Originally Posted by
Jicked
Jason McGuinness was clearly identifiable as the perpetrator, we don't know who it was who in the Rovers crowd who did this. If Bohs had been forced to forfeit games on the back of McGuinness not being identifiable it would have been ridiculous. Banning 6,000 people from a ground, significantly hitting the local economy on a match night and greatly changing the course of a title run-in because of the actions of a handful is way over the top, and I'm sure the Rovers board would win an injunction at the High Court to stop such an action at any rate.
I denied it happened after the game. I was in that ground, and, honestly, didn't hear anything of the sort. Booing yes, people calling Ndo and every other Bohs player all sorts, but nothing like monkey noises. And I'm not just saying that. If it was dozens of people I'd have heard it, hundreds of others would have. The vast majority of people heard nothing. The media which loves an oul story didn't pick up on it despite it being on national TV and being the most high profile game of the season (one which everyone was watching for re: behavour of fans) The stand isn't that big a place that the chants of dozens, or hundreds would go unnoticed. Especially if it was happening on a regular basis.
What do I think a fair result should be? A proper investigation, not by youtube footage. Go to tg4 and have a listen to their mics, ask Gardaí of which there were dozens in the stand, ask stewards too, if they heard any such, where it came from and why there was nothing done on the night if they did hear it. See did the referee or FAI match day co-ordinator or whatever he's called, noted the noises in their game reports.
If it transpires that they did hear a significant number of fans doing this (again, there was no way it was a sizable percentage of Rovers fans, or hundreds, or dozens) then fine the club and issue a warning as to future conduct.
If it was 3 or 4 knobends I wouldn't fine the club, you quite simply can't hold the club responsible in that situation, like I said before there'd be nothing to stop me rounding up a gang and heading to Dalyer. It's not preventable. Instead I'd get the club to talk with matchday security staff including gardai about removing anyone they see do this from which Rovers would then be able to ban them from any future games, have a word with fans groups about the self-policing of such incidents and continue to highlight the anti-racism/discrimination message that is read out before the teams enter the field of play at every home game and perhaps move the page in the club programme re: anti racism/discrimination to an even more prominent part of the programme.
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