Hm, odd because the bars I've been to in the city to watch Celtic over the years were populated by 75% Irish guys supporting to the team. To save me the typing, read.
I read that whole thing, but I still have to ask: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDfnKzXzK7Q"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDfnKzXzK7Q[/ame]
When the famine hit Ireland a lot of people fled east to Scotland, where they were treated horribly. After decades of misery, Celtic became the rallying point for the Irish underclass in Scotland and it also gained attention back in Ireland because it was a bunch of Irish boys beating the Scots and Brits at their own game. Since Ireland doesn't have a professional league, Celtic has become the de facto pro soccer team for most Irish fans. Invariably it goes back to the religious divide because that's the social fault line in the British Isles. Yet it extends well beyond that. Celtic is an institution on both sides of the Irish Sea.
In college sports such as hockey, football, or basketball, there are often "visitor" sections. Athletics departments set aside a block of tickets for opposing fans. Not so much in pro sports here. I went to opening day Sox/Yankees this year. My seats were in the RF bleachers near the tunnel, and the mix was about 60/40 Sox fans to Yankee fans.
I think its hard to understate the Catholic/Protestant divide when it comes to Irish and English football fans, especially towards the first half of the 19th century. There was a level of religious agitation which we can't comprehend.
There are elements on both sides who tie these themes together which only serves to heighten the tension. You have more faith than I, but I hope that you are right. Worried that so many seem to believe that they won't attempt to enforce some form of fan separation for this match, at the same time I also worry that heavy handed policing has the potential to make things worse and kill most of the excitement around this match - will be interesting to see how security responds to some of the more colorful, but standard by football terms, crowd songs, etc. Never mind the more distasteful ones. Spotted a sign at Fenway Park over the weekend stating something along the lines of "Anyone directly or indirectly negatively impacting the enjoyment of another fan's experience will be immediately ejected from the ball park and subject to arrest", good luck enforcing that one in July!
The idea of forming Celtic was actually inspired by Hibs, who had been formed 13 years earlier for similar reasons: "In August 1888, without the knowledge of Brother Walfrid or the club committee, Glass signed eight of Hibs’ best players, having offered them cash inducements. The consequences for Hibernian were almost catastrophic." I hope so as I, like the majority of Scots, find the paramilitary stuff cringeworthy and utterly irrelevant. It must be said though, that all the UVF/IRA guff is very much overstated by the media and peddled by a small minority of fans on both sides, most of whom have little to no idea of the history of what they are chanting/singing.
What would you call it then when one simply copies and pastes almost the entirety of an article he ran in the "The Irish Emigrant"? And then fabricates events surrounding the Ibrox Disaster to attribute it to Old Firm fan violence? "But it is widely accepted that the tensions between Celtic and Rangers fans played a major part in the 66 deaths that day (many of whom were children)." Luckily you never made any claims that said bloggers were objective or had class. Fury as US newspaper website launches astonishing attack on Rangers fans - Daily Record Fury as Boston paper blames trouble for Ibrox disaster - STV
Everyone has an opinion, and especially in this day and age, there's no requirement for any standard of accuracy.
