threads in the Irish League section.

**osarusan** · 14/01/2008, 2:00 PM

There have been a couple of threads in the Irish League section which have dealt with this post and the subsequent posts.

The post contains a link to a picture of Linfield fans burning an Irish tricolour.

Moderators have locked one thread and warned the posters in another about locking the thread if people continue to post about the picture.

Moderators quotes along the lines of -

Poor Student-

The rule of the forum is to keep discussion football related. Before some pedant tries to claim "well it happened at a football match", the implications of the rule are obvious and are being repeated now, stick to on the pitch matters or take your points to another forum. Also, this is not the place to deabte this rule, any more on the matter and this thread will be locked.

This forum is strictly for football. Take it to an IL board or a Linfield board.

and A Face-

I just want to second that. There is a time and place for that debate and its not on here right now. No more lads.

I'd like to know why this topic is off limits.

We have seen controversial incidents at football grounds (incidents at Bohs games, Rovers games etc) debated for page after page.

I think that given Linfield's supporters' supposed bigotry (a claim that their supporters have convincingly denied), and given the debate surrounding an AIL which would see Linfield play clubs from the ROI on a regular basis, it is a relevant topic for discussion.

The arguement that it is not football related-

Before some pedant tries to claim "well it happened at a football match"

doesn't, in my opinion, hold water.
Even a Linfield supporter has admitted it is not the only time this has happened -

Does it happen often? Not really, not anymore.

We are talking about a deliberate act by supporters of a football club, as an act of support for that club. Therefore the fact that "it happened at a football match" is not incidental, but crucial to the issue. The issue is inherently football-related, because the act itself was inherently football-related.
A couple of Linfield fans even joined the threads with rational posts of their own. The threads, despite a couple of silly posts, had not descended into a slagging competition, but remained on a civil standing.

I'm confused as to why it should not be discussed on this forum.

**dahamsta** · 14/01/2008, 4:02 PM

The mods have already explained: This is a football site. The incident is political. End of story.

If Prince Charles went to a match at Tolka and decided to take his knob out, would you defend that as "football-related" when we tossed - pardon the pun - discussion about it in the bin? Stop stirring the pot please, it's very dull and a waste of our time.

adam

**Poor Student** · 14/01/2008, 6:51 PM

Also, there's Irish league and Linfield forums about the net if you feel such a burning desire to discuss the issue.

**sligo23** · 14/01/2008, 7:37 PM

Originally Posted by dahamsta

The mods have already explained: This is a football site. The incident is political. End of story.

If Prince Charles went to a match at Tolka and decided to take his knob out, would you defend that as "football-related" when we tossed - pardon the pun - discussion about it in the bin? Stop stirring the pot please, it's very dull and a waste of our time.

adam

thanks for that lovely image

**GavinZac** · 14/01/2008, 9:13 PM

Originally Posted by dahamsta

The mods have already explained: This is a football site. The incident is political. End of story.

If Prince Charles went to a match at Tolka and decided to take his knob out, would you defend that as "football-related" when we tossed - pardon the pun - discussion about it in the bin? Stop stirring the pot please, it's very dull and a waste of our time.

adam

Does it go in Current Affairs then? Or Off-topic?

**pineapple stu** · 14/01/2008, 9:27 PM

The problem is those threads end in "You did" "We never" "We own it" "**** off you British cvnt" debates, and then the likes of dcfcsteve and Steve Bruce wade in and the thread's lost to the world. It's not an ideal situation to have to bin/lock threads like that, but unfortunately, history around here has shown that the alternative is far mroe ugly and tedious.