Hearts fans’ tirade towards Leigh Griffiths symptomatic of football’s abuse culture problem, writes Bill Leckie

Meo-meomeomy said:
I don’t think you’re quite getting what I mean. If you and I meet in the street and I shout something abusive to you that then makes you a victim - of my abuse. So it’s not about saying that Leigh Griffiths hasn’t done what he’s done or should be sympathised with or made excuses for. It’s just that regardless of what he himself might be condemned for, others abusing him makes him a victim of their abuse.
Click to expand...
You know what? Too feckin bad. If I ever met him in the street, he'll be "abused". Hopefully he tries to assault me.
 
Leckie is another journalistic Pygmy in the Scottish Sports Media which is barren of genuine talent. The years of bullying from Lawwell has reduced this lot to being toothless sycophants only ever getting worked up if it’s to sink the boot into Rangers and Rangers supporters.
 
Snakehips said:
Leckie wrote this last year.

www.thescottishsun.co.uk

Leckie: Morelos is his own worst enemy..he dives, cheats and lashes out

STEVEN GERRARD was a threat to every team he played against. He was the embodiment of the guy you hated in the other lot’s colours but would have given anything to see wearing yours. Across 17 year…
www.thescottishsun.co.uk www.thescottishsun.co.uk
Click to expand...
Great example of the glaring double standard.
Here's another headline the Scottish Sun when the sheep had the banner attacking Morelos's mother.
CRUDE DONS DISPLAY

‘Your mother is a mattress’ Aberdeen fans target Rangers star Morelos with offensive banner but get it hilariously wrong.​


That day we had to LAUGH at the stupidity of the sheep fans. There was no outrage.
Later in the article, which was filled with anonymous Twitter reactions, they state "We contacted both clubs for comment".
What that means is The Sun "journalists" didn't have anything to say about it.
However, attack a player over his attempts to get a 15 year old in to bed and they will write volumes defending the ned.
 
stonewall Jackson said:
Leckie is another journalistic Pygmy in the Scottish Sports Media which is barren of genuine talent. The years of bullying from Lawwell has reduced this lot to being toothless sycophants only ever getting worked up if it’s to sink the boot into Rangers and Rangers supporters.
Click to expand...
To paraphrase the Tinderman pygmy. 'With his resting bitch face pout and snide comments, the way he'd rather ignore the sectarianism and bigotry from non Gers fans, he seems he'll bent on making as few friends as possible in our support.'
 
I would love for just once a journalist would do an article telling the truth about the scum. I watched some of their game on Saturday and it was nothing but an IRA fest from the stands.
 
FCf0lE1WQAMO_w4

He also thinks Malky's a decent fella. So he's quite happy to defend two convicted racists but he thinks Alfredo is a waster. A young man who moved to Finland as a 19 year old to pursue a football career and has gone to score 100 goals for Rangers and become a Colombian international.
 
Craigie said:
WE’RE brought up to believe that our actions in life will always speak louder than words.

It’s a proverb screwed up into a ball and volleyed over the main stand every week in Scottish football.



Because, no matter what actions we take to fight back against bigotry, they’re being drowned out like a whisper in a hurricane.

Sure, we wear the anti-racism T-shirts, we slap the stickers on our shirts, we wave the placards and we take the knee.

But what’s the point if when the whistle blows all bets are off on what we’re allowed to shout?


There’s no point, absolutely none. All those gestures, the campaigns — no matter how well-meaning — come to nothing if we then close our ears to the levels of sheer malice that way too many believe is their right to spew because they’ve paid for a ticket.

Truth is, we’re kidding ourselves if we believe racism is even close to being our game’s most serious attitude problem.

That line about a ticket giving some the right to dole out abuse came from Dundee frontman Jason Cummings on Saturday, after his equaliser against Hearts at Tynecastle had sparked a barrage of verbal and physical missiles.

But even his treatment was nothing compared to the merciless, brainless, tasteless treatment his team-mate Leigh Griffiths had suffered from the minute he trotted out to warm up.

The worst of it came from a section of the home support at the front of the main stand, who chanted over and over.


But even the majority who didn’t join in with their level of nastiness hit the guy with every insult imaginable.

It was all as brutal as it was needless — and when Cummings shook his head and sighed that what his mate had endured was “disgusting”, he was bang on.

I write this as someone who never shies away from criticising Griffiths on the many occasions when his conduct on and off the pitch lets him down.

But the thought of spending 90 minutes screaming hatred at anyone else just for being ALIVE . . . well, it simply doesn’t compute.

Yet that’s what we hear at almost every ground, almost every week, even if not often to the dark levels Griffiths has to endure on a regular basis.

That, as Cummings put it, is what comes as standard with the ticket.

It’s almost impossible to be more than a yard away from someone who crosses the line between raw passion and naked anger, between banter and bile.


You can’t watch a telly game without microphones picking up the kind of abuse some of my fellow St Mirren supporters hurled at pretty much everyone during our defeat to Rangers yesterday.

