Hibs vs Hearts, or Why We Didn't Go to the Big Game This Weekend

As everybody knows, football (meaning, soccer) is the sport over here. It's not just huge like hockey, but something even bigger than that. And it really doesn't get a whole lot bigger than when your city has two football teams playing each other, which is what happened on Sunday afternoon. We figured that this would definitely be something worth seeing, so we set out to get tickets a couple of weeks ago.

Well, as it turns out, going to see the Hibs vs Hearts game wasn't quite as easy as simply buying our tickets and showing up at the gate. Because the fans are so intense, you have to split up the home-team fans and the away-team fans to avoid fights. Before you're allowed to buy a ticket, they need to know which team you support, so they can put you in the proper section. And the way they make sure you're not lying about which team you support is by keeping a register of fans from each side. What they're trying to avoid is home fans buying away tickets (or vice versa), then sitting in the opposing team's section and causing trouble. It's all about the fighting, apparently.

The big rivalry games are considered 'A' matches. For Hibs fans, this means games against Rangers and Celtic (the two Glasgow teams) and Hearts. To watch these games, you have to be on the register. Apparently you can get on the register by attending a 'B' match game, like the Dundee game we saw last month, which supposedly proves your loyalty to that team. We didn't really have the chance to get our official fan status sorted out in time (which is also a bit of a commitment!) so we decided to go to the pub to watch the game instead (which wasn't altogether a bad plan, since it turned out to be a pretty low-intensity game that ended in a 1-1 draw.)

But it made me think - can you imagine going to a Sens game, where the Leafs fans were all forced to sit on the other side of the arena, because there would be fighting in the stands if they sat close to each other? B and I wouldn't even be able to sit together out of fear that we'd punch each other out. Okay, I admit that's probably a dramatic exaggeration, but I wonder what that says about Canadians as hockey fans, that we can get together in the same stadium (and let's be honest, Sens-Leafs games in Ottawa are usually about a 50-50 split for each side), drink beer (which is also banned at football matches here because... well, guess) and still more or less get along at the end of it all. I can't recall seeing any fights at Sens games, and I know I've seen Ottawa play Toronto at least twice.

In other news, I miss hockey. That is all.