Friday night, when Rangers James Tavernier went to take a 'throw in,' while playing Hibernian at the Hibs ground in Leith, a helpful young individual ran down the steps from amongst the home support, jumped the wall taking the security man by surprise, and helpfully kicked the ball at Mr Tavernier. Mr Taverneir was somewhat surprised by this, this was the first time anyone from the Hibernian persuasion had actually made an attempt to take the ball from him! This individual was immediately restrained by the displeased security man and two keen constabuls and 'assisted from the ground.'
Such things occur at football matches.
The media immediately jumped into 'offended' mode.
The cry was 'protect the ball players' from all side. Ban the thug from football, jail him and throw the key away. Set an example of Hibernian, close the ground, fine the club, hang the chairman! All Scots papers, and one or two sections of the English media also, jumped in eyes closed with a froth of disgust at the horrid event.
None mentioned the sectarian singing emanating from the Rangers fans in the ground, none the broken seats thrown onto the pitch, none the coins and cup flung also in the direction of Hibs players. The media you see make money, clickbait style, out of the Glasgow bigots.
Today the Glasgow press continue their one sided approach to the matter all the while ignoring the wrongs at their club. Individual fans from both clubs, and others also, contribute a 'thoughtful' opinion on the deed while always ignoring their own sin and concentrating on the others.
Thoughtful debate is not the correct term here.
Saturday arrives, somewhere in Birmingham tow local English sides meet in a 'derby' encounter. The usual name calling and unhelpful suggestions are offered to either side by the supporters. One of the Aston Villa team, the visiting side, went to take position and a copycat eejit ran onto the field and helpfully fetched him one across the back of the head. The player helpfully fell down while others from both sides plus security came to his assistance. In both cases the performance of the players was unharmed, Taverneir continued to blunder as he had done all game, the Villa player scored the winning goal. Both the visiting individuals will appear in court, indeed the chap from Birmingham has just begun a 14 weeks imprisonment sentence, and will pay £100 compensation to the man he assaulted. 14 weeks sounds rather short, in wrath remember mercy but the type of individual who does this may well be used to prison and short sentences may not deter! For this individual it will but what about others. I await news of the Hibernian eejit.
A third incident occurred at Arsenals large ground on Saturday when a like minded copycat squared up to a Manchester United player. This did not wake the player up and led to this eejit being removed, I suspect his name will appear in the magistrates list shortly.
These three are like many noticed on the Essex Police Twitter account, they tend not to be the brightest, even though they often have decent jobs, their outlook on life is limited and with the chap of Hibernian persuasion I wonder of drugs played a part. He did not look like he would one day appear on 'Mastermind' or reach a high level of intelectual ability. He after all supports Hibernian and appears to be a fan of the 'trainspotting' generation. Or does he? Is he what is called a 'real fan' or just one who tags along with his mates because they go their and saw this as an excuse to keep in with them?
After all we all do daft things when young...
The copycat media have been joined by the copycat self important in football jumping in to condemn such actions. It is head shaking all around, exaggerated claims that "Knives might be used next" and a wide variety of absurd answers to the question how to stop it, armed police as one man suggested might be going to far at this juncture! The great and the good condemn, but forget the many other incidents now forgotten that had less publicity as they were not in the public eye or involved smaller sides. Glasgow clubs always offer a wide selection of offensive behaviour but rarely this appears in print. The Birmingham featured clashes before the game but with no pictures we hear little. Yet whenever a story fills the screen there is faux condemnation, 'tut tutting' aplenty and as always in the end nothing is done. All clubs will improve security, all will say the right words and all others will then seek the next thing to be offended by.
Oh one other thing, if payers get into a 20 man stramash with fists flying and heads bumping why is this referred to as 'handbags?' If clubs and players took some responsibility for their actions maybe we would not see these numpties clambering over the wall to attack players...just a thought.
Update: Our hero in Leith has indeed made an appearance in court. He has been banned from all football grounds in Scotland while he awaits the final sentence which will be handed down next month. I hope he likes prison...