Shout the same stuff in the street within earshot of a cop and you’d be lifted in two seconds flat.

So why it’s acceptable in a crowd at a sporting event, no matter how upset we might be at losing, is way beyond me.

Then, of course, we have the Old Firm themselves, quite rightly getting bent out of shape when racism rears its hideous head — as it did recently when Glen Kamara was on the receiving end — yet looking at their shoes and whistling when it comes to the weekly sectarian karaoke sessions their own supporters subject the rest of us to.

I’ll keep repeating it until something gets done — replace “orange” and “19th Century Terrorist” with “black” in their songs and there would be questions asked in parliament before you could say bandwagon.

Holyrood would be demanding stadiums were shut as punishment, the SFA would be appointing a former player from each club as Anti-Sectarianism Czars.

We’ve seen that with racism, ever since the first players took a knee when the English Premier League came out of lockdown last summer.

There’s been a huge — and hugely impressive — push to drive the white-is-right brigade out of the game.

The knee’s become as much a part of matchday as the coin-toss, every suggestion of someone being harangued for the colour of their skin becomes a national issue, and quite right too.

Give people it tight about their religion, though? Ach, it’s just wur culture.

It’s society’s problem, not football’s. It’s been going on forever, we’ll never change them.

Then, most dispiriting of all, is the one I’ve heard for 30-odd years now: If you didn’t write about it, they wouldn’t do it.

The fact that this is the exact opposite of how we’re tackling the race issue is seemingly lost on sectarianism’s apologists.

It’s not just religious intolerance we allow to run free, though. It’s sexism, homophobia, it’s the kind of deeply personal insults players, bosses, directors and match officials are routinely told they need to suck up as “part of football”.

What went on at Tynecastle was a particularly unpleasant example of this, but what’s worse is that it was equally predictable.

What’s properly depressing is that it’ll more than likely happen again, at some other ground, tomorrow and the next day and at the weekend.

And what’s truly shameful is that stewards, police and fellow fans will more than likely do absolutely nothing about it.






Bill reaching new levels of nonsense. Seems to is wrong to boo and shout at a convicted racist and wannabee paedo.
Click to expand...
Since when did the hatred of paedophiles become bigotry.
 
WalterLoyal said:
FCf0lE1WQAMO_w4

He also thinks Malky's a decent fella. So he's quite happy to defend two convicted racists but he thinks Alfredo is a waster. A young man who moved to Finland as a 19 year old to pursue a football career and has gone to score 100 goals for Rangers and become a Colombian international.
Click to expand...

There is no end to the mind numbing hypocrisy of the Scottish media. Its quite staggering, tbh. They'll jump on anything to tenuously link Rangers or our support to negative behaviour, but forgive, forget and frequently ignore scumbaggery of the worst kind by others.
 
Shocked, maybe thumb gave lecherous leckie a wee list of young girls to contact,that's why he's defending a racist no good wrong yin,all my opinion of course,no proof whatsoever.
 
Dofek said:
How does the leader of the lonely hearts club manage to stay employed by writing the same drivel week after week. It's also quite ominous the amount of "journalists" in this country who jump to the defence of paedophiles. It makes you wonder.
Click to expand...
Grooming the readership for upcoming Class Action perhaps and always delayed court cases....to be sympathetic and outraged as to the perpetrators being in the dock.
 
Bill if you are looking in then I have an answer to the romantic dalliance you seek why not go and have bromance with that other Peado defender Graham Spiers.......and btw this bastion of morality attitude where is the calling out of your Chairman or are you a fellow bigot your article today should have been criticising him not Hearts fans with good ethical law abiding moral standards over one of societies waster of oxygen......but I forgot he scored 2 goals against E*******d a hero to a xenophobe like you!
 
I wonder if bill leckie remembers this, when st mirren played dunfermline away after the death of the pars captain from gas poisoning in January 1996 the st mirren fans taunted the home fans by holding up cigarette lighters & making a hissing sound.

This was told to me by a st mirren fan who was there that day.
 
Craigie said:
WE’RE brought up to believe that our actions in life will always speak louder than words.

It’s a proverb screwed up into a ball and volleyed over the main stand every week in Scottish football.



Because, no matter what actions we take to fight back against bigotry, they’re being drowned out like a whisper in a hurricane.

Sure, we wear the anti-racism T-shirts, we slap the stickers on our shirts, we wave the placards and we take the knee.

But what’s the point if when the whistle blows all bets are off on what we’re allowed to shout?


There’s no point, absolutely none. All those gestures, the campaigns — no matter how well-meaning — come to nothing if we then close our ears to the levels of sheer malice that way too many believe is their right to spew because they’ve paid for a ticket.

Truth is, we’re kidding ourselves if we believe racism is even close to being our game’s most serious attitude problem.

That line about a ticket giving some the right to dole out abuse came from Dundee frontman Jason Cummings on Saturday, after his equaliser against Hearts at Tynecastle had sparked a barrage of verbal and physical missiles.

