SPFL Premiership clubs face legal suit if players are maimed by pyro

Players union boss Fraser Wishart has demanded SPFL clubs do more to stamp out the use of pyrotechnics inside grounds - and warned they’ll be hit with an enormous legal suit if any of his members end up maimed.

And Wishart insists failure to act decisively now could lead to stadiums being closed down by over blatant breaches in health and safety. In part of an exclusive interview with Record Sport , PFA Scotland chief Wishart has revealed players in this country are becoming increasingly concerned over the rise in the illegal use of fireworks, smoke bombs and flares by organised groups of ultras.

His call for action comes in the same week that union bosses in Cyprus threatened to call a strike to get the game stopped in the country after one player had to be rushed to hospital having been hit by a firecracker during a league game on Tuesday night. And, while Wishart praised UEFA’s top brass for taking a proactive stance in a bid to snuff the alarming trend out, he aimed a blast at the game in this country for failing to get to grips with a problem which he fears is spiralling out of control.

Wishart said: “It tends to go in cycles. A couple of years ago there were problems with James Tavernier and Scott Sinclair being racially abused and attacked on the pitch with bottles thrown. It goes kind of quiet for a while and then pyro becomes the next thing. But if a pyrotechnic is thrown and it hits one of our members and maims them, then we are into a whole different legal domain.

“I spoke with a leading figure at one of our big clubs fairly recently and he was frustrated at his supporters’ behaviour. Having been asked not to bring pyros they just did it anyway. I said to him, ‘You know your biggest danger? If one of these