The following warning appears here - http://ictfc.com/news/club-news/746-ross-county-v-ict-2nd-january

 

 

Highland Derby: Offensive Singing

 

Whilst both Ross County and Inverness Caledonian Thistle are keen to maintain the fantastic atmosphere that Highland Derbies are famous for, on advice from the Procurator Fiscal's office, the Police have advised both Clubs that singing or chants which could be deemed offensive to groups or communities such as travellers are deemed an offence under the law in Scotland and therefore anyone caught singing them is liable to criminal prosecution.

 

We hope all fans will join the Club in keeping the Highland Derby an occasion which can be enjoyed by all supporters regardless of their gender, colour, race, nationality or ethnic origin.

 

 

As ridiculous as we all might find the situation, don't risk it.  You can find yourself with a criminal record for "Racially Aggravated Breach of the Peace" and people such as future employers aren't going to look beyond that at the details of the case.  Such a record can also prevent you from gaining entry to certain other countries around the world and cause you no end of grief with many things....it's just not worth it.

Youre goin to get yer feckin head kicked in.

Who? Me? Why?

A sledgehammer aimed at the wrong nuts!

Dee, I think its actually a sledgehammer that Northern Constabulary have little or no right to wield. In doing this, they have insinuated that there is a problem of racism that exists in the fan base of both sides but in using the expression "traveller" they have apportioned blame to our side of the "banter". It would be utterly impossible to prosecute anyone for using the expression "tink" in that it has been in scots vernacular usage for years, so it's us they are targetting. This law was created to combat the worst excesses of glaswegian bigotry, which prompted hatred and violence. There is no history of that in our derby and there never will be.

Up until Celtic fans showed why the police should be involved at times by their behaviour at Dens, there had been 30 arrests at scottish grounds this year - NOT ONE of which was for either an ICT or a County fan. Problem? Don't think so.

I don't actually see what complaints could or would have been made to prompt this premature intervention given that the nature, manner and content of the banter between these two sides is well known. Is it just po faced plod getting in there first? Thoughts....

Yer correct Davie,but those desperate to clamber aboard the offended bus are given the full backing of the establishment to howl at any percieved offence confident in the knowledge the police will deal "robustly" with "offenders" so long as it's in small manageable situations. When a crowd becomes seriously and dangerously out of order and really offensive, as reported at Dens on Boxing day, the course of action becomes to contain and not inflame, ( whilst continuing to be "robust" with any small pockets of local support)

 It's the uneven handedness of dealing with situations that irks and common sense is not used to gauge what supporters require "robust" handling.We have all seen how strong willed and forceful the stewards and police are given a group of teenagers standing or singing "offensive" songs, but a full away end can stand and sing and do what they please.

This is going just the same way as the out-of-hand H&S culture. The Elgin City farce was caused by people with zero interest in football setting ridiculous crowd figures, and well-meaning folk in the club trying to get round it. According to people at the game the ground felt half empty, and it was the same at Forres V Rangers where the council had set a limit of 1,471 before public outrage got it increased to a laughable 2,500 or so. I've seen more folk in the beer tent at Forres Highland Games (where there isn't any such thing as a crowd limit) than in the end behind the East goalmouth at Mosset Park.  There were almost as many folk hanging out of the tree behind the ground for God's sake, but as that wasn't inside the ground the H&S police weren't interested.

 

Dave and Heilandee are spot on (as I suspect will almost every outraged punter who posts on here). This is banter (and bloody good banter it is too). It's what supporting a team is all about.

Why diddn't Elgin switch the match to our Gaff

Would have saved a £25,000 fine

 

With regard to travellers , I have surfed the local news on the subject

 

The local camp is in Inverness , so it all seems pointless

 

http://www.highland.gov.uk/livinghere/housing/gypsytravellersinhighland/

Edited December 29, 201212 yr by Laurence

This law was created to combat the worst excesses of glaswegian bigotry, which prompted hatred and violence. There is no history of that in our derby and there never will be.

 

Although I also think parts of the capital have their fair share, couldn't agree more. 

 

Then again, given Celtic fans' (recent) behaviour, the fact that our game is (somewhere) on TV around New Year, and the recent police interest in parts of the North Stand, I don't think it's unexpected.

 

I wonder who has complained about the singing though.  Either club?  Their fans?  Other groups in the Highlands?  The BBC?

 

(Editted to correct date)

Edited December 29, 201212 yr by Slater

Yet the same police force stand watching Rangers fans singing sectarian songs at th final game last season and take no action??

The police should spend their time catching criminals.  Billions is lost to the public purse (which pays their wages) through tax evasion and benefit fraud and they would be far better employed chasing those people rather than persecuting honest fans enjoying a bit of banter

 

I suspect this is just a bit of a ruse to allow a few of the boys in blue to get free admission to a good game of footy.

Think Heilandee and Davie got it bang on with description in post #30 and the "climbing on the offended bus" comment in post #31.

Too many people these days get offended on behalf of others and frequently it ends up with the kind of nonsense we see here (not CaleyD's post, but the threat from the authorities). By all means have a baseline of things that are not acceptable and can be acted upon automatically (racism, bigotry etc) and if a person (or group) is personally offended by anything else, then let them complain, and deal with it as it arises, otherwise, stop meddling in the banter. Deal with criminality not (political) correctness !!!

