MSP ‘astonished’ over ‘failure’ to anticipate Celtic football disorder

By Craig Meighan, Press Association Scotland political reporter

A Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) has said he was “astonished” by the “lack of leadership” to curtail the disorder from Celtic fans in Glasgow.

Paul Sweeney called for an organised fan zone to be created to avoid future disorder from football fans – something he said teams should help pay for.

He called for a change in the law to ban pitch invasions and tailgating, where people without tickets go through the turnstiles at football stadiums by staying close behind those who do have tickets.

Some 3,000 Celtic supporters made their way to the Trongate to celebrate the team’s victory over Hearts.

Officers made 14 arrests on the day, 10 at Trongate and four at the stadium.

Officers had “missiles, including glass bottles” thrown at them while assisting with a medical emergency, police said.

Sweeney, an MSP for the Glasgow region, said authorities in the city should be able to anticipate these gatherings “with significant certainty”.

He told the BBC’s Radio Breakfast Scotland programme: “I’m astonished, really, at the lack of leadership that we’ve had in the failure to anticipate the situation yet again.”

Sweeney criticised the “disorganised hemming in” of fans in the city centre as he called for a new approach.

“Why don’t we go further and actually create a proper, organised fan zone?” he said.

“Somewhere like Glasgow Green, easily accessible, with large spillover areas, enough distance between nearby buildings and premises so that the risk of vandalism is low.”

Sweeney called for Scotland to follow England by introducing legislation to ban pitch invasions and tailgating, and said clubs should be “sanctioned if necessary”.

He added: “It’s almost like the young team culture of previous generations has now been imprinted onto football identities rather than local territorial identities, and we’re seeing some of the sort of delinquent behaviour, or anti-social behaviour, manifesting around football clubs, and I think that’s a disappointing trend.”

Gordon Smith, the former chief executive of the Scottish Football Association, said the scenes in Glasgow at the weekend were “horrendous”.

He said pitch invasions should be illegal and called for teams to be punished if their fans break the rules, including by deducting points.

He told BBC Scotland: “That means that the fans themselves would know that this could have a major effect on our team trying to win a tournament, trying to win a league – and that’s the only way I think that would make any difference.”