Cracked Actor

I used to watch occaisionaly via Hola on matchdays but I seem to remember RTV eventually not accepting payment for an overseas service from a UK bank.

Full article. It has to be said that Uefa, much-derided as it rightly is, has shown Tony McGlennan a clean pair of heels when it comes to laying down the law on crowd disorder. Within 24 hours of the horrific attacks by Russian brutes on England supporters inside the Stade Velodrome in Marseilles, European football’s governing body had initiated proceedings against the Russian FA. Crowd disturbances, racist behaviour, setting off fireworks: the offences were identified and crystallised into formal charges within hours. This is day 26 since the William Hill Scottish Cup final. So far there has been silence from McGlennan, the SFA’s compliance officer on the enormous pitch invasion by Hibernian fans, the attacks by some of their supporters on Rangers fans and the equivalent violence by those Rangers supporters who came on the pitch to give as good as they got. Alleged assaults on Rangers players as they walked off at full-time, and the smashing of a goal frame and vandalism to the playing surface at the Hibs end, have all to be processed and dealt with by the SFA too. The profile and sensitivities of the whole sorry episode, and its wide-ranging potential consequences for Hibs and Rangers, make it understandable that McGlennan has not rushed in. He is right to take time in order to be measured and proportionate when it comes to framing the charges which will place both clubs in the dock. But with every passing day there is growing restlessness for something to happen. McGlennan doesn’t need to consider the circumstances of every single supporter who went on the pitch, just the broad brush of clear SFA rule-breaking which was obvious to thousands of eye witnesses and from television and social media footage. When it comes to sifting through the Cup final debacle his responsibilities are far less onerous than Police Scotland’s. Will it really take him much longer? There are three concurrent investigations into what happened in the ten minutes after Hibs won what had been a breathtakingly good final. The police continue to work their way through the alleged culprits and have carried out a number of arrests in Edinburgh, Glasgow and elsewhere. They are dealing with the violent incidents and disorder first, before turning attention to other matters including the vandalism. The total of arrests stands at 28 — 16 in the first week after the final, 12 more last week — with more expected. That’s the criminal justice element, then. A fortnight ago on June 1 the SFA announced it would look into how the final was handled in terms of security and risk-management. Sheriff principal Edward Bowen was appointed to chair an independent commission which will determine whether every reasonable step was taken to prevent what happened. He will also look into the response, including reaction times, of the SFA, the police, G4S (the stewarding company) and the clubs as chaos ensued. Bowen still has six-and-a-half weeks to meet the SFA’s July 31 deadline to submit his report, which will be published in full. It is understood that McGlennan will not issue any notice of complaint which could impact on an element of the independent commission until Bowen’s findings are out; and similarly he may have to wait to act on some matters until Bowen’s investigation is complete. Neither investigation intends to prejudice the other. So there has been clarity on two strands of the fallout but not the third, beyond a single sentence in the SFA statement about the Bowen commission which said: “The compliance officer has also initiated an investigation into the Cup final, from a football regulatory perspective via the judicial panel protocol.” Because the game was in the Scottish Cup, rather than under the auspices of the SPFL, McGlennan is empowered under SFA Articles of Association number 28. “A club shall take all such steps as are reasonably practicable to ensure the safety, good conduct and good behaviour of its supporters at any ground”. Further: “Misbehaviour by spectators before, during or at the close of a match resulting from the failure of a club or recognised football body to take all reasonably practicable steps as aforesaid shall render that club or recognised football body liable to a fine or closure of ground or suspension or all of these penalties.” That’s a bit wordy, as is the SFA’s way, but essentially whatever notices of complaint McGlennan issues will end up being considered by an independent judicial panel which has the power to impose fines or suspensions or to expel or eject clubs from the Scottish Cup if they “in any way bring the game into disrepute”. Hibs and Rangers’ defence is sure to be the same: did we take all reasonably practicable steps? Yes we did. In some quarters that excuse simply isn’t going to wash. Remember Justice Secretary Michael Matheson’s message to the SFA? It wasn’t quite “do something about this… or else the government will”, but it was close enough. Meanwhile, time marches on.

Reasonable piece, sorry can't copy and paste. Silence after Cup disorder is deafening | The Times http://www.thetimes.co.uk/share/2a1ba83e-3255-11e6-9c43-b579056ef2e5

You've got to love statistics. RC's account for 14% of the population. It would be fair to assume that almost all of the anti-protestant crimes will be committed by RC's ( and some of the anti- Islamic, but let's leave that out for now.) 14% of the population commiting 24% of the crimes. Must be the schools!

I heard that on the way in to work this morning. Talked about the brilliance of the policing and the euphoria of the fans. Absolute prick of a man. We need to get the video and photographic evidence out there to counter this disinformation campaign.

Same here, Bar 72 was fully booked so this looked a decent option.