GAME’S GONE NUTS

All that’s being asked of so-called fans is not to be racist, sectarian, or commit a crime for the 90-odd minutes by throwing things or assaulting people .. how hard can it be?

jo in them then we’ll be getting somewhere.

Sure, the a*******s will be raging. The normal fans, the ones who’ll drop a few coins in the charity box for kids’ teams or good causes rather than launch them at the nearest player, will nod their head in agreement, sigh that it’s ever come to this but ultimately back their owner’s judgment.

Because they know what fundamental decency looks like.

No one’s asking football crowds to be a choir of angels.

No one’s saying you can’t abuse the opposition, the ref, the away support or anyone else.

If you’ve got 20,000 people in a stadium, chances are a good few hundred will be complete t***s away from football as well.

But all that’s being asked of them is not to be racist, sectarian, or commit a crime for 90 minutes by throwing things or assaulting people.

You’re not chimps in a zoo, you’re supposed to be evolved.

How hard can it be? In the last couple of months, we’ve had coconuts, lighters, bottles, pies and coins thrown at players.

What’s wrong with someone that their first reaction to anything that happens on a park is to launch one of those things from the stand?

Budge and Dempster have said they’re spending 100 grand each upgrading their CCTV to cover every area of the ground with 4K imagery. That’s the cost of a decent Premiership player – but if it’s the price to be paid for event-free games, then it’s worth the outlay.

What they now need is everyone else to do their job. They need those who are paid to uphold the law – and paid handsomely by football – to deal firmly with acts of lawlessness.

Cameron Mack, the complete rocket who was James Tavernier’s assailant at Easter Road, was jailed for 100 days for breach of the peace last week.

Great. Football banning orders are impossible to police. A hat, a hoodie and a pair of shades and they walk straight back in the door. But a spell in the pokey Tough summer ahead for Livingston after a brilliant season. The loss of star men Declan Gallacher and Craig Halkett pre-contracts on to Motherwell Hearts is the and natural consequence of their success. Replacing half – at least – of a back three and keeper who’ve been their bedrock for three seasons won’t be easy.

is ruinous in your life – your job prospects, family shame, travel issues.

It’s a deterrent. It should certainly make you think twice about your impending idiocy.

Even if you’re too thick to get that, maybe your mates will pull you back if there could be real consequences.

The law has to deal with criminality. Football has to deal with the stupidity.

And that’s what Budge is trying to do. She acknowledges that innocent people, some of whom will have had their seat in that section for years, will be brassed off that they’re being inconvenienced because of a few neds.

But the section will be cleared for two meaningless end- of- season games. Season tickets will still be valid and it will buy the club time to get their CCTV upgraded before August.

Prevention is hard. Searches and scans are expensive, time-consuming and impractical. We don’t have a culture of getting fans into stadia early enough and there’s nothing for them to do when they get in anyway. They won’t work.

We also expect too much from stewards on minimum wage. It’s not their job to deal with lawless eejits. That’s why the game pays the police.

For those saying the timing of Hearts’ statement was wrong before their Cup semi? If she leaves it until Monday and they’ve lost, it looks like def lection rather than action. If they’ve won, the message gets lost.

And the message is two-fold. One, don’t break the law and try not to be the a******e you clearly are.

And two, the more subtle one, pick up the gauntlet in Glasgow.

Lawwell shut down the Green Brigade for a couple of weeks then didn’t see it through. The consequences of their growth in stature sit in the away support especially, every other week.

And while King may have apologised to Stevie Clarke for an entire stand abusing him for his Catholicism, they’ve done nothing since to suggest it was anything other than lip service.

The game keeps saying it can police itself – but it only works if everyone does what Budge has done.