THE BURNING QUESTION

Should Scottish football embrace pyros?

- BEN BANKS 

WHAT came first, the chicken or the egg? Why does time flow in one direction? Should Scottish football embrace pyrotechnics? 

You can find these three in a big book of unanswered questions and the last one isn't likely to go anywhere fast. It has been a dominant topic for years but the nation's relationship with pyro is back in the public eye this season.

Rangers fans' show at Dundee sparked the authorities into a summit on the matter and pleas for punters not to use them are falling on deaf ears.

Are they safe? Absolutely not, nothing being lit inches from another person at temperatures approaching 1000C will be.

But that doesn't mean the issue is done and dusted, as in the aftermath of the Dens Park controversy and before it too, fans of other clubs around Scotland across all divisions have used pyro. So what does the game really think about the divisive topic?

Record Sport invited fans to participate in a poll with questions surrounding pyrotechnics, and our respondents are wholly against them.

From hundreds of responses, 64.49 per cent of people said they were not a fan of it in stadia.

More than 62 per cent said it negatively impacted their matchday experience and 58.80 per cent felt it didn't add anything to their matchday experience.

The SPFL, SFA and Police Scotland have been unanimous in calls for their removal from stadiums. And there is a clear opposition from some fans, with 64.89 per cent thinking there should be more clamping down on users of fireworks. Again, with everything seemingly stacked against it, that hasn't stopped a largely younger element of fans using them.