Long says measures needed to ban football thugs

Alliance Chair Michael Long has said that with the Irish Football Association potentially facing a £50,000 fine after an assistant referee was hit with a coin thrown by a Northern Ireland fan, we now need football offences-style laws here. Alliance has been pushing for such legislation to be implemented in Northern Ireland for a number of years, to ensure that thugs can be banned from matches for good.

Castlereagh Councillor Michael Long said: “This incident will hit the IFA hard and has damaged Northern Ireland’s reputation on the international stage.

“For too long the Northern Ireland Office has stalled on creating football offences laws. There can be no more delays – we need laws to ban thugs now.

“These sickening scenes witnessed on Saturday can never be repeated, we need action on creating tough laws now.

“How many times do we have to see trouble at and around matches here before we see appropriate measures put in place to deal with thugs?”

ENDS