The SFSA Is Right On Pyro. But They Shouldn’t Hold Their Breath Waiting For People To Act.

The Scottish Football Supporters Association is an organisation a lot of folks will not have heard of, but all of us should sign up and join them. You’ll notice I include myself in there. I have not yet done so, and I should have done it ages ago, because I really respect their work and they understand the issues which we’ve talked about again and again on this site.

Yesterday, or rather last night, they spoke out about pyro and they called upon the SFA, the SPFL and the clubs to get serious and tough on this. I echo that view. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. None of those things are going to happen without a serious push, and a serious push like that isn’t going to come from a fan organisation.

Could the governing bodies do it? Of course they could. But it would involve getting far tougher than they are willing to be. None of them is going to introduce meaningful UEFA style sanctions, like fines, closing stands or anything else … something like that would move the needle. Points deductions would move it even further but that’s a fantasy option because nobody would stand for that. But without drastic action, you’re left with talk.

And talk is not going to get this done.

For openers, where is the conversation going to start?

With those responsible? Fat chance. Too many of the people who do this stuff are wired to the moon. They cannot engage with this on a “real-world” basis. They demand that clubs bow down to their whims. What they are really asking for is for clubs to aid and abet in breaking the law, and there are so many implications to that it’s difficult to know where to start. The very idea of it is utterly moronic.

The police are reluctant to enforce the law in a way that would work; in the absence of searching everyone, or charging into sections the minute something happens, if fireworks are used in-game, you’d need them to kettle fans in their seats after matches until they can identify culprits. Use that strategy once and see what results you get. Celtic has tried to implement a “no-masks or face-coverings” policy inside the ground; that, of course, is openly flaunted.

The police does not lend assistance to the club in this respect.

So the governing bodies don’t appear willing to act and the police appear unwilling to uphold the law in any meaningful way. I suspect they want this left to the clubs, and actually there are things that the clubs could do that they have not.

Pyro is used in just one section of the stadium.

Sealing that section properly so that fans from other sections cannot crowd there, and enforcing rigorous searching regimens would work to an extent.

Fitting scanners, which can detect firework residue on hands or on shoes, in certain parts of the ground, is an option and one the club should certainly explore as part of its strategy … the instillation would not be cheap, but it would be cheaper, cumulatively, than all those UEFA fines and it will certainly be safer than the inevitable closure of a stand.

Celtic will act. Celtic will act because Celtic has been acting. Celtic is one of the few clubs in this country which has shown sufficient seriousness in dealing with this. We have banned one of the main fan groups for this stuff and other infractions; how much more seriously can we take it? The club has held out an olive branch to those fans, and made the peace, but the truth is that it’s a fragile peace and not likely to last long term.

But Celtic has done more, far more, than other clubs have. Hell, Ibrox didn’t condemn its fans when it wished death on a guy lying prone on the pitch at Easter Road. It said not one word in condemnation after the dreadful events at their own stadium when we visited there last month; that club does not take this any more seriously than it took the safety of our fans, and we had to ban theirs from our ground to get them to move on that.

A lot of clubs don’t want the argument with their own fans on this. Leaving it to most of the clubs is for their birds, and someone will be very seriously injured or dead before they snap into action and realise what they should have done ages ago.

The reason the SFFA is talking about this at all is that the number of pyro incidents in grounds has risen, and the number of injuries has, unfortunately, risen in proportion to it, with an incident at Dens involving a young fan particularly horrific and where we all dodged a bullet. But that bullet is on its way and it will hit a club at some stage … and then all bets are off.

In the meantime, all the stakeholders continue to stand around and look at each other as though baffled as to who is supposed to be leading. This is where strong governing bodies would govern … ours are not in the least bit interested in doing so.