THE BUCKIE STOPS WITH YOU
Celtic star and Jags gaffer tell bosses to take action before a player gets maimed
KRIS AJER has urged Scotland’s authorities to crack down on hooliganism – as Partick Thistle boss Gary Caldwell admitted the crisis is in danger of spiralling out of control.
Celtic defender Ajer was left stunned when a bottle narrowly missed team-mate Scott Sinclair during last weekend’s Scottish Cup tie at Hibs. And Record Sport revealed yesterday Caldwell had
to duck for cover at Firhill in Monday night’s quarterfinal when he was targeted by a shower of coins hurled at him by Hearts fans in the main stand.
Both Sinclair and Caldwell escaped without injury but the pressure is mounting on SPFL and SFA chiefs – along with fears it is only a matter of time until a player, manager or official is seriously injured by the escalation in appalling behaviour.
Both Ajer and Caldwell are worried strident action will only be taken after someone ends up in need of urgent medical attention.
Ajer said: “We can’t just wait until a serious injury happens then take action. It has to be taken now.
“Someone throwing a bottle? That’s as far away from acceptable as possible. It is unforgivable.
“To be fair, I think there will be actions taken from this and, hopefully, it won’t continue much further.
“Obviously, it’s not good seeing clips of this happening too many times. If this bottle hits Sinky, it can be a severe injury.
“A few times this season, it has really crossed the line which you cannot accept.
“It’s important to get back to the time before when you walked on to the pitch and didn’t expect something bad to happen, which has happened way too many times this season.
“It’s important that we come to a point where you go out on to the pitch and feel safe.
“The bottle incident and coins being thrown, you can’t really accept that.
“When you play football there are strong feelings. You know how much every single person in the stands cares about the clubs.
“But you have to really understand there is a risk of serious injury if that bottle had hit Sinclair.
“It would have caused a really bad injury if that hits him on the head. Sinclair was just happy it didn’t hit him thankfully.”
Caldwell became the latest target when coins and objects rained down on his technical area during the second half of the 1-1 draw with Hearts.
Yesterday he said: “None hit me but there were some hitting the dugout and the club are looking into it.
“It is something that can’t keep happening, not just in Scottish football but English football too.
“I saw the Sheffield United game the other night with a bottle and coin thrown there. It is something that has to be cut out quickly.
“It is dangerous and could really hurt someone so hopefully something is done before somebody gets a serious injury.
“I don’t think it is football fans. People should be able to come with families and watch football in a safe environment and, at the minute, that is not the case.
“The people need to be found and stopped and the authorities need to do something about it before someone is hurt.”
Norwegian centre-back Ajer says the behaviour is giving the Scottish game a bad name and destroying the good reputation of the majority of fans.
He added: “When there is so much tension in every single game fans are fantastic in terms of supporting their team.
“As a player, you expect a lot of stick from the stands because you know there are feelings behind it.
“I would never take away from the really fantastic atmosphere there can be in Scotland like when you play against teams and the crowd makes fantastic noise during the game.
“I look at Scottish fans, mostly, as some of the best in the world, but you don’t want it to cross the line of getting dangerous. A few fans are destroying the whole picture.”