I'd be surprised if the FSG attempts to separate each fanbase. It's a little risky over here in a legal sense. It has been attempted previously for soccer matches and failed..see info below from the 2001 World Cup Quailfier in D.C. USA vs. Honduras: "The United States also considers ethnic communities when it schedules games against other regional opponents like Honduras, Costa Rica and Jamaica. These policies have created tension with Hispanic fans. A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the soccer federation over its ticketing procedures for a World Cup qualifying match against Honduras last September at R.F.K. Stadium in Washington. For the match, the federation attempted to garner a pro-American crowd, restricting the purchase of the best seats through advance sales to the ''U.S. Soccer family'' and D.C. United season-ticket holders. Humberto Martinez of Sterling, Va., has filed suit in Federal District Court in Washington, asserting that Hispanic fans were illegally denied equal access to the match based on their ethnicity. The suit said that even the Honduran ambassador to the United States, Hugo Noé Pino, was prevented from buying tickets in the stadium's lower deck. The federation has defended its ticketing policies as fair and lawful. As it turned out, a pro-Honduran crowd showed up for that match and cheered jubilantly as Honduras won, 3-2." A similar situation could happen at Fenway if a certain supporters section were to sell out before the other. How do you explain to the consumer that they are unable to purchase tickets when there are seats still available only in a different supporters section? Folks will buy tickets regardless. Then the separation of groups becomes mute. I have a feeling they will just have a large police and security presence. Also it would be a nightmare in the box office and ticketing operations. They have never done it before. Unfortunately Ace ticket (a local ticket broker) will most likely end up with at least 10% of seats for resale at a 50% markup. They won't care who buys them. Ideally it would be nice if they attempted to do so because the atmosphere would be so much better. Songs would ring off the Green Monster. Best bet is for someone or Celtic or Rangers to purchase a large group ticket order and offer them to their fans and create the supporters section themselves. Then spread the word to supporters to attempt to buy tickets close to that section.
Gers Explore USA Tour RANGERS have confirmed that they are exploring pre-season matches in the USA this summer including an Old Firm game in Boston but have reacted to an inflammatory article in today's Boston Globe. Rangers.Co.UK
The arrogance of stating that Celtic supporters have cleaned up their act while Rangers supporters are still a belligerent mob is irresponsible provocation.
Yeah but honestly do you think most bloggers have much credibility? It's stigmatized as lazy man's journalism and one guy's opinion. The stuff you read in blogs should be really taken for what it's worth which means don't let it irk you one way or another. Hopefully Rangers fans don't get too bent out of shape about it and cast either the Boston Press (which outside FDA and GoRevs if you consider him part of the press, really doesn't care about soccer) or Bostonians at large with the same brush based on one blog entry. It's obvious where that blogger's loyalties lie. With that said, as a blogger you're treading on very thin ice any time you make a statement about a soccer tragedy be it Ibrox, Hillsborough, etc (especially accessible via a medium like the Web) so naturally the supporters are likely to react.
The location was incredibly unpopular before, this certainly hasn't helped. As someone who lives only 45 minutes outside the city I'd still rather drive down to Baltimore or some where else.
My confidence springs from having seen it happen in 1994, which was still somewhat close to the heyday of hooliganism. Brits and Dutchies decided nice weather, lots of interesting sites to see and a nation full of pretty women were far more interesting that acting like a pack of louts. No one got partitioned off from anyone else and everyone had a good time. I'm relatively certain that Scottish fans of both clubs will come over here and have a blast, often side-by-side. It also helps that the game doesn't count for anything.
Sure, wear a St Mirren kit if you like. Just make sure it says Dorman on it. Or maybe you might like a nice Keegan Motherwell kit If I go I'll be clad in claret and amber and shout down both sides Or I may go for one of these kits yes Seamus that is a Ross County shirt
From an inside source in Operations at Fenway Park. There will not be separate sections for opposing supporters. And as expected it will be a very difficult and expensive ticket. He mentioned that tickets will most likely be offered first to corporate sponsors, then a pre-sale to Red Sox season ticket holders. Whatever is left over will be offered to the public. In a stadium that seats about 38,000 that won't be many available tickets. Not to mention if Rangers or Celtic have an agreement to purchase large blocks of seats. Surprisingly they were asked if they'd leave open sections between fans for security reasons. This is not an option for the all might bottom line. They aren't expecting large #s of unruly supporters, but more of a corporate local crowd because of the weeknight match date. I do hope they are at least prepared with extra security/police presence. Although the venue is unique for this match I still think it's too bad this match won't be at Gillette so all fans could have the opportunity to attend.
Yup, called it. The atmosphere inside will be a joke, and the streets (and local bars) will be full of liquored-up fans who couldn't get in. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Good chance Rangers will pull out now after the stupid stupid article the Boston Globe published. Maybe the so called journalist should do a little research before publishing such an offensive article.