STOP THE MATCH TO STOP THE MORONS
SFA urged to use the Swedish blueprint for rooting out thugs who are ruining our game
SCOTTISH games should be stopped if players and officials are endangered by hooligans throwing missiles on to the pitch says Sweden’s FA chief Tobias Tibell.
And Swedish league general secretary Mats Enquist insists the SFA, the SPFL, the clubs and the game’s huge number of decent fans can work together to root out the thugs who are destroying Scottish football’s reputation.
The Scandinavians are also in the spotlight for crowd trouble after last week’s Gothenburg derby between IFK and GAIS was abandoned after fireworks were thrown on to the pitch.
GAIS were awarded a 3-0
win after the incident that left goalkeeper Marko Johansson having to go to hospital for ear damage.
Celtic’s Scott Sinclair was narrowly missed by a flying bottle last weekend at Easter Road and with coins and pyrotechnics being aimed on to pitches, referees are being urged to instantly halt games.
Tibell, acting head of competition and legal counsel at the Swedish FA, said: “You cannot go on with a match if there is a security situation at an arena where you can’t be sure that the players are protected, the supporters and the officials.
“You have to stop the game. And you have to hand it over to the disciplinary board.
“Our regulations say if that happens, the alternative is to give the win to the team whose fans did not cause the situation.
“No.2 is the disciplinary board can say when the game is stopped should be the final result, if that isn’t more favourable for the causing team.
“No.3 is they can decide the match can go on. As a fourth alternative, there is an option to have a match replayed at a certain time.”
With fan behaviour also putting Sweden in the limelight over the past seven days, Enquist can empathise with problems being encountered by Scotland’s authorities.
But he says intense work between the clubs, the FA, the police and supporters has helped get a grip of unruly situations.
He said: “It’s easy to take a repressive approach towards bad behaviour.
“But if we have a couple of million people coming to see football in Sweden and there is a tiny section creating the problems, why should we condemn or fight all supporters?
“We chose to embrace supporter culture minus the illegal part and copied the Bundesliga system of FLOs ( fan liaison officers). That was a great decision because it created a level of understanding between the clubs and the fans that was amazing.
“We still have our problems. Just last week we had shooting rockets and pyrotechnics and that had to be stopped. We don’t have the golden key.
“But we are having more matches than before with good behaviour. Supporters are willing to take on these issues. Racism is almost gone from the stands.
“The remaining issues are to be addressed with policing and getting people to public prosecution.
“If clubs can show us they are doing everything reasonable within their power to stop disturbances, we’ll hunt the individuals.
“Fans now understand the problems are within their own ranks. We are joining ranks and working with the police.
“Any club must try to understand the basic value of fans and have that in focus even in tough times when people are acting like assholes.”