A Scots football team has issued ‘indefinite’ bans on club supporters involved in a horror hammer attack which saw a young man rushed to hospital. Kilbirnie Ladeside Football Club’s committee condemned the violent scenes which erupted after the Scottish Junior Cup tie with Glasgow Perthshire on Saturday afternoon.
A police investigation was launched after a 34-year-old was left badly injured during the incident between warring fans on Closeburn Street in the Possilpark area of the city. The club has also banned all fans involved in a separate incident on August 13, which saw bottles lobbed bottles onto Valefield Park in a bid to hit players from the opposing side.
Throwing down the gauntlet to disruptive supporters, the committee have also threatened to resign ‘en-mass’ if this behaviour continues. They have also vowed to work with police to prevent troublemakers from attending home and away games.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, they said: “The disruptive element of our support who have caused the club to appear in front of the West of Scotland Football League disciplinary board on six occasions over the last 14 months have pushed the committee to breaking point.
“We were recently charged with bringing the game into disrepute no longer than 6 weeks ago when this element threw bottles onto Valefield Park from outside the ground trying to strike our opponents players. We have footage of this latter event.
“As a committee we have a responsibility to our supporters who give us no concern, we also have a duty to our valuable sponsors to protect their good image who without the club could not function to the high degree it currently does. Front page headlines of disorder involving our supporters in national newspapers harms our club immensely, we will not tolerate any further bad publicity which affects the image of Kilbirnie Ladeside FC.
“Therefore, with immediate effect, those who engaged in Saturday’s disorder, threw bottles onto Valefield Park on the 13th of August 2022 or is currently serving a suspended ban are banned from the following football club home and away for an indefinite period.”
They added: “For Saturday we will engage with Police Scotland and Transport Police to ensure no access to our game v St Cado’s is accessible to those supporters. Moving forward we will liaise with our opponents on every away game and ensure access is denied.
“Over the past 14 months we have engaged and compromised with supporters to reach some common ground moving forward, we as a club and committee have been let down repeatedly, we have acknowledged individual’s efforts to raise funds for the club and given due praise however any good is taken away from recent unsavoury events.
“There will be no further dialogue or compromise from the committee, if these individuals continue to seek access home or away even if there is one person who fails to adhere the committee will take the following steps. We will resign en-mass and resign from the West of Scotland Football league and Scottish Junior FA with immediate effect.
“We as a committee give up a great deal of valuable time to give our community a football club to be proud of, our reputation is being tarnished. We will not allow it to be harmed beyond repair hence the steps above or the padlocks will be placed on Valefield Park for good.”
Police Scotland have confirmed that enquiries into the large-scale disturbance on Saturday remain ongoing.
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