Intolerance 1, ~HH~Paddy Bhoy Celtic fans 0 In the latest attack on Scottish football fans freedoms, Celtic fans are being demonised for waving a banner that was allegedly disrespectful. Following Tuesday’s Champions League match against AC Milan at Celtic Park in Glasgow, football’s European governing body UEFA has confirmed that it has instigated disciplinary proceedings against Celtic for what it describes as ‘an illicit banner of a non-sporting nature’. In turn, Celtic Football Club released a statement on Wednesday announcing that it intends to hunt down those fans responsible for ‘showing clear disrespect’. So, what was the ‘illicit banner’ and ‘disrespect’ that has caused a storm in the Scottish media and further afield? It was a banner depicting Scottish warrior William Wallace and Irish Republican hunger striker Bobby Sands, side by side. The intention behind the banner unfurled by the Green Brigade, a group of Celtic supporters, was to highlight the hypocrisy of the Scottish government, which is currently jailing Celtic fans for singing Republican songs in commemoration of Sands - a man the fans consider to be a freedom fighter yet who is labelled a terrorist by the Scottish authorities. Alongside the portraits of Wallace and Sands was a slogan: ‘The terrorist or the dreamer; the savage or the brave? Depends whose vote you’re trying to catch, or whose face you’re trying to save.’ The Green Brigade statement issued in response to threats of bans and arrest said that ‘the point being made was that it is both hypocritical and discriminatory to celebrate the Scottish nationalist struggle while criminalising the Irish nationalist struggle’. The statement went on to say: ‘Ultimately, due to the subjective nature of what anyone may deem offensive, it is both dangerous and absurd to create a law based upon offensiveness.’ The law the Green Brigade is referring to is the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act, introduced by the current Scottish National Party (SNP) government 18 months ago. Under the act, football fans found guilty of expressing offensive words at football games or online face penalties of up to five years in prison.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 10:51:25 +0000
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