Hibs Fans Made It Clear Whose Fans They Most Want Banned. It Wasn’t Celtic’s.

Last night came what might well end up being the breaking story of the week. Hibs released a furious statement in the aftermath of their Scottish Cup tie with the club from Ibrox. I read that statement late last night, and I was gobsmacked.

It seemed to echo previous threats to restrict tickets for our club. Nowhere in the statement did it mention any club by name, and so the media was able to tell the story it wanted. But dig deep – and you didn’t have to go too deep – and you see that it was, in part, a response to an open letter from their own fans. Their fans did, in fact, specify a club.

And of course, that club wasn’t Celtic. It was the one they’d just played. The one whose fans had sung a song during the match wishing death to their prone footballer Martin Boyle. The media barely blinked over that loathsome, degenerate song although Jim Delahunt condemned it on Twitter in the strongest possible terms.

I’ve heard some ghastly stuff from their fans in my time, but my God that was a terrible place I never thought we’d reach. Imagine the mindset that has people chant that when the guy is lying unconscious on the pitch? It’s beyond disgusting and the whole of the media should have been united in calling it that, and it doesn’t matter who the player on the ground was.

This stuff only happens because our media is too cowardly to do something about it, and call it out properly. That means that those responsible are put under no pressure, not by the governing body, not by their own club and even not by civic Scotland who should be outraged at this depressing new low, but which never manages to find its voice when it comes to this kind of thing, leaving it instead to lone individuals, like the writer Kevin Williamson, whose disgust radiated off the tweet that he sent out. He and Delahunt are amongst the courageous few.

The fans on the website Hibs.net were pretty courageous as well. They probably have their issues with our supporters, and I know that a section of our fan base has not covered itself in glory with its behaviour at away grounds, and I don’t need to tell any regular readers here what my own views are on pyro; the sooner it’s removed from grounds for good the better.

But they knew who they were furious at when they sent their open letter to the club. Its members put their own names on it, those who have season tickets recorded their numbers. Their circular spoke of long-term issues with the Ibrox support and expressed the wish that their club would do what no other club in the country has – including Celtic – and finally put a debate about the scourge of anti-Irish racism on the table.

The Ibrox fans were up to their knees in fenian blood at their Champions League game the other night. UEFA hasn’t stirred and the Scottish media hasn’t been in any great rush to bring their attention to it. They sing it almost every week here at home, so of course that’s not going to be mentioned either. Nobody cares. Nobody wants the discussion.

Not only was I pleased to see Hibs.net and their members putting that issue at the heart of their message to the club, but I was grateful for it, grateful that we’re not the only people in the country who take this seriously, not the only people who wonder why officialdom continues to tolerate it, why the media continues to ignore.

I cannot express enough my thanks to them for that. I’ve always had a soft spot for their club as most regular readers are aware, counting a good number of Hibs fans amongst my friends, and I knew they would be furious about what happened on Sunday but I never expected them to put it in such plain, no compromise language and to make it clear that this was part of a long-running issue, but especially not to push their club towards confronting that larger problem.

They should be proud of themselves for that statement.

Their club, on the other hand, bottled it. They refused to specifically name the Ibrox club and now are leaking to the media their intent to inflict a collective punishment on Celtic fans as well. I know we’re not angels, but this decision is gutless in that refuses to acknowledge the points their fans have raised and clearly separate the issues at play here.

Why don’t they just call out what happened on Sunday clearly, and unequivocally, as their supporters have done? They condemned the behaviour but almost went out of their way not to name and shame the club whose fans were responsible, and the club itself has not uttered a word, not one, about the behaviour of its own fans … and naming them might actually have forced them to take the matter more seriously than they appear to be doing.

Hibs fans urged them to take a lead, and all we’ve got from them instead is a long line painted yellow. They have urged other clubs to take responsibility and tackle the problems inside their own house, apparently without realising that unless they and others put the pressure on those clubs by calling them out directly that they can hide in the herd and do nothing.

Martin Boyle is on the mend, and all good people in Scottish football will be relieved and gladdened by that. But if he hadn’t been, it’s not impossible that the last thing he had heard would have been the Ibrox fans wishing him to die … why in God’s name is their club content to bury that terrible fact in a wider statement and media briefings about banning our fans too?

It might be the most shameful act of cowardice I’ve seen from any club in the country in a long time, and Hibs fans must be immensely frustrated at it, even those who believe in the stupidity of the “two heads of the same coin” lie and that we are just as bad.

This wasn’t us. Our fans would never have behaved that way and everyone who follows football in Scotland knows that full damn well.

It’s astonishing that Hibs have ducked out of their responsibility to challenge that behaviour properly, and as far as I’m concerned they will have no credibility in trying to take a moral lead until they actually are willing to do it … they get no points for this, for obfuscating, for dancing around the matter, for failing to echo the very clear and very welcome sentiments of their own fans.

Once again, thank you to the team behind Hibs.net. You tried, and that’s more than most people in Scottish football have done or will ever do and please don’t stop. Please don’t give up. Because that debate does need to be had, and I am just frustrated that my own club isn’t prepared to have it, or to start some of the others that this game is crying out for.