Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Heart of Midlothian v Celtic - Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh, Scotland, Britain - May 7, 2023 Heart of Midlothian's mascot Jock the Jambo is pictured before the match REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
One of the most infuriating things about yesterday, other than the despicable conduct of the officials, was the shocking sight of our fans sitting in a mostly empty stand, surrounded by stupid covers over seats which could, and should, have had people in them.
It’s a travesty. Scottish football 2024, this is what you’ve become. This is what you’ve been allowed to become. Like a parody of a game which still quotes Stein’s “Football without fans is nothing” whilst conspiring to lock out as many paying customers as possible. No wonder our game is a laughing stock south of the border. We plead poverty and clubs do crap like this.
Those seats make an absolute mockery of Hearts’ claims that they are doing this because they need to prioritise their own fans; many thousands of them could not be bothered to show up and ours weren’t able to buy their tickets.
Their excuse is ridiculous, and yet this policy not only continues but has spread to other clubs, and at almost every ground we visit there are plenty of spaces.
What an embarrassing sight that was yesterday, and I’m sure that neutrals watching the game south of the border and elsewhere would have been baffled by it. I know that a lot of people up here are. The stupidity of this cannot be overstated. It is driven, in part, by the home fans howling about away fans they don’t particularly like, and clubs have rushed to appease them by reducing the allocations of said clubs. Mostly ours and the one across town.
How can the SPFL leadership watch scenes like that yesterday and continue to sit on their hands? Their claim that this has to be left to the clubs is risible.
They have changed regulations before without consulting the clubs; the executive has the authority to take any issue it wants for itself, and they refuse to do it.
We’ve seen this scene at too many clubs already and now Hibs are threatening to cut our allocations as well, presumably so they can surround a tiny group of our supporters with plastic covers in an otherwise three quarters empty stand.
These same clubs will squeal about the unfairness of the football finance model whilst they piss all over people who would pay them money twice a season. That was farcical yesterday and not for the first time at that ground. And this will go on until away fans get some level of protection from the governing bodies. I’ll believe that when I see it.
The untold story unfortunately is the high stewarding and policing costs of our away support at the tupenny ha’penny grounds as a result of the likes of the GB unilaterally deciding that the rules don’t apply to them. Minimise the number of visiting fans and you also reduce the cost of security at grounds. Would be interesting to see the cost breakdown but I’m coming round to thinking most of the diddy clubs aren’t simply cutting off their nose to spite their face, regardless of their public statements. If they were, Hearts and Hibs would cut each others allocations too – but they don’t. Visits from the Huns and us are nightmares for most towns – far too many drunk, confrontational morons with a herd mentality – and the clubs are probably now at the stage where the cost benefit of accommodating us being wiped out by the security bills for it. Anyone disputing this probably doesn’t get to many away games nowadays. A lot of these problems have roots uncomfortably close to home.
The same clubs who squeal that they should get equal ticket allocation when they reach a final against celtic or rangers.
Great point
Well ‘Rangers’ kicked the bucket (c.2012) Dennis – But that is a very very valid and good point that you have raised there indeed !
Clubs are ridiculously losing thousands in revenew simply because of a petty hatred of Celtic. I know some of them do the same to the rangers but let’s not forget that they are the ones who started all this bollox. Showing the way for other clubs to do the same.
Can you imagine the condemnation if Hearts or the Rangers or anyone else decided to disallow travelling fans from European games for whatever reason ? Firstly EUFA would have a very big say on the disgraceful decisions and secondly the European press and media outlets would go to war with the Scottish clubs involved . What does our governing bodies and media do over here ? Nothing from Hampden and a complete free pass for the decisions from our nodding dogs ,circling the drain , SMSM …attaboys !
Clubs that cut our fan allocation are banned from benefiting from our loan players.
This just a start in tit for tat
The bottom line in so many issues, that affect us, as fans, is the governance of our game.
They are completely useless and have no control whatsoever.
Do we have professionals in charge of our game that have integrity, transparency, accountability and most importantly, ability ?
I think the answer is most probably, a resounding no!
SPFL rules state that “a reasonable number” of away tickets are made available, in agreement with the opposition. However, the rules do not clarify a mandatory minimum allocation for visiting supporters. The SPFL are able to make a final decision on the outcome in the event of a dispute.’
We do not see any leadership or proper governance in our game, hence why Sevco have ran rings around them on various sponsorship deals, why the away support allocation issue is as clear as mud, and consequently, why our game is a laughing stock.
I do agree with some of the comments re unruly behaviour and safety concerns from away fans. Never nice to hear or read about, and obviously even worse, to experience!
Where does our game go, going forward…?