 

 

When I was in Morocco in August, the (official, accepted, and non-derogatory) term used all over that country for Berbers who move from place to place is "nomad" ... perhaps that is not illegal ???

how the Dundee Supporters (and others) get off with calling DU fans Arabs?

They don't. The DU fans invented the term themselves many many years ago, long before all the modern Arab/Muslim stuff was even thought of...

Something about their pitch being heavily sanded.

Edited December 29, 201212 yr by TheMantis

Caravan dwellers do have wheels on their house.

They are forever in our shadow.

Dungwall does smell like sh!te.

Derek adams does do things with fluffy animals in his barn.

The c*unty end is always full.

The Highlands are ours.

 

So whats wrong with singing about true facts?

Why diddn't Elgin switch the match to our Gaff

Would have saved a £25,000 fine

 

With regard to travellers , I have surfed the local news on the subject

 

The local camp is in Inverness , so it all seems pointless

 

http://www.highland.gov.uk/livinghere/housing/gypsytravellersinhighland/

First point....Why? They have their own ground. They shouldn't try and pull the wool over the eyes of the authorities.

Second point......Why would you feel the need to surf the local news on the subject and then tell all on a football forum?

Third point.......The sites your link refers to are Council run sites. There are also a number of sites run by the travellers themselves and a number of caravan and camping sites that accept travellers. The local council run campsite may well be the Longman site but the travellers live all around the Highlands.

 

That all gets away from the fact that the officials are going way over the top in their handling of something the the travellers themselves would see as no more than a bit of football banter between two groups of close fans. I would also add that many of those fans live and work among each other and get on well together till matchday kick-off.

 

how the Dundee Supporters (and others) get off with calling DU fans Arabs?

They don't. The DU fans invented the term themselves many many years ago, long before all the modern Arab/Muslim stuff was even thought of...

Something about their pitch being heavily sanded.

 

One of the stories I've heard is that a Scottish cup game back in the early sixties had to be postponed something like six or seven times due to severe snowfalls and frost. Apparantly they decided to hire in one of those machines that burn the tar of the roads to melt this and totally destroyed the grass surface so to try and get the game played DU brought in tonnes of sand and covered their pitch. DU won the game and, it is said, that a commentator or pundit, when describing the game, had stated that "the team took to the sands like Arabs".

 

And that, in support of another thread, is how a Dundee team and its fans got their 'identity'.

Yer correct Alex,it was a Scottish Cup tie against Albion Rovers,they adopted the name and has been used without malice or bigotry ever since. That said,in this PC day and age,you have to be aware how uninformed and easily offended people will perceive it's use,we had fundraising T shirts along the line of "Ehm a peh munching, beer drinking,Arab hating Dee4 life" which isn't a problem in a Lochee pub but take it out of context and having a beer further afield may bring you some unwanted attention! It's all about perception and the desire of some to be offended.

should the 'caley jags together' or trust or whatever not be working on behalf of the supporters, to give the supporters a say in what is deemed acceptable and not, to sing against county?

should the 'caley jags together' or trust or whatever not be working on behalf of the supporters, to give the supporters a say in what is deemed acceptable and not, to sing against county?

Luke, thanks for this. I'll raise the matter at the next board meeting and endeavour to take the matter to the club. I'll update wheen I can.

Youre goin to get yer feckin head kicked in.

Who? Me? Why?

Cos I feckin lub ya and you are the best biter ever - I bet we would get off singing that ditty !!!!

I am just glad that the rate of criminality in the Highlands has fallen to such a minimal rate that the police have time to concentrate on such harmless, trivial matters.

Should have been on the train home from Perth yesterday to hear some proper "offensive" singing

I have been thinking about this over the past couple of days and I have come up with some alternitive lyrics that are inoffensive, instructional and will directly appeal to the public school educated politicians and socially upward looking PC brigade whose knee jerk, west end dinner table reaction to "offensive singing" seems to have brought this on. Please feel free to add to these if you feel the need.

 

Who put the O and the Y and the C in County?

Who put the O and the Y and the C in County?

Who put the O and the Y and the C in County?

Who put the O and the Y and the C in County?

County nutty rotters!

 

Never spit on either side of the bridge.

 

If I had the wings of an eagle, if I had the wealth of Lord Coe.

I'd fly over Dingwall tomorrow and share my prawn sandwich below.

Share my, share my, share my prawn sandwich below, BELOW!

 

 

I actually had a word with a lovely WPC on Saturday, just to check if my version of O and the Y song was ok, and she said that in her opinion it was fine.
 

Who put the O and the Y and the C in County?

Who put the O and the Y and the C in County?

Who put the O and the Y and the C in County?

Who put the O and the Y and the C in County?

Shadow Lurking Barstewards

She and her colleague even laughed when I sung it for them.  Maybe that was just my singing though

Shadow's o'er the water has become a reality.

 

 

 

 

Sandbags at the steps of the wendy house

Hopefully the following won't make people's heads explode as they attempt to process my praise of Charles Bannerman, but he wrote a very good piece about this in the Highland News this week highlighting the ridiculousness of the statement that was issued.

Should have been on the train home from Perth yesterday to hear some proper "offensive" singing

 

What was being sung?