KRIS Boyd has told SFA bosses to “justify their wages” and deal with the resurgence of sectarian abuse in Scottish football
The Kilmarnock player wasn't surprised by “sad orange *******” being chanted at Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes by a section of Celtic supporters at Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden.
McInnes gestured towards those singing at him, which later admitted regretting because he’s heard the song aimed at him ‘more than 100 times’, but also said he would interested whether any action would be taken against the bigoted chants.
Boyd, who suffered the same abuse in February, insisted the SFA now have to show they are serious about tackling Scottish football’s shame which has always been an issue but this season has seen an upturn in sectarian singing from many clubs, plus there has been racism, players being confronted by fans who had ran onto the pitch and several incidents of objects being thrown onto the pitch.
Boyd said: “It doesn’t come as a surprise. I thought Derek McInnes spoke excellently after the game. He knows he will punished and rightly so because you can’t act the way he acted.
"But what he said was spot-on because it will be interesting to see the other side of the ones who were giving the abuse.
“Because what I will say is the SFA have nowhere to hide on this one. The PFA have nowhere to hide on this one. They would all have been at the game and heard it with their own ears.
“There have been incidents where they have been able to turn a blind eye. There have been incidents where they are able to put out a statement and say they will look after their players and managers.
“The SFA have been able to look after certain clubs better than others, I would say. Now it is right under their own eyes and ears so it will be interesting to see if they act.
“There is no excuse. There have been incidents at other grounds involving other teams that they have been pretty quick to act on. Derek McInnes will be banned but it will be interesting to see what happens on the other side. For me, it can’t continue.
“It's now happening every week and something needs done. “e all may have ideas about how to deal with it - but the top guys at the SFA are paid a lot of money to make decisions.
"So, justify your wages - justify being put in that position and go and make the decisions. Scottish football on the pitch is very good but off it there are a lot of questions needing answered.
“At the end of the day – what is the point of the SFA being there?”
This season has been plagued by bad behaviour in the stands, arrests and only last week, Hearts decided to close a section of Tynecastle in response to the club’s own supporters following a spate of unsavoury incidents.
Hearts and Hibernian have banned fans, while last season Celtic stopped the ultras group the Green Brigade for two matches.
Boyd added: “The clubs are trying to do their best but it takes a bigger stance from the people at the very top. If there is something good happening at the clubs then the SFA are quick to jump on that and say how they're part of it.
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"When something positive happens there are always organisations looking to jump on the bandwagon. But when incidents happen they don't ever want to get involved.
You can see the pattern and it seems they'll deal with some things and then not deal with others. -and that's not right, is it?
“Derek on Sunday reacted to fans. He’s made a gesture, but he’s not hurt anyone. When you strip it back, maybe they should look at it and say we are going to let him off with this because it should be the start of a stance against these idiots hurling abuse.
“When you keep punishing managers, the idiots are going to continue to do it because it is giving them an advantage of that team’s manager being away. There must be something that can be done inside Hampden to start weeding these people out. For me, it is getting out of control.
“It is getting to the stage where we are now seeing managers, players and officials not able to operate and conduct themselves properly, because of the way these idiots in the stands are acting.
"I will say again, this was under the SFA’s own eyes and ears. If they don’t act on this one, I think they need to look at who is actually running Scottish football because you can’t keep turning a blind eye to this sort of behaviour."
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