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| | Thursday, 1 March, 2001, 09:11 GMT IFA urged to ban bigots  Neil Lennon is considering his Northern Ireland future Football authorities in Northern Ireland have been urged to ban fans who booed Celtic's Neil Lennon from all future international matches in Belfast. The Irish Football Association's own community relations officer Michael Boyd said he would be calling for action to be taken against the spectators who shouted sectarian abuse. "The time has come for the IFA to send out a strong message that this sort of behaviour cannot be tolerated," said Michael Boyd. "Banning these people is what the majority of decent supporters want." Threatening messages had been scrawled across a wall near Lennon's family home in Lurgan ahead of Wednesday's game. A section of supporters at Windsor Park, a stadium situated in a Protestant stronghold, are unhappy that the former Leicester player - a Catholic - opted to join Celtic in the summer. Lennon returned to Glasgow on Thursday to consider his international future. The IFA appointed Mr Boyd as community relations officer as part of its attempt to end sectarianism in Northern Ireland soccer. However, a different IFA spokesman claimed on Thursday claimed that there was "very little" the association could do about the problem.
"Obviously we are very disappointed by the reaction of a section of the crowd. But there is very little we can do about it. "We will carry on with our cross community scheme," said the spokesman. "It is very difficult to counter a small element. We don't even know who they are. "It might have been Rangers supporters coming over for the match, because we'd read Press reports before this match that Rangers supporters were planning to attend to give Neil Lennon a hard time," added the spokesman. Earlier, IFA president Jim Boyce angrily condemned the abuse directed at Neil Lennon by a small section of Northern Ireland fans. Boyce has long campaigned against sectarianism at Northern Ireland matches and he was sickened by the behaviour of these supporters. However, he stressed that the majority of the 7,500 crowd got behind Lennon and cheered his every touch. "I'm totally shocked by this," said Boyce.
"I have no time for bigotry in any walk of life, let alone football. "I have no time for sectarianism and I totally oppose it, as I've always done. "You had a certain section of people with moronic brains who did boo. "But there were many more people in the 7,500 crowd who supported Neil Lennon. "They were cheering him and chanting 'One Neil Lennon'. "The vast majority of people in the ground were supporting Neil Lennon and it's important not to forget that," added Boyce. Manager Sammy McIlroy brought Lennon off at half-time because he had agreed with Celtic that he would only play 45 minutes and the 29-year-old left the ground before the end of the game.
"There's always a significant minority in any walk of life who will always make things difficult for people, but I know there are a lot more good people than bad people in this country," said Lennon. Lennon, who has 36 caps, will discuss his international future with his family who live in Lurgan. It would be a huge blow to Northern Ireland if he did retire from international football. Northern Ireland's Sammy McIlroy knows this and he was upbeat that Lennon would play in the World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic at Windsor Park on 24 March. "As far as I'm concerned he will be in the squad for the Czech Republic game." McIlroy played down the booing of Lennon. "It was mixed. One minute there was cheering and then there was booing. "I didn't think it was anything bad to be honest with you and I'm sure Neil didn't," said McIlroy. | | See also:  Other top Northern Ireland stories: Links to top Northern Ireland stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||
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