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Ibrox’s pyromaniacs endangered themselves, fellow fans and players. Their club will pay the price for it.

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On Tuesday night, I was utterly dismayed to witness flares among the Celtic fans during the match against Dortmund. This took place in full view of UEFA delegates, the governing body, and everyone else in attendance.

The Dortmund fans themselves drew attention to the fixture by unfurling a massive banner accusing UEFA of corruption, but that won’t be enough to keep our club and our fans out of the spotlight. Again. It’s tiresome, this stuff.

There is a section of our fanbase that displays an almost unbelievable mix of arrogance and stupidity. They are utterly reckless, oblivious to the damage they are causing to the club and the potential consequences. As of now, there’s no indication that UEFA plans to take severe action, but that doesn’t mean the big sanctions won’t come in the future if this behaviour persists.

I find it baffling that any supporter of our club—or any club, for that matter—could endanger the team and their fellow fans, thinking they are somehow justified. I’ve had countless debates on this topic, and they all follow the same pattern: a blind unwillingness to acknowledge the costs of such actions, alongside absurd arguments suggesting that the sport should just “accommodate” this behaviour, as if that were the real issue. In Scotland, it’s illegal, and unless the law changes—which would require an act of parliament—there’s nothing to discuss.

But Thursday night took things to an entirely different level.

Something so dangerous, so shockingly irresponsible, unfolded that watching the footage leaves you almost breathless. In those clips you can see that a firework is launched from the Ibrox support behind the goal, exploding like something from Guy Fawkes Night, right over the pitch. It’s unbelievable. Even after seeing it, it’s hard to comprehend how anyone, no matter how intoxicated or ignorant, could ever think this was acceptable behaviour inside a football stadium.

The UEFA delegate’s report from that night cited this incident in its very first paragraph. Honestly, I can’t think of anything that could have happened inside the ground that could be more serious than this. This is mind-bending in its capacity to do real harm.

What kind of mentality drives someone to act like that? It’s hard to grasp the thought process of someone who, knowing the risks, still goes ahead with something so dangerous.

It reminds me of old urban legends about throwing pennies off the Eiffel Tower or Empire State Building, where people wondered if it could kill someone. There was always a certain type of person who, without knowing the physics behind it, would throw one over the edge just to find out. If you had such knowledge, or if you were born in the modern age of internet and TV shows set up to debunk these myths, you would know the truth; at that height and at that weight ratio you might give someone a nasty bump on the head … but even without that knowledge I know there are people who did it just to see what happened.

That’s the kind of individual we’re dealing with here—someone who, for kicks, does something incredibly hazardous, either knowingly or unknowingly, with no regard for the consequences. In this case, whoever did that must just assume that they are protected in the crowd, hiding among their friends, knowing they probably won’t face any repercussions.

Such a person is not just a coward—they are a danger to everyone around them. And anyone covering for them is equally foolish.

UEFA has dealt with similar incidents in the past, often resulting in stand closures and hefty fines. A similar outcome here would be entirely fitting and justified. The person responsible for this act, if caught and prosecuted, will not only have damaged their own future but will have inflicted a terrible blow on their fellow supporters and the club they claim to love. The fact that they almost certainly understood this and did it anyway says everything you need to know about their character—and about the kind of people who condone this behaviour.

These individuals love to see themselves as rebels, outliers, somehow better than the rest of the fanbase. That’s the identity they cling to, not the sense of belonging to something bigger, of being part of a collective, a community, or even a family, like the one that brought me and over a dozen members of my supporters’ bus to Dortmund this week. These people think they’re better than everyone else, and that’s where their loyalty lies: to their own egos.

Normally, I wouldn’t feel any sympathy for the fans at Ibrox, but most of them would not want these idiots among them. Most would probably have had these individuals removed from the stadium if they’d been in the vicinity of the incident.

It endangers the club, and it will almost certainly have major consequences. It’s hard to imagine how it could not, with a firework rocket launched in the direction of players and exploding above their heads. It’s surreal. UEFA would be fully justified in issuing the harshest possible punishment—anything less would be insufficient.

For the club that’s the worst possible outcome, but they should expect it, because “worst possible outcome,” here is a relative term.

