Footie was foul affair, says visitor
Bad language complaint
A visitor to King’s Park on Saturday spoke of his shock over the industrial language and bad behaviour of some adult players involved in a football match there.
The Foster’s Central League clash saw Stirling City – who play their home games at the park – defeat Possil YMCA 8-1 in a badtempered clash in which the Glasgow team had a man sent off.
The visitor, out for an afternoon stroll with his partner, walked around the perimeter path close to where the game was taking place.
Within about 50 feet of one of the goals that day was the popular and usually busy children’s play area and the skateboard park.
The visitor told the Observer the game began with a torrent of swear words as players tried to “motivate” their teammates.
“I’m no prude and swear myself and do not believe in censorship of any kind,” he said.
“But this was consistent, offensive swearing that was being delivered at the loudest possible volume in the middle of the day in full view of the play park.” I’d estimate the distance between the head-stamping and the swings were about 10 metres.”
The man admitted he was stunned by the players’ behaviour but “not brave enough to get involved”. He was, however, considering reporting the matter to police.
Stirling City chairman Barry Wardrop said he preferred not to comment on the game but explained that none of his players was hurt.
“From the football side of things, we leave it on the pitch,” he added.
“We don’t go and do a match report or take to twitter, we leave it to the league who are always on top of any discipline or conduct issues.”
He continued: “Football is a passionate game and sometimes you come up against stronger opposition. From our perspective, we conduct ourselves in the right manner home or away.
“All I would add is we had a complete set of players throughout the game; the opposition finished the game with less than their full quota.”
And he added: “In terms of the bad language, I was not aware of anything that was said. We always warn players and officials before the game to be respectful of the fact that we are playing in a public park.”
A goalmouth scramble turned into a goalmouth fight with one (Stirling City) team member on the ground having their head stamped