Football, in its essence, is a beautiful game. As a youngster some of my best memories come from going to watch the football with my family. It saddens me then, when I hear that some young boys and girls attended a football game yesterday and never want to go back.
Heart of Midlothian travelled to the Ibrox stadium yesterday for their game against Rangers FC in the Scottish Championship. Due to heavy snowfall that the Rangers groundskeepers and staff failed to clear, the match was abandoned after just 24 minutes. There had reportedly been trouble with fans before the game, with a large number of Rangers fans protesting outside the ground.
The postponement of the game ultimately proved to exacerbate the trouble and it wasn't long before some fans began to fear for their safety.
Jonathan Slatter, 21, from Edinburgh, travelled to the game with members of his family to support his club, Hearts. Due to traffic problems caused by the poor weather condition, Jonathan and his family arrived late, including his 11 year-old cousin, meaning they saw a mere 3 minutes of the match before it was stopped. He said: "We finally arrived 20 minutes into the game, when Hearts tweeted that the ref was going to speak to the fourth official about abandoning the game, but the match resumed so we went in. Five minutes later game was over.
"After players had left the pitch, fans engaged in a bit of friendly banter.
I couldn't make the out the Rangers chants but they weren't threatening. We [Hearts fans] sang to them, 'The Rangers died, the Hearts survived' etc. I noticed a pie get thrown by the Rangers fans at the Hearts fans. From then on, morons decided to join in, throwing anything they could get their hands on. I witnessed a hot drink hit a guy in the head, my uncle got hit with a drink after my cousin ducked and a coin narrowly missed my 11 year old cousin."
Football has undoubtedly come a long way since the football hooligan era of the 1970's, 80's and 90's, but it is evident that there are still problems when young fans attend games and never want to return.
Jonathan said: "I was only thinking about the kids safety [we had three under 16's with us]. We couldn't head up the stairs of the exit nearest to us as that'd put us in the firing line, so to speak, as that was right beside the Rangers supporters.
"There was a stairway and then maybe 8 seats at most, with a divider that you see at most football matches in between.
Considering the history between the two sides, that seemed crazy. We were stood there for six minutes whilst this onslaught and sectarian chants were being aimed at us. Stewards did their best to keep the Rangers fans back but they needed help from the police, who finally arrived and helped push the troublesome fans back."
There were of course problems with both sets of fans and the Glasgow police have found themselves on the end of a lot of criticism from supporters for their supposedly poor handling of the situation. "As we finally headed towards the exit, I said to two of the policemen about what had happened (especially the coins nearly hitting kids) and how they should have been here sooner.
The first just nodded but didn't seem to be paying attention. The second just smiled. I've never been so horrified," Jonathan said.
There were also many fans that took to Twitter to complain about the policing at the game. One fan, writing on a Heart of Midlothian forum, described his concern about the lack of segregation between fans and claims to have been told to 'f*** off' by police when pointing it out to them outside the stadium after the game.
Although it may go largely unnoticed by much of the footballing world, any day where incidents such as this occur is a dark day for the sport. Finally, talking about eventually heading back to Edinburgh following the ordeal at Ibrox, Jonathan said: "We were kept in the car park for forty minutes, due to trouble outside the ground, and finally we were able to get on our way.
5 and 3/4 hours after leaving, we got home from a truly horrendous night. My cousin said on the way home that she never wanted to go back to Ibrox. Ten minutes at Ibrox, and I'm unsure whether I'll ever go again myself."
As someone who cherishes the memories of going to football as a youngster, this strikes me as a very sad day for football fans in the UK. Rangers Football Club, the police, and the thugs who were involved in the abuse should feel ashamed that they had a part in both allowing, and causing this barbarity to occur.