Had that firework misfired and struck a player or fellow fan, we’d be talking about an entirely different magnitude of “worst possible outcomes”.

That’s why we must be ever more determined to rid football of flares, fireworks, and smoke bombs, no matter whose nose it puts out of joint. Because one serious injury or death is not an acceptable outcome and yet it’s the direction we’re undeniably heading towards if this madness continues. Watching those videos, you cannot doubt that it’s coming.

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12 comments

  • Brian says:

    Sadly this won’t stop our own stupid fans. The club should make a statement before uefa do. Put them on the final notice, let the other team hang themselves.

  • Joe McQuaid says:

    Couldn’t agree more James. And as we know this behaviour is not just their problem. I took my girls to cheer the players off from the Dakota Hotel on the morning of the 3-3 draw at Ibrox. I was astonished to see a child aged about 8-9 holding a flare outside the hotel with his (I presume) father alongside him. People need to wake up and realise that certain things are against the law and whilst they might not like them, well sorry you will have to lump it.

  • Joe McQuaid says:

    Apologies, did I say “3-3 draw”…of course I meant moral victory for Sevco!!!

  • Brattbakk says:

    You’ve got it all wrong James, McCoist assured us that the fireworks were coming from outside the stadium despite what the tv cameras were showing.
    Seriously though, it’s lunacy, there’s many fans that think flares add something worthwhile, I’m not one of them but launching cheap fireworks in a stadium full of people is completely reckless

  • Jim says:

    Ally McCoist actually said that he thought the fireworks came from outside the ground. He clearly understood there could be consequences and tried to divert the blame to some non existent person(s) outside the ground.

  • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

    So another bad story from Dortmund then…

    And an even worse one from Liebrox then (not that it’ll do Celtic any damage that particular one)…

    Flares don’t even look impressive either –

    Just glad that they weren’t there in ma days of attending Parkhead as I’ve got athsma…

    It seems so long long ago now that we were winning cherished accolades and gongs from UEFA and FIFA for being the best supporters in The Continent of Europe and The World respectively…

    How we have fallen and a whole support has had to fall due to a disruptive yet bloody dangerous minority !

  • John M says:

    James, could not agree more. I used to travel abroad with my dad. At the San Siro a group of Celtic fans wearing face masks lit several flares then threw them at the netting in front of us. I tried to take a picture but the half dozen fans split in to crowd.
    Celtic know who are travelling to games. They can stop it by stop selling the tickets to all once an incident occurs. It may sound draconian but it keeps our name clean.

  • BobL says:

    I, and so many others, James, have commented on this, and agree with you. How can these brainless people think that letting off flares, or fireworks, enhances a football match. It is downright dangerous and moronic. Celtic as a club should identify these people and give lifetime bans, easy to do. Let’s get our own house in order

  • SSMPM says:

    Totally valid. Unacceptable…but I can think of stuff that’s gone on and continues to go on in that pigshite midden hole that is equally if not more serious such as raining bottles, etc, on away fans, opposition coaching and managerial staff and players. Even on one occasion that I’m aware of an alleged murder on the marbled floor of a dissident unionist, for want of a better word, ‘grass’.

  • Eldraco says:

    I watched funnily enough the doco on that despicable david copeland and his antics in brixton for the 2nd time though years ago it was sobering just how easy they were to make. Now, consider taping 6 of these nails to the flare/rocket and tossing it just “to see what it would do”.

    Horrifying is it not? And yet they are out there at most crowded large stadiums.

    Ban the lot, everything that ignites and gaol the perps for years.

  • The Messiah says:

    I’ve almost reached the point of hoping that a flare explodes in the hand of one of the idiots that does this at Celtic Park, since it would make them impossible to misidentify and the club can be sure that they’re banning the right person, which is a bit difficult currently, given that the cowards that do this always cover their faces and will never reveal the identity of anyone else that does it, because “Am no a grass”. I’m sure that the inevitable revocation of the stadium’s safety certificate and the consequences of that will finally persuade the club to do something substantial about it.

  • Droopy McCool says:

    My nephew was at the game in Dortmund and a kindly masked chap asked around if anyone had asthma as he was just about to light up a flare. Health and safety gone mad if you ask me.

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