YBIG Vent Anger at Football Association of Ireland With Failures And Lies Banners Against USMNT

At the recent Republic of Ireland friendly versus the USMNT a banner was erected, representing the outrage of the loyal fans at the Football Association of Ireland. On it was written “Failures and Lies”, the “FAI” in failures in bold.

The ongoing battle between the association and the fans of the national team, has heated up to a point where boycotting the team for the 2015/16 season is becoming a real possibility for many fans. Members of the You Boys In Green (YBIG) fan group took part in an online poll and an emphatic 86.71% said they will not be renewing their season tickets for next year. A mere 437 (504 took part in the poll) fans not renewing their tickets seems far from having a colossal impact on the FAI, but it’s these fans that make the most noise and follow the team far and wide. They are always situated behind the goals in the south stand and stand up for the full 90 minutes, the absence of over 400 supporters in this area will be very noticeable. These YBIG group are the most influential of all the fans, with many more expected to follow their footsteps with a boycott if changes aren’t made soon.

The Scotland ticket scandal was the final straw in a battle that been ongoing for years now. The FAI ticketing scheme has been a shambles for years, request after request has been rejected. It was the people who have been attending games for decades that didn’t receive tickets, while many who haven’t even been to a home game picked up tickets with ease. CEO of the FAI, John Delaney, once again attempted to push the blame onto the SFA (Scottish Football Association) in Tuesdays match programme notes. Delaney said he was “disappointed with the SFA’s handling of certain important issues” i.e. the tickets.

This lack of responsibility from the head of Irish soccer has added to the list of complaints from Irish supporters, a list which is getting longer day by day. Judging by his pre-match notes, Delaney shouldn’t have anything to hide or be worried about, but this was quite evidently not true when he packed the lower south stand with stewards and Gardaí. When YBIG arrived in the Aviva Stadium we were shocked to see the presence of all these members of the Gardaí, considering we have no previous record of trouble at soccer games and the fact that they were nowhere to be seen in any other part of the stadium. We had no difficulty in waving flags in support of the team but it was when we raised an anti-FAI banner that things got heated and we were denied our right to protest. It was in the 12th minute (YBIG being the 12th man) when these banners and flags were presented and it didn’t go down well with the stewards and Gardaí. In one case there was a tug-a-war between fans and a member of the Gardaí trying to arrest a fan for simply publicizing his opinion. The fan in question was well within his rights to hold up this banner yet he was almost taken to jail over it. “It shows up the FAI for what they are, a disgusting, manipulative, power hungry organisation” said one fan, following the game. The same fan also said that this is only the start (of the protests).

“We want Delaney out” and some very humorous tunes like “you’ll never take our banner”, were sung during the game. On departure from the Stadium I overheard a Garda Sergeant tell some fans that he agreed with their protest but that he was only doing his job.

The association has yet to even acknowledge the rage of the fans, (RTE also let itself down again, with no mention of the protest on their round up of the game) making the situation and the relationship with fans worse. There has to be change and I’m glad to see the YBIG group state their perseverance online, hopefully they can materialize their intentions and we can see change in the coming months. With the next game four months away, this campaign must gain momentum and keep going until the clash with Poland.

Outline of the plan for the game pre-match as posted on the YBIG forum:

1. Fans to be as vocal as possible and Tifos to be waved in support of the team, as per usual, for the 1st 11 minutes.

2. Fans will stop support in the 12th minute.

3. Tifos and support banners to be taken down.

4. Banners highlighting dissatisfaction will be displayed from 12th minute on.

5. Homemade banners will also be encouraged to be displayed at this point.

6. We would encourage all supporters to bring along an old tie to the game to form a part of the protest. These will be thrown onto the pitch in the 32th minute to show our dissatisfaction to FAI CEO John Delaney.