Sunday 17 February 2013

Football, The Biggest Loser

This blog is called GJ Sports Blog for a reason. I intended to use it and my Twitter account to discuss nothing other than sports. I never had any intention of using it to discuss politics but unfortunately sport and politics met in the ugliest of manners yesterday in North Belfast. Cliftonville and Crusaders were due to meet at Seaview, home of Crusaders, in a vital league match. The two sides currently sit in the top two places of the IFA Premiership and as things stand it looks like one of them will end the year as league champions. Neither side are in the habit of winning the league title, it has been fifteen years since Cliftonville won it and sixteen years since Crusaders won it. This should have been a great day for football in North Belfast. Unfortunately what materialised was something no right minded individual or football fan would have wanted. A protest took place which I will go further into later and the Police Service of Northern Ireland were unable to guarantee safe passage to the stadium for the Cliftonville fans and the game was therefore postponed.

I know that most of the hits this blog gets are not from Northern Ireland so I will give a bit of background on the situation. Politics in Northern Ireland are not quite like any other country. Unfortunately people don't care what political parties thoughts are on education, health, social welfare. People in this country will vote for someone or not vote for someone purely because they are catholic or protestant, British or Irish. It's a quite ridiculous state of affairs but unfortunately that's the country I live in and to be honest it sickens me. There are a lot of potentially good politicians who will never get the opportunity to make a difference as they either stand as independents or live in the wrong constituency. On the other hand there are as many idiots who get elected every time purely because they attach themselves to one of the big parties and people only care about what you are and not what you can do. Until this country moves beyond the green and orange divide it has no future. Sadly that doesn't seem like it will happen any time soon as any time there is trouble in Northern Ireland it always seems to be young people on the streets rioting. These people are younger than me and I only have vague memories of a time when the troubles were at their worst. Unfortunately we still seem to be teaching bigotry to our children and until that changes then I'm afraid to say this country has no chance.

Today's protest was the latest in a long line of protests throughout Northern Ireland about the decision by Belfast City Council to remove the Union flag from Belfast City Hall. As it was the flag flew 365 days a year but after a vote on 3rd December 2012 it was decided that the flag would only fly on eighteen designated days. Flags and emblems have always been a huge issue in Northern Ireland. Catholic areas will often fly the Irish tricolour and protestant areas will fly the Union flag. In the last election the nationalist (Catholics) gained a majority and were therefore able to get the motion passed and the flag now only flies on the eighteen designated days. Since then unionists and loyalists (Protestants) have took part in protests all over Northern Ireland in opposition to this decision. The majority have passed off peacefully but unfortunately on some occasions these protests have ended in violence. In recent weeks these protests have usually took place around the area of Belfast City Hall on a Saturday afternoon. There had been no protests at Seaview until today. Maybe I'm paranoid but I don't think it's a coincidence that the protesters picked today to hold a protest outside Seaview when Cliftonville, a team with a majority nationalist/catholic support were due to play at the stadium. It is nothing other than bigotry and there is absolutely no place for it in football or society in general.

It's important that I make it clear that this was in no way the fault of Crusaders Football Club. Crusaders have been working alongside Cliftonville in recent times to ensure that religious differences were kept away from this game and unfortunately for them they will ultimately be the biggest losers from this. The game will have to be played at some point and as I see it we are now left with just two options. The powers that be may decide to move the game to another venue as it can't be guaranteed that the protesters won't block the roads on the day that the game is to be replayed. The other option is the game goes ahead at Seaview with restrictions on travelling fans. Neither option will be ideal for Crusaders and regardless of what happens the game will now be played during the week which will reduce the attendance further and Crusaders will lose out on a lot of money. My opinion on what will happen is that the game will be played at Seaview but that Cliftonville fans will be forced to travel to the game on buses which is quite ridiculous when you consider that the journey would take less than five minutes on a bus. Many Cliftonville fans have already said that they won't go to Seaview if they are forced to go on a bus and not only are Crusaders losing revenue but the Cliftonville team will be without much needed support.

