My interview with Kristoffer
Dalziel (Airdrie supporter)
Date: Wednesday, 19 February
2020.
Place: The Staging Post,
Airdrie.
Time: 2:00 hours.
KJ:
Did you have involvement with Airdrie Section B?
Kristoffer:
When we were younger, we sat with them as they have a passionate atmosphere.
When I got older, I got a couple of offers to run with them but I decided not
to do that. They are good fans because they are really passionate about the
team. They put their money where their mouth is. They get involved. They get a
bad reputation but they are very passionate about the team.
KJ:
What’s the relationship between Section B and the town?
Kristoffer:
This is known as an Airdrie pub. There are a lot of ‘Old Firm’ fans here. It’s
an Old Firm-dominated town really. The people in Airdrie don’t have much time
for Section B. It’s a minority supporting Airdrie and they have a reputation
for causing trouble. They don’t really bother about being liked [laughs]. They
just love the town and the team. They got a hatred for the Old Firm. It’s a bit
mutual [laughs].
KJ:
Tell me more about the town.
Kristoffer: It’s a small town where everybody knows
everyone. I moved down to Coatbridge but it seems everyone knows everyone.
Everyone is very loyal to their [housing] scheme, e.g. Plains and Thrashbush.
People in their mid-thirties are still gang-affiliated which is messed up.
There is a hierarchy within; people had reputations and it was known not to
mess with them.
KJ:
How about Section B?
Kristoffer:
Section B are not really affiliated with any scheme. They just do their own
thing. They are from all over Airdrie. It’s a different type of thing. With scheme,
it is about drugs and everything. They want to be seen as the top scheme.
Section B are not really about pushing drugs; it is just about having a scrap
at the football.
KJ:
Tell us more about the football club.
Kristoffer:
When I was young, they were fanatical. When I was young I liked the strip and
the players in the team. I liked the sense of supporting your local team and
you felt partisan. You knew everybody at the game and you had the common
interest. Airdrie was not a liked team and you felt proud of that. There was an
atmosphere against Partick Thistle, Motherwell, Morton - they were the big
games you looked forward to. Partick were like a student team but Morton were
very rough - they were like two opposites. I started watching Airdrie when I
was youngest. We went through the ‘Spanish Armada’ process; they brought out
these Spanish players from La Liga.
Airdrie had a game against
Peterhead in the Scottish Cup. The administrator would not allow them to play
the game to pay the bills. You felt that there was anti-Airdrie sentiment. We
could have gone through in the Scottish Cup. We could have got the gate-money.
We were chucked out of the Cup. We felt it was anti-Airdrie. With other clubs,
people will chip in. We won the Challenge Cup two years in a row.
It was us and Partick
Thistle, 2001/02; we had ‘Save the Diamonds’ campaign. It was the first-division;
we were pushing it to the wire. We had a lot of injuries. We went up 1-0 and
the place erupted. I can just remember it. People were going mental basically.
We thought we were going to do it. It finished 1-1 and Partick Thistle won the
league. Airdrie went bust in the summer. Airdrie had to apply to get back in
the league.
Gretna
got back into the league instead of Airdrie. If Airdrie got in, they offered to
take the debts of the old club. But Rangers got straight back into League Two.
If we had stayed in the Scottish Cup, we could have got prize-money. It would
have been Livingston at home. The Cup run could have been the difference
between saving them or not. It gave them a chip on their shoulder. Archibald
brought in the Spanish talent, Steve Archibald - he brought in the Spanish
players. They all went on to a higher level. We didn’t get any fees for them.
Archibald wanted to take over the club but the administrators didn’t let them.
That’s when Ian McCall came in. That was the team which went close to winning the
league. They were all old-timers. In the first game we beat Arbroath 6-0 and
momentum built up. We were very close at one point but the title-chase died. It
was April 2002, the game against Partick Thistle.
Kristoffer: The new stadium was built in
1998. The opening game was against York and Stevie Cooper scored, I remember
that. I was born in 1991. I can only remember the new stadium. A lot of older
fans did not like the [new] stadium. They have the memories of the old stadium.
They [the team] went to Clyde for a couple of years and the quality got worse
on the pitch. That put the club into debt. It was the stadium which killed them
off really. They built the big stadium thinking they would be up in the Premier
League. It didn’t quite pan out. The original site got knocked back and they
didn’t have a back-up plan. It was irresponsible financially. It took a couple
of years to sort out another site. Then it ran further into debt. They were paying
more ground-sharing costs. The team suffered. They were no longer challenging
at the top.
The original stadium was
where the Morrison’s is [now]. You could have got more fans then. Now you have
to go for a long walk. It’s not really accessible. I was too young to go to Broomfield
- you hear the stories. Before they moved ground, they got to two Scottish Cup
finals, 1992 and 1995. They had a couple of promotions to the SPL. Airdrie
played in the SPL in the early-1990s; they are like a yo-yo team. They played
against Sparta Prague in Europe. Fans have good memories about that now. It was
mismanagement by the board. You speak to the older fans and they have the
feeling that it’s not the same. You can lose your soul. It’s like the Arsenal
stadium - there’s no comparison in terms of the atmosphere.
KJ:
Why did you support Airdrie?
Kristoffer:
When I was younger I made my own decision. I went to a couple of games, you got
the atmosphere; you are close to the pitch, it’s magical, you feel like you are
part of something. If you are Celtic or Rangers you are just a number. If you
are at Airdrie, you feel appreciated; you are like the underdog and you are not
a glory-hunter. For a few years I sold the programs, you felt like you were
helping the club. You felt like you could even approach a director, you felt
appreciated. I liked the strips, I liked the players, the players, some of them
were total grafters but the fans loved them for it. In the Old Firm, they
expect success every season but with Airdrie you don’t know when you will get
success. In 2005 [actually 2004] we won the league [second-division]; Challenge
Cup was 2001, 2002, back-to-back; 2009 we [beat] Ross County.
I first went to games
regularly when I was 12. I had a paper-round; you would save up your money to
go to away games. If we won we were in a good mood; if we lost we were in a bad
mood, then you repeat the cycle.
KJ:
The Old Firm attracts most people in Airdrie?
Kristoffer:
It’s not far away. It’s an easy thing to do. A lot of families enforce it on
the kids, don’t they? My Mom was a Celtic fan; my Dad was a Rangers fan so they
didn’t force it on me.
KJ:
You don’t regret not following Old Firm?
Kristoffer:
Not really. There is a lot of fucking bigotry with them. A lot of mates hang
about with them; they always sing their IRA songs.
KJ:
Why do you think it is that towns like Airdrie, Livingston, and Dunfermline
produced so many punk bands and football hooligans back in the day?
Kristoffer: It’s a town no-one really cares
about. It’s all working-class – people go through their own struggles. It will
be low-income families from one scheme. People will group together and they are
largely left to themselves. Some will get into drugs, some into punk. So
Section B will become like a brotherhood, isn’t it? It’s a small-town, no-one
cares about them, and it’s anti-establishment, isn’t it? It’s a small group
when you think about it. When you get small towns, there is a common bond.
No-one looks after them, it’s us-against-the-world. They get together and they
can do extraordinary things, you know what I mean?
*****THE
END*****
