Irish Cup Final: Time to ban noise at Windsor Park?

The Irish Cup Final 2014 between Ballymena United and Glenavon was a positive for Irish League football. The standard of football may have been generally poor as both teams seemed jittery on the big occasion, but the game was entertaining: the atmosphere and enthusiasm on the day was brilliant.

In Ballymena the build-up to the final had been passionate and infectious and apparently it was exactly the same in Lurgan. Thousands travelled to the city from the two towns and a great day was had by all. Even for us Ballymena United fans, disappointed with the result, the overall  experience was nonetheless very positive. Well done to both clubs and to the Irish Football Association.

Just a couple of points for the IFA though. Firstly, I’ve heard of the frustration of many football fans who wanted to attend the final as neutrals but they couldn’t easily find tickets. The Irish Cup Finals are great occasions and hopefully when the new Railway stand is built at Windsor Park the IFA will take this into consideration.

Secondly: is it just me or did anyone else find the obnoxiously loud pre-match amplified music, not only unnecessary but irrelevant, irritating and frustrating?   Both sets of fans turned up in their thousands well before kick-off: they just wanted to sing and let off steam. The Ballymena fans were in full voice and it looked as if Glenavon fans were doing the same but I couldn’t hear them at all.

There was also a pipe band hired to play the pre-match entertainment but I couldn’t hear them either:  except for the first two notes of the national anthem before the crowd began singing along. No doubt the pipe band was very good. No doubt if we could have heard the Glenavon fans singing it could have allowed for some good-natured back and forth banter. Even Alan Simpson's entertaining pre-match and half-time commentary could have done without the musical breaks  being set at such high decibels.

I have experienced the same levels of amplified noise interfering with the atmosphere before Northern Ireland international games. Occasionally it works okay when they play songs like Sweet Caroline or the Jackie Fullerton version of We’re not Brazil and the crowd sings along.  But, it really is unnecessary. Northern Ireland fans do not require any prompting to sing.

Can the IFA do anything about this or do we need to apply to the European Union to have this noise pollution banned?