

    being used to ignite flares and smokes. This applies to their own fans

     

    who have gained a reputation for this and are now putting the ban in

     

    place which is supported by Police Scotland.

     

     

    As you know Pyros have become a new phenomenon within the game in

     

    Scotland and there is a desire from Police and Clubs to remove them as

     

    they are considered to represent a danger to supporters. We certainly

     

    do not support a flag ban, however we do need to observe the rules of

     

    the host Club.

     

     

    The Club will issue a statement on the matter this afternoon which I

     

    hope will clarify the issue from our perspective.

     

     

    I hope this helps in the interim.

     

     

    Best regards

     

     

    John Paul

     

     

    Am not really sure what Celtic can do as it’s away from home HH

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