Last night, we found out that the SPFL will punish three clubs—ourselves, the Ibrox club, and Motherwell—by withdrawing 500 tickets from each of us in our next Hampden allocation due to the use of pyro at previous games. Celtic made a statement expressing their anger at the fans who were responsible for it.
Yet this is not the SPFL finally growing a set.
The punishment itself is actually pretty ridiculous.
Punishing clubs for this kind of thing is nothing new.
UEFA does it all the time, and we’re frankly lucky we’re not playing a match behind closed doors or with a stand shut due to past incidents. But I find the SPFL’s response to be little more than a joke. There are over 20,000 Celtic fans who go to Hampden for a League Cup semi-final. So what difference does 500 tickets make?
And how can you punish Motherwell with the same sanction as one of the Glasgow clubs?
Their fans will just take the 500 out of the tickets they don’t sell anyway.
If anyone thinks this is a deterrent, if anyone believes this is an actual punishment, they’re deluding themselves. It doesn’t even come close to being a real sanction, and no one will see it as such.
I always talk here about the Dilbert Principle.
One of the most humorous yet on-the-nose things I read in that book is the idea that “real work plus the appearance of work equals actual work.” People have been getting away with that since time immemorial, and you can see it in action every time our governing bodies make a decision like this. Something for appearances sake.
This isn’t a real punishment.
Some will say, “Yeah, but we’re on the start of a slippery slope.” I don’t believe it. The more “serious” sanction they were considering was removing 800 tickets instead; in fact, they’ve already declared that this will be the sanction if it happens again. So it’s a slap on the wrist and everybody knows that’s what it is.
It’s a drop in the bucket. It’s not a genuine penalty. It’s the appearance of one.
It’s something they put in place to make it look like they’re doing something.
The clubs were desperate to see what the SPFL would come up with. They’ve been begging for help on this issue, pleading with the police to be more robust inside stadiums, urging the governing bodies to actually govern.
The reason we don’t see flares and smoke bombs en masse in Europe anymore is because UEFA has made it clear they will sanction clubs to a severe degree. If our domestic governing bodies were willing to do the same, this issue would be resolved within a fortnight.
This is people in power pretending to govern. That’s all it is.
It gives the media something to write about, but nobody will take it seriously because it isn’t serious. They can talk tough all they like, but no one believes they’ll back it up with meaningful action. That will disappoint the clubs, the police, the parliament, and ordinary fans who don’t want this stuff in our grounds. It absolutely reeks of weakness.
I don’t want to see my club punished in any way, shape, or form. I wish a certain segment of our support could behave itself so this wouldn’t even be necessary.
But if the SPFL is going to act, then it should actually do something, not put on this meaningless charade. Why bother holding a meeting, having a debate, passing a ruling, and sending out a press release if this is all they came up with?
In the end, it’s just another 500 tickets that can be handed over to the fat cats, the sponsors, and the hangers-on who take from football without giving anything back. It doesn’t punish clubs in any meaningful way, and it certainly doesn’t give those who bring flares and smoke bombs into stadiums any reason to stop.
UEFA’s sanctions work because UEFA isn’t afraid of the clubs.
UEFA’s sanctions work because UEFA gets serious when it matters.
The day the SFA and SPFL decide to do the same, maybe I’ll give them some credit. But that day is not today.
Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images
I don’t really get it. So they are removing 500 from Celtic’s official allocation but selling the tickets elsewhere if they can get someone to buy them. In all probability then it would most likely be Celtic fans that snap them up? Of course it would also depend on the opposition who may not be able to sell their full allocation. What then, offer them to Celtic? Aw no, they canny dae that, that’s self defeating and they are going to lose out financially if they don’t. Have they really thought this through?
I strongly suspect that Celtic will be charged for the 500 seats which cannot be sold.
More Fantasyland Fantasy from likeminded Fantasists in the organising body of the Lodge
All a bit of a waste of time, the fundamental is that they will not want to close off an area or remove too many tickets as they will not want to lose the income.
Money before safety.
I watched the Bayern match last night and their ultras section was ablaze with pyro, just before kick off, hundreds of them, let’s see what sanctions are coming their way.
I too think that reducing the allocation by 500 is nothing but a gesture to make it look like they are taking action. What might make their gesture a little more significant is if they cordon off and make unusable, a block of 500 seats immediately behind the goal. It would need to be something substantial and stewarded appropriately to prevent the self entitled muscling in to the area. That might bring home to the pyro crew, just how many fans are being excluded from the game. If the suggestion was that 1,000 seats would be unavailable following any subsequent incidents. The pyro crew might begin to see how their actions are impacting on ordinary fans. If they withdraw 500 or 1,000 seats in the prime spot where the pyro crew gather, it might get the message across.
While I’m glad as an athsmatic that there ‘starting’ to ‘tackle’ pyro it pales very much into insignificance in comparison to something else…
1) – Weapons stored at Liebrox…
2) – Backroom staff of Celtic scarred for life in an attack by Sevco at Liebrox…
3) – Glass scattered in The Celtic Goalkeeper’s six yard box at Liebrox…
4) – Arne Engels felled by a missile at Liebrox…
WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE ABOUT THAT YOU YELLOW BASTARD DONCASTER !
I think Joe Hart, Arne Engles and (scarred for life) Daniel Friel wold be happy if it was only pyro smoke they had encountered – That much is certain !!!