The Hearts chairwoman Ann Budge is calling on both Edinburgh clubs to unite and ban troublemakers from their grounds following last week’s derby scenes. Hibs fans threw missiles including a corkscrew at Tynecastle striker Lawrence Shankland, with objects thrown by supporters becoming all-too-commonplace during meetings between the sides.
Budge is determined to weed out those with malicious intent and ensure they are not allowed back inside Tynecastle. She wants the Hibs hierarchy to do likewise at Easter Road and admitted both clubs must take responsibility for a minority of people within their own support base who will seek to break the law
The entrepreneur from Edinburgh said that the events of last week were the worst of her ten years as Hearts’ chairwoman. “This isn’t the first time this has happened to me in the past ten years, but I believe it to be the worst. If we are able to identify the offenders, that is one thing we can do with certainty,” she stated.
We all own costly security equipment, so it’s important to follow through on that and show individuals that, sorry, that is simply not acceptable and that they won’t be permitted to return. Thus, it’s critical to be firm. You can’t strip search 18,000 or 19,000 individuals, so I’m not sure how we’re going to stop it all from getting in.
“I’ve been on vacation, so I don’t know what discussions have taken place. I believe there has been communication between the two clubs’ security chiefs. All I know is that, along with many others, let’s take our time in identifying those responsible and then unite to ensure that they are never allowed to return.
“It is really important. It is not one set of fans and not the other. I was watching the game even though I was not here, and I know comments were made about Hearts fans throwing things as well and it is true. We have to work together. We have the same problem. Nobody wants it.”
Hearts and Hibs have received recognition for their mutual decision to provide away fans with a full stand for Edinburgh derby matches. Due to a dispute between club officials regarding ticketing, fans of Rangers and Celtic have been missing from matches in Glasgow. Budge emphasised that she does not want a recurrence in the Capital.
“Nobody wants that, but equally we cannot just sit back and wait for a bad incident,” she said. “In many aspects, both clubs collaborate really effectively. It’s not just one club, therefore we both need to take it very seriously.
We simply need to get our act together as two clubs and cooperate because, as we are all aware, there is a tiny minority that does these things and it is not the majority. If something similar occurs, we take all reasonable steps to determine who the persons were and we handle the situation with extreme firmness.”
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