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The National (Scotland)

Sport

Matthew Lindsay

Why 'UEFA mafia' ruling paves way for Scotland's ultras to take their clubs to court

UEFA Champions League Brann (Person) Rangers SK Brann Celtic CAS Football Europa League

THOSE who are tasked with keeping pyrotechnics out of Scottish football grounds and crowds safe from harm face myriad challenges.

The flares, smoke bombs and strobes which the ultras who populate every club’s fanbase these days are wont to ignite in the streets around stadiums before and after matches and in the stands during them are small, easy to conceal and difficult to detect.

The phrasing of the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006 also means it is currently hard, if not nigh on impossible, for the authorities to issue those who break the law and stage coordinated displays with football banning orders.

Yet, Police Scotland, the SFA, the SPFL, the Scottish government and the Football Safety Officers Association (Scotland) have, as if there was not already enough for them to contend with, faced a new complication of late.

Clubs have found their attempts to discipline the “no pyro no party” brigade have been thwarted because the offenders have somehow managed to draft in, to use the words of one of those who is heavily involved in the complex struggle, “high-powered legal representation”.

When the Green Brigade ultras group announced they were taking legal advice the day after they were kettled by police officers on London Road last month it underlined that the hardcore element among a club’s support is both willing and able to turn to expensive lawyers if they feel that drastic course of action is justified.

The identical statements which they, Ultras Thistle (Partick), Block E Bois (Motherwell), Ultras Paisley (St Mirren), Block Seven (Hibernian), Cowshed Morton, Fair City Unity (St Johnstone) and Section 1869 (Kilmarnock) posted on X last night railing against "repressive" policing, advising fans of their rights and hitting out at the use of Section 60 powers suggested they had consulted legal experts.

Will Scottish fans decide that is the road they should continue to go down in future if, as has frequently happened in previous seasons, they are sanctioned by their own clubs for displaying what are deemed to be offensive banners? Watch this space.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled this week that Norwegian club SK Brann do not have to pay the €5,000 fine they had imposed on them by UEFA for chanting “UEFA mafia” and displaying banners with the same message during a Women’s Champions League match against St Polten in January of last year.

They were initially censured by European football’s governing body for “provocative messages of an offensive nature”. But a CAS panel decided there had been no breach of the organisation’s regulations and unilaterally annulled the punishment. SK Brann 1, UEFA 0.

(Image: Craig Williamson - SNS Group) CAS felt there was no need to examine if there had been “a justifiable incursion on the supporters’ right of freedom of expression”. That, though, had been one of the arguments which Brann had put forward. After hailing the ruling as “fair and correct” their chairman Aslek Sverdrup stated that “freedom of expression is under pressure”. It was an interesting case which has perhaps now set a potentially seismic precedent.

There is no prospect, none whatsoever, of the Celtic or Rangers hierarchies following the lead of Brann and challenging the punishments which they regularly receive from UEFA for supporter misconduct during Champions League or Europa League games in court.

They, along with many, many of their supporters, would dearly love it if the more partisan among their followers just focused on the football on such showpiece occasions and are deeply dismayed whenever a chant is sung or a banner displayed which they believe tarnishes their public image, damages their reputation or risks causing controversy.

Celtic issued a statement last month in the wake of the “unauthorised” Show Israel the Red Card and Brendan “Bic” McFarlane banners which had been unfurled in the safe standing section at Parkhead during games expressing concern, stressing that displays should support the team and emphasising they had no political agenda.

But the shows of support for the Palestinian people in Gaza have continued unabated and their red card campaign has spread around the planet.

Rangers voiced their displeasure a couple of weeks later after they had been fined €30,000 by UEFA for the “racist and discriminatory” banners which were unfurled in the section which houses the Union Bears ultras group during the Europa League last 16 match against Fenerbahce which read “Keep woke foreign ideologies out – defend Europe”.

They are in the process of identifying and issuing life bans to those responsible. For me, anyone who is prevented from filing through the turnstiles of the Govan ground to see their heroes play in the future as a consequence of committing what I believe was a crass, unpleasant and needless act only has himself or herself to blame.

They are not, however, without their backers. It has been claimed that police officers, despite the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act coming in to force last year, were helpless to take action and that no criminality was committed. It has been suggested in some quarters that Rangers should not have blithely accepted the charge or targeted their own fans in such a manner.

(Image: Social media) Could there be a legal challenge over this unfortunate affair or if similar scenarios occur in the months and years to come? There are some well-resourced individuals who have sympathy with those who have been targeted and are quite prepared to fight their corner and finance their cause. Brann have shown aggrieved parties that it can be a highly effective strategy by taking on and beating UEFA over their “mafia” slurs.

Celtic, Rangers and other big Scottish clubs have long found maintaining order among the young team who cheer them on home and away and who frequently let themselves down with their actions to be taxing.

They may discover that keeping those with more extreme views in check becomes even more of a headache in future if they are increasingly coming up against “high-powered” legal representatives.

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