For me, the PSNI also have to accept most of the responsibility. They allowed protesters to gather on a route were they knew over a thousand football fans were due to pass on the way to a game. I was at Seaview earlier in the season for the first meeting between the clubs and the police presence was bordering on ridiculous. Every ten feet there was an armed police officer and dozens of Police Jeeps lined the streets. All for a football match were there has been no history of trouble between fans. Residents in the local area have made accusations of damaged property and sectarian abuse in the area but despite residents standing on the streets and in their gardens videoing fans, no evidence to back up these accusations has ever emerged. Police are obviously taking this seriously as the sheer volume of them is a lot more than I've ever saw at any other football match.

I was in Belfast early yesterday as I live over 30 miles away and had to collect a ticket I had ordered online from the Cliftonville shop. I was making my way down the Antrim Road at just after 1pm, two hours before kick off and there was already a heavy presence in the area that the Cliftonville fans were due to meet for the walk down to Seaview. I refuse to believe that there wasn't a similar presence in and around Seaview. Surely once even one person arrived in that area the police should have moved them on instead of standing watching them and allowing a situation to develop that they were no longer able or wanted to control. Being a Celtic fan and an Irish Catholic I've been accused of paranoia on many occasions but perhaps some clear thinking, better educated individual than myself can explain to me how a police force with a history of removing protesters forcibly, stood back and allowed a small crowd of people to cause disruption on such a huge scale. I'm all for allowing people their right to protest. In fact I have joined in many protests in my time, usually anti-war, against job cuts or poor pay but I have walked on the streets alongside fellow protesters as I felt a sense of injustice about something. The difference is that this protest took place to spoil a football match between two clubs who have been working together to keep these sort of issues away from their football clubs. The police handled this situation very poorly and I would like to think that neither Crusaders, Cliftonville or their fans will suffer due to their inability to handle what should have been a straight forward situation.

On a personal level, my initial shock has been overcome by anger. I had been looking forward to this match for weeks. I drove the 30 plus miles to get to Belfast and arrived around two hours before kick off to collect my ticket. I then went and sat in the car for about an hour as I had no other reason to be in Belfast whilst I waited or the organised, stewarded walk to the stadium. I got to Glandore Avenue were the fans were meeting and the Red Army were out in full force waiting for the go ahead from police to began the ten minute walk down to Seaview. Word spread quickly that a protest was under way down the road but we were then told that things were fine and the delay was just to make sure all the Cliftonville fans had arrived before setting off. Shortly afterwards a club official told us that there were issues down the road due to a protest and that unless the police gave assurances that the fans would get into and out of the ground safely the game would be called off. The next thing we were told was that the kick off had been delayed but that we were about to move. We got about twenty feet down the road before we were stopped again and this time people were saying that a riot was under way outside the ground and shortly after we were told that the game was postponed. Credit to the hundreds of Cliftonville fans who were gathered as once the game was postponed, they dispersed without any fuss. I have to be honest and say that I feared the worst as with a crowd that size, it only takes one idiot to start trouble but there was none of that and people were obviously disappointed but turned on their heels and made their back to the Antrim Road to get on with whatever they had planned for the rest of the day.

No doubt there will be much wrote about what happened but it is very important to remember that this had nothing to do with football, Crusaders, Cliftonville or the IFA. This was a bunch of bigots who choose to target a football match to get publicity for their cause and the inability of this countries police force to deal with it. The sad thing is that politicians will be trying to jump on this to gain votes and that is going to complicate things. If this issue was left to football people and only football people it would be sorted in no time but like everything else in this country it will be turned into a religious issue and politicians will point the finger at anyone for a vote and I have no faith in them to point their fingers at the right people. Sadly, it's football and it's supporters, whether catholic or protestant who are the biggest losers.

3 comments:

  1. Excellent blog. Great summary of events

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  2. If they can get away with that in Belfast, where there is a high number of PSNI personnel and kit on the ground, what are the chances of repeat performances not only at the Oval and Windsor, but out in the sticks at Ballinamallard, Ballymena, Lisburn, Coleraine etc. I fear the protestors have achieved, in their warped opinions, a degree of success and they will pursue this change of tactics. Essentially they want to ignite a sectarian riot, the lack of political leadership and condemnation is appalling. "The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing"

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  3. Fantastically written, well explained. I must also say it is the truth...

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