But even his treatment was nothing compared to the merciless, brainless, tasteless treatment his team-mate Leigh Griffiths had suffered from the minute he trotted out to warm up.

The worst of it came from a section of the home support at the front of the main stand, who chanted over and over.


But even the majority who didn’t join in with their level of nastiness hit the guy with every insult imaginable.

It was all as brutal as it was needless — and when Cummings shook his head and sighed that what his mate had endured was “disgusting”, he was bang on.

I write this as someone who never shies away from criticising Griffiths on the many occasions when his conduct on and off the pitch lets him down.

But the thought of spending 90 minutes screaming hatred at anyone else just for being ALIVE . . . well, it simply doesn’t compute.

Yet that’s what we hear at almost every ground, almost every week, even if not often to the dark levels Griffiths has to endure on a regular basis.

That, as Cummings put it, is what comes as standard with the ticket.

It’s almost impossible to be more than a yard away from someone who crosses the line between raw passion and naked anger, between banter and bile.


You can’t watch a telly game without microphones picking up the kind of abuse some of my fellow St Mirren supporters hurled at pretty much everyone during our defeat to Rangers yesterday.

Shout the same stuff in the street within earshot of a cop and you’d be lifted in two seconds flat.

So why it’s acceptable in a crowd at a sporting event, no matter how upset we might be at losing, is way beyond me.

Then, of course, we have the Old Firm themselves, quite rightly getting bent out of shape when racism rears its hideous head — as it did recently when Glen Kamara was on the receiving end — yet looking at their shoes and whistling when it comes to the weekly sectarian karaoke sessions their own supporters subject the rest of us to.

I’ll keep repeating it until something gets done — replace “orange” and “19th Century Terrorist” with “black” in their songs and there would be questions asked in parliament before you could say bandwagon.

Holyrood would be demanding stadiums were shut as punishment, the SFA would be appointing a former player from each club as Anti-Sectarianism Czars.

We’ve seen that with racism, ever since the first players took a knee when the English Premier League came out of lockdown last summer.

There’s been a huge — and hugely impressive — push to drive the white-is-right brigade out of the game.

The knee’s become as much a part of matchday as the coin-toss, every suggestion of someone being harangued for the colour of their skin becomes a national issue, and quite right too.

Give people it tight about their religion, though? Ach, it’s just wur culture.

It’s society’s problem, not football’s. It’s been going on forever, we’ll never change them.

Then, most dispiriting of all, is the one I’ve heard for 30-odd years now: If you didn’t write about it, they wouldn’t do it.

The fact that this is the exact opposite of how we’re tackling the race issue is seemingly lost on sectarianism’s apologists.

It’s not just religious intolerance we allow to run free, though. It’s sexism, homophobia, it’s the kind of deeply personal insults players, bosses, directors and match officials are routinely told they need to suck up as “part of football”.

What went on at Tynecastle was a particularly unpleasant example of this, but what’s worse is that it was equally predictable.

What’s properly depressing is that it’ll more than likely happen again, at some other ground, tomorrow and the next day and at the weekend.

And what’s truly shameful is that stewards, police and fellow fans will more than likely do absolutely nothing about it.






Bill reaching new levels of nonsense. Seems to is wrong to boo and shout at a convicted racist and wannabee paedo.
Click to expand...
 
Strange how this clown ignored all of Griffiths antics whilst at Hibs and selik ????now it’s the “poor lad” defence council.

Griffiths made his vile bed on and off the pitch while at the tatie dome and previously at their feeder club so any abuse he gets now is really down to the persona he has built for himself
 
Edweird said:
Great example of the glaring double standard.
Here's another headline the Scottish Sun when the sheep had the banner attacking Morelos's mother.
CRUDE DONS DISPLAY

‘Your mother is a mattress’ Aberdeen fans target Rangers star Morelos with offensive banner but get it hilariously wrong.​


That day we had to LAUGH at the stupidity of the sheep fans. There was no outrage.
Later in the article, which was filled with anonymous Twitter reactions, they state "We contacted both clubs for comment".
What that means is The Sun "journalists" didn't have anything to say about it.
However, attack a player over his attempts to get a 15 year old in to bed and they will write volumes defending the ned.
Click to expand...
I give you Dr Singleton Fraud.

In a weekend that saw the Chairman of his own club gives us a sectarian hate crime in glorious technicolour, surround sound and up to the minute CGI. Dr Fraud would rather sympathise with an out and out reprobate, convicted racist and all the unsavoury add ons to what makes him one of the all time most loathesome players ever in the annals of Scottish football history.

And he can't claim time constraints here, because the Needham stuff was out everywhere on Saturday morning, well before kick off at Gorgie.

An out and out weasel, who like the Stewarts, Dornans, NBM and the Useless's of this world are simply not interested in diffusing sectariansim or religious strife. They view it simply as a means to an end to stick it to Rangers and our support.

You keep wishin' and hopin' and prayin' that this time enough is enough for the people running our club, but it never really turns out this way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Latest posts

Back
Top