Ross County safety officer David O’Connor keen to put marker down around pyrotechnics: ‘Across Scottish football the situation with pyro is getting out of control’
Ross County’s safety officer and operations manager David O’Connor says he believes Scottish football is losing control of pyro.
The Staggies saw their Scottish Cup tie against Livingston last weekend marred by disruption to a minute’s silence for former County player Gordon Seaton and Scottish footballing legend Denis Law.
A small group of supporters in the Jail End ignited toxic pyrotechnics, with a further flare being let off later in the match.
That prompted some fans to move to a different area of the ground at the time, and the club to put out a strong statement on Monday morning stating: “Their conduct was reprehensible and in addition to the jeering and inappropriate noise, several flares were ignited which was wholly dangerous, reckless and could have caused injury to those in the stand.”
A number of those responsible were ejected from the match, with some being handed over to Police Scotland, and both the club and the police force launched retrospective investigations into what happened.
Although pyro has become a more common sight at football matches across Scotland, it is rare that County’s own fans are the perpetrators, so O’Connor has reiterated that the Staggies will take a no-nonsense approach to similar incidents going forward.
“We met with Police Scotland on Tuesday, who will make their own independent assessment of the evidence and decide which criminal proceedings should follow,” O’Connor said.
“We will also be looking at the potential for club bans for those who were involved.
“We will take a proportionate response in relation to that, looking at all the facts and circumstances, but there were clearly several youths who came to the game intent on causing problems.
“It was very embarrassing, and it’s the type of scene we don’t want to see again. In all the years I’ve been there, I’ve never seen anything like that.
“We’re just putting a marker down now: we won’t accept it.
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“We’re happy to work with supporters to try and increase the volume and all the things that go with modern football, but we cannot countenance breaking of the law and allowing dangerous practices like igniting pyrotechnics.
“They weren’t smoke bombs on Saturday, they were pyros which were extremely hot and dangerous.
“We want to work with supporters, but what we’re seeing across Scottish football is that the situation with pyro is getting out of control.
“I know there are conflicting views on it, but our view as a football club is that they are quite clearly dangerous and unsafe, and people have been burned and injured with these things.
“We’re not going to allow that to take hold in our football ground.”
Having received intelligence in the build-up to the Livingston match that something may happen, Ross County’s security team increased their searching operation ahead of kick off.
With three flares making it through and being discharged, more action points will be implemented ahead of this weekend’s Premiership match against Hibernian.
“Some of that is enforcement, and some of that is education,” O’Connor explained.
“There needs to be some educational encouragement out there in the community, particularly with young people, to encourage them to come along to football but be aware of the dangers of pyrotechnics.
“More importantly, it is a criminal offence. When you’re young and developing, the last thing we want is to see people facing criminal charges.
“It’s happened, we’re dealing with it, and the big word I always use is ‘proportionality’.
“At the same time, the simple message is that the club will take a very robust stance in relation to unacceptable conduct.
“It wasn’t just the pyros, there was other unacceptable conduct, and those who don’t comply with the ground regulations simply will not be getting to see football.”
