wellboy60

Iain, With regards the Irish flag I have explained in a previous post that I was wrong to have removed that flag ; that was emphasised to me by the match commander and I fully accept what he was saying. Would I do this against Celtic - no and neither would any steward , simply because as I have explained already all national flags are acceptable inside Fir Park unless the match commander has an issue with it. Do I do what I do to make me look 'big' - nope I am just doing my job to the best of my ability , as are the other stewards however we fully accept that we will not keep everyone happy all the time. If you have any problems with me why not PM me or speak to me at the match? We get the abuse as we are on the front line and that is comething we have to accept however much we might feel that it is sometimes unjustified. I come on to the forums to see how I can help and that is what I am trying to do - If you have any issues/concerns or require further explanation the please PM me. Now with regards to the valid points that have been made: Why weren't Celtic fans kept back at end of match? This was the decision of the match commander - if there was indeed trouble at the end of the match then hopefully he will consider doing this for future visits of the old firm. Cooper Stand for the Well fans This is one we all fully agree with you on as it is obviously causing a lot of resentment. Whenever Setanta /Sky cover a match at Fir Park for the most part the attendance greatly reduces . It has been said on the forums that 1,000 fans stay away from Fir Park during old firm fixtures for this reason ; if these fans were to return then they would greatly outnumber the Celtic/Rangers fans who presently buy tickets for Cooper Stand and therefore makes more financial sense for the club to now return the Cooper to the fans. It also makes it easier to Steward as the Celtic fans could be contained within the South Stand. I make no promises on this but it is certainly something I will raise with the club.

Guys , With regards the flying of national flags at Fir Park whether it be Scotland , Ireland , Serbia , Slovakia or whatever these are permitted under all circumstances unless of course they have an offensive emblem or slogan on them ; even then they can only be removed with the match commanders say so and police assistance. If a steward tried to remove a saltire I cannot understand why and on behalf of the club apologise sincerely - that should not have happened. I removed the Hibs flag from their support that day and was wrong to have done so - it is true that match commender has no problem with tri-colours. With regards the statement that (I) was 'scared' to go in and tell old firm fans not to do things such as to stand I think you will find that this is not the case - what I did say was that we would try our best to have them sit down however we would be on a hiding to nothing - we did try however and of course as soon as one section sat down we were met with ' stand up for the champions ' etc - it happens too when we try to get well fans to sit down. Today's match seemed to be a constant slog - the Celtic fans , who normally cause the stewarding staff no real bother played up big time ; we had loads of incidents to deal with today from smoking , theft , breach of the peace , threatening pie staff etc etc - in all these incidents the stewarding staff suffered constant verbal abuse yet we still did our job the best we could. With regards the flying of flags over the South Stand tier I must admit that I did not see this due to me involved so heavily in the Cooper today however the policy is that these flags are not permitted where they extend down to cover the hospitality boxes or indeed cover an advertising hoarding - that policy is in place throughout the ground. If any of you want any direct answers to any questions at all about todays match please PM me and I will endeavour to give you a timeous response.

Well I get a bit more than £ 19 as that is the basic steward wage ! As regards Main Stand I know that we get reports from the manager most weeks about abuse coming his way from the front of the main stand and stewards have been asked to find out where it is coming from( however I am not in the least suggesting that mfcmainstand is responsible) - We can do better here - I will have a word with the guy in question this Sunday to see what the situation is and how we can better deal with it. As far as Old Firm games are concerned you know and I know we are on a hiding to nothing there I am afraid to try and get them all to sit down - we will do the best we can on Sunday but we will not win that battle at all no matter how hard we try !

Guys , I am the assistant head steward at Fir Park based between the Cooper/East Stands and was one of those who met with the Welltrust/Wellboys. We seem to be going backwards insetad of forwards on this issue - are the stewards ' over zealous ' because we ask the fans to sit down? I would direct you to Frazzles response above. We had a very good meeting with the Well Trust / Wellboys at the start of the year ( The Well Trust have posted the minutes of this meeting on their forum ) ; the issues from both sides were listened to and the match commander also stated his position namely that only the back two rows of the East Stand are permitted to stand and no other areas ( personally I see nothing wrong with the end section nearest the South Stand standing so tend to let that go as they generally cause us no bother and are blocking no-ones view, however I repeat that that is my position only and not that of the match commander who so far has also let things go - if he subsequently asks us to have that section sit down we will have to comply with his request. When we ask you to sit down it is because we have had instruction from the police control room to have you do so. It is all very well criticising the stewwards on the forums however so far we have had no feed back to us , as far as I am aware, on match days with any issues that concern you - please feel free to approach us or indeed the Trust through Frazzle I was not made aware of the Mc Carthy incident for instance and if a steward ' turned a blind eye ' to this then that is completely unacceptable. We are sad to hear of the demise of the Wellboys ( if that is true ) as we were starting to get a rapport going with them. I look forward to seeing you all Sunday.

