ayr-united-lord-lyon

Anyone who regularly reads my writing (hello Mum) will know that I’m no fan of elitists and when I read that, once again, the heritage of a great Scottish club was under threat from the Lord Lyon King of Arms (who sounds like a character from a Saturday Morning Cartoon) I went from apoplectic rage to staggering indifference in a matter of seconds when I found out that the great Scottish football club in question was Ayr United, the rivals of my own team Kilmarnock.

There’s not much love lost between the two Ayrshire sides and with reports in Scottish media suggesting that the complaint to the Lord Lyon was made by a ‘rival fan’, you won’t be surprised to find that Killie fans aren’t exactly tripping over themselves to support their neighbours, especially since rumours that a similarly bloody-minded Ayr fan dobbed Killie in for the same thing back in the 90s’ linger long in the collective memory. Still, it’s hard to look at these reports and feel that football clubs are being anything other than treated harshly by the Court of the Lord Lyon who sees the Ayr United crest as an unregistered coat of arms which, according to Scots Law, is a crime.

It all comes down to the fact that Ayr’s badge features a shield, a Saltire and violates ‘heraldic law’ named in the Lyon King of Arms Act which dates back to the heady and enlightened days of the 16th Century and has barely been altered in the last 400-odd years. Without having paid a fee in the region of £3,000 to the Lyon Court in order for them to consider the existing badge as a registered Coat of Arms, Ayr United will have to significantly retool their existing badge or redesign it altogether to ensure that they don’t fall foul of the ancient law.

Even if they were to pay up for their current badge to be considered a coat of arms, the chances are they would be forced to remove the A & U from the badge – since it is not considered proper for words to appear within shields – and also the Saltire since United don’t represent a national organisation, meaning they’d be paying thousands of pounds to be told they can’t use their badge anyway.

It’s an interesting predicament and one which has been faced by a number of Scottish clubs including Airdrie who were forced to remove ‘heraldic elements’ from their badge earlier this year, sticking two fingers up to the Lord Lyon by just erasing the shield from the badge, thus taking it out of his purview.

airdrie-badgesIf they take the example of their league rivals (who they meet in League 1 tomorrow – could it have been an Airdrie fan who clyped on them?) then Ayr could end up with something like this:

Ayr_United_FC_Legal

My (admittedly limited) knowledge of the case as it stands means that simply removing the shield would take it out of the jurisdiction of the Lord Lyon and would look absolutely terrible as this rushed Photoshop job shows.

Many Ayr fans, and indeed the club themselves, are asking why they are only facing prosecution now having used the badge since the mid-1950s. The answer is simple, the Procurator Fiscal of the Lyon Court (an actual thing) can only act when someone reports a violation to them and prosecutions are treated similarly to tax evasion since the proceeds from the issuing of Arms goes to HMRC.

Since there’s no question that Ayr United are in violation of the law, they will probably be forced into an expensive rebrand, albeit with a grace period of a year granted in order to allow them to sell merchandise boasting the current crest. With that in mind, you have to question the law itself.

Listen to the latest Scottish Comedy FC Podcast!

I’m sure that if you hold a Coat of Arms then a) You’re probably reading Scottish Comedy Polo Club and b) You view their protection as being incredibly important, but does prosecuting football clubs whose badges are not only an important representation of the club, but also of communities do anything other than make the Lyon Court look thunderingly out of touch with the majority of the nation?

It’s pretty easy to argue that football is more important to the majority of Scots than an ancient system of heraldic standards but in the interest of balance it’s worth pointing out that while the Lyon Court (in which the Lord Lyon acts as the sole judge) might be seen as cracking down unfairly on sports clubs, they’re merely a legal body doing their jobs by prosecuting the law. While their purpose may seem alien to the vast majority of Scots, it’s not their place to suddenly turn around and say, “Well, that’s a shame. Let’s not prosecute them” if – as they clearly do – they view the prosecution to be in the public interest. It’s this which renders petitions like the one being run by Ayr United fans fundamentally pointless – they’re asking not to be prosecuted for committing a crime (albeit a ridiculous one).

There’s very little chance that Ayr United will be able to keep their current badge – the club certainly don’t seem to be holding out much hope – and those who want to see the law changed are likely to face some pretty significant hurdles in the pursuit of change. According to solicitor and Airdrie fan Colin Telford, the The Lyon King Of Arms Act (1592) is the responsibility of Westminster and is linked to the Crown’s ability to grant honours. Since the law in the rest of the UK is different (only bring civil action against infringements in very rare cases), the chances of this Scots law being repealed or amended to protect sports clubs looks about as likely as Mats Hummels lining up in the number 5 shirt at Somerset.

In short: the law may be dumber than a box of rocks, but it is the law.

The buck doesn’t stop with Ayr United though and the most commonly uttered phrase when these prosecutions come up is ‘thin end of the wedge’. According to Mark Hamid, secretary to the Lord Lyon in Scotland (quoted in the Sunday Post in April of this year) there are only two clubs which have registered their crests with the Lyon Court – Queen’s Park and St. Mirren – and while having a quick glance through a page of Scottish club badges, I lost count of the number which could be construed as violating this law in some form or another. They may be just an ‘anonymous tip’ away from prosecution.

The treatment of Formartine United, Airdrieonians, Ayr United and others like Killie before them is seen by many as not being in the public interest, but this seems to depend on whether the Lord Lyon sees ‘the public’ as thousands of football fans who stand to lose part of their footballing (and often local) identity or the supposedly aggrieved party who made the report to the Lyon’s Procurator Fiscal in the first place.

I have no wish to see my club’s rivals lose their crest and it’s a shame to see badges which have been used for decades to represent the clubs, their communities and their fans under threat from a law put in place centuries ago to protect the rights of aristocrats over so-called common people but until there’s a change to the law, there’s very little that clubs can do besides ponying up the cash to have their crests accepted by the stuffiest of Scottish institutions lest they find themselves in their crosshairs.

Follow Scottish Comedy FC on Twitter for more on Scottish football and beyond: @ScotComFC

Michael Park
According to Vanity Fair, Michael Park is "The Internet's Most Thoughtful Hipster".

He is the editor of this fine site and a regular on the Scottish Comedy FC Podcast despite refusing to go anywhere near Owen's house.

He supports Kilmarnock and is a comedian to no-one but himself.

Twitter
The Ancient Law Threatening Scottish Football Heritage

Comments

comments

Tagged on:                                                                                                                                                                                                         
x
Like us on Facebook!