I have seen some pretty shocking things in my time, but what my old man sent to me this morning was up there with the best (or the worst) of it. I actually had to go online, to The Sun’s website, to see for myself; sure enough, it was there.
David Fowler, one of their “reporters”, writing about an “arranged fight” between Lyon casuals and those from Ibrox, in a piece which if it didn’t outright glorify violence certainly presented it in a good light.
“FIELD DAY Wild moment young Rangers and Lyon ‘hooligans’ meet up to brawl in a field – then get picture taken afterwards” was the headline on this utterly abysmal piece, which got its story from pieces on social media, which of course presented this as something both sides are quite proud of. But a national newspaper, giving this credence?
I can’t help but wonder what the headline would have been had this been Celtic fans.
Imagine it had been The Green Brigade?
Jesus, there would have been calls for a national inquiry.
Yet, this is how Fowler chose to open his article; “It’s certainly a different kind of image of football hooliganism from the one which became feared during the 1980s.”
Perhaps he’s not aware – ignorant as he is – that in fact this was exactly the sort of thing that casuals did in the 80’s. Pre-arranged “meets” were standard practice.
If someone would have gotten seriously injured or killed during this, would this clown have written such a gushing piece? No, he’d have been doing what other editorials in the same rag did in relation to numerous others acts of violence which are reported on its website.
He’d have called all involved “thugs” or worse. On the same website there is footage of a brawl outside a pub in Spain. Nobody glorified it or made it out to be jolly japes.
But for the Ibrox fans involved in this, he’s actually published social media posts which praise everyone involved in it. Imagine the stupidity it takes for a national title to promote this stuff in such a manner? What the Hell is wrong with the media in this country?
What’s next? A Nutter League Table?
Why not just have a section of the website for these people every day?
Another piece on the site tells the story of a Union Bears member banned from football games for eight years after chucking stuff at the cops, and this shortly after a previous ban – for his role in the Riot Of Hampden following the 2016 Cup Final.
This guy is obviously a head-case … maybe he should simply have organised a punch-up and stuck the pictures online.
Then The Scottish Sun might have feted him as a hero instead.
You could not make this up.