From the clubs point of view we had a very good meeting with the wellboys/well trust ; all views were considered and debated and the last thing that was done just before the meeting ended was to make sure that all parties views had been taken on board and that all were happy with how the meeting had gone. We feel that having a 4 monthly meeting is a good thing however we have said that if there are any issues that come up on a week to week basis then these should be reported to the assistant/head stewards who will relay these back to the club/stewarding staff to make sure something is done about it. Similarly if any steward at all does not treat or speak to our fans/customers in a correct and proper manner then again please bring this to our attention. In the past the trust/the wellboys approached the wrong person to sort out these issues , as Dodge has pointed out ; that does not matter now - a line has been drawn in the sand and we move on. At the last match all seemed to go well with only the back two rows standing for the most part ; anyone outstanding outside these two rows were asked to sit and for the most part did so. We were delighted with the reponse from the supporters and did speak to the wellboys to tell them so. As an aside we will be inviting a rep from the well trust/the well boys to sit in with the match commender in some future match just so the wider issues involved with policing/stewarding a football match can be appreciated

Guys , Meeting is now confirmed with match commander. I have sent Trust/Wellboys confirmation of date/time/location by PM. All that is required is that I have a clear and concise agenda to forward to the club/the match commander prior to the meeting and I have been asked to have this by Friday. Here's looking forward to a productive meeting.

Personally speaking I think Prokofiev's "Dance of the Knights" is the worst piece of music that has been played at Fir Park in years - who's idea was it? It si even worse than John Spencers choice of ' Jumping around' ( think that is what it was called )

Gosh - used my sons log in again. Above post came from me - wellboy60 - in case anyone picks up on it

Guys , I would like to be in a position to get a firm date for the the meeting with the Match Commander arranged within the next couple of days. So far I have had no dates suggested from your side - can your spokesperson please come back to me asap? Can you also let me know how the questions are coming along and who will be in attendance. I need to know numbers in order that the club can make the necessary arrangements.

A very good suggestion as this could be your liaison between yourselves and the clubs. How would you elect him though or would you have more than one representative for the various supporters groups?

Guys , Further to our previous posts as promised I spoke today with the match commander Gregor Mc Kenzie. He , like the club , is very keen to have a meeting with the Wellboys/the Well trust to sort out the issues on both sides. To this end he has asked that you suggest some dates to me that would be suitable to you ( any evening week commencing 05 January 2008 ) - the meeting will take place at Fir Park ( possibly in the boardroom ). I will relay the dates to him and come back to you. From the club point of view present will be the Chief safety Officer , the Head Steward and both assistant Head Stewards ; the club have asked that a maximum of six representatives from your end attend ( it would be good to have both Well Boys and Well trust represented so perhaps three from each organisation ). I understand that so far you have six questions to ask however to make the evening worthwhile you may wish to add to your list ( you may wish to have Well trust input too ) - lets make this a worthwhile meeting from both sides. Can you PM me with the dates and the list of questions asap in order that we can have a considered and meaningful response prepared for you - we will come prepared to discuss things in as much detail as you like. Lastly , and on behalf of the club , can I compliment you on your impecable behaviour today - you were a credit to the club especially on such a significant and poignant fixture.

Thanks Frazzel. OK things are moving on... I have just spoken to Ian Murray who is current Head of Security ; the briefing for next match will take place on Christmas eve and he will bring up with the match commander the idea of meeting with whoever is interested on this topic. Apparently he has expressed an interest in this already so it is looking good. The date might well be early in the New year though. What we need to know though is who from your end will attend ( nearer the time I will give your representative my private e-mail address for this purpose). It might well be that you wish to set the agenda - we do not mind as it means that all your questions will get answered - again I would need this in advance for circulation to all parties. You may wish to meet amongst yourselves to discuss this. So let me know if you are up for it ; the offer is there.

Guys , The 'Green Book' is government legislation for football stadia - it is this that the match commander is basing his 'rules' on. It is not ' our clubs' interpretation of the rules but the match commenders however I agree that this has caused a lot of friction over the past couple of seasons. The post above about the meeting was mine - thought I had signed in under my own name however it was my sons account so I got a bit of stick from him thsi morning about that ! I would urge you to think carefully about fatcalfs proposal to accept the meeting - we don't mind who comes along as it would be a good thing for all fans to understand the position of the stewarding staff and for us to understand your concerns. Problems only get worse if they are allowed to fester. I will be at the match on the 27th - you know who I am so if you are up for a meeting why not over Christmas as a lot of us are off for the holidays? I have suggested this to you for over a year now - I know that you have met with the club in the form of Ian Stillie but you have not met with the stewards as yet. Please suggest a date and time and we will try and get as many of the senior stewards as we can along ( certainly the heads/assistant head stewards ) ; if he can be persuaded I think it also a good idea that the match commender comes along ?