COLOURFUL fan displays on the terraces of Celtic Park will be scaled back with the extra cash being ploughed into legal funds for supporters facing court action for “offensive behaviour”.
Celtic FC ultras group The Green Brigade has announced that it will pare down its choreographed displays in a bid to fight several ongoing prosecutions against eight of its members.
In a statement, the group said Police Scotland had “heightened [its] war on football supporters” by seeking to “abuse the obscene powers” of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.
The legislation, introduced by the majority SNP administration in 2011 without the support of opposition parties, followed a bad-tempered Old Firm Game which saw rival managers Ally McCoist and Neil Lennon clash on the touchline.
But it has since come under fire from fans, clubs and leading legal figures.
In 2013, Dundee sheriff Richard Davidson said the laws were “mince” and could have been “drafted by someone who has never been to a match” as he cleared a Celtic fan who sang an Irish republican anthem at a match.
Celtic FC joined Scotland’s pre-eminent historian Tom Devine, as well as leading broadcasters and figures from academia and the legal profession, to call for the scrapping of the controversial football law.
In November, opposition parties at Holyrood united to narrowly defeat the SNP Government and push through a motion which calls for the act to be repealed.
But with 11 charges pending against members of The Green Brigade, the organisation said it would “drastically scale back on the ‘tifos’ [organised displays of support] we had planned for this season” to concentrate finances on providing legal support to Celtic supporters.
The statement said: “These charges include several for the heinous crimes of shouting and swearing, for singing apparently “offensive songs”, which advise police officers where they may wish to put their cameras, for the displaying of an anti-police banner and some for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“As a result of these charges, and in the knowledge that more sadly to follow, we have been left with no choice but to drastically scale back on the tifos planned for this season, as all of our efforts and funds are now required to support our members.”
“Whilst we always strive to provide as vibrant and colourful a support for the team as possible, we can no longer continue as though it is business as usual.”
As part of its fundraising drive, Irish band Glasnevin have covered a downloadable version of the folk song Grace which can be bought online.
It has been reported that the song has broken into the top 20 in the UK chart.
Jeanette Findlay, chairman of The Celtic Trust, said: “The loss of these banners which are often clever and funny add to the atmosphere of the stadium is something that we’ll regret.
“We understand why The Green Brigade should feel the need to take this action defending their members from petty and bogus charges.
“The 2012 legislation is destroying football and its repeal will be in everybody’s interest.”
The Green Brigade’s decision comes as the club prepare to mark the 50th anniversary of the Lisbon Lions winning The European Cup. The supporters group has been at the forefront of recent tributes which mark the occasion including at an extravagant display against Barcelona to mark the club’s 125th year.
Police Scotland failed to respond to a request for comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article