First Minister to look at football banning orders and pitch invasions over title disorder

The First Minister has said he will look at current football banning orders and consider legislation to stop pitch invasions, following violent scenes in Glasgow on Saturday.

Hundreds of football fans invaded the pitch at Celtic Park after Celtic scored a third goal to lift the title in a victory over league leaders Hearts on Saturday afternoon.

Celtic has since issued an apology to Hearts, after the Edinburgh club noted “deeply disturbing reports of serious physical and verbal abuse towards our players and staff, both on the pitch and elsewhere”.

Hearts players quickly left the stadium following the match due to what the club described as a “menacing and threatening atmosphere inside the stadium”.

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Celtic said there is “no justification” for the behaviour of fans and that the club will co-operate with any investigations.

Following the club’s 14th Scottish Premiership title in 15 years, fans gathered in Glasgow’s Trongate, which led to ugly confrontations with police.

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

Police said 14 arrests relating to disorder have been made so far, with ten related to disorder in the Trongate area and four at the stadium itself.

‘Violence and disorder’

On Monday, John Swinney told STV News that the scenes that unfolded on Saturday were “completely and utterly unacceptable” as he visited a building site in Glasgow near to Celtic Park.

He said: “There are no circumstances in which violence in our society is acceptable, whether that’s pitch invasions or the violence and disorder we saw at the Trongate.”

Swinney said that following the disorder, he will look at current football banning orders with his ministers and said he was “open” to discussing legislation to stop pitch invasions, which are a criminal offence in England and Wales.

He said: “This is happening far too often, it’s now becoming part and parcel of the aftermath of some of these major events, and in whatever circumstance, it’s not acceptable, and I have to look at that with my ministers and in consultation with parliament.

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“I’ve got to look at the legislative issues as to whether there’s stronger action that needs to be taken within the law to ensure that people are deterred from taking this unacceptable action.”

Swinney said it was important that “lessons are learned” following the instances of violence over the weekend, and pointed to Hearts, who issued a plan for fans to celebrate a title win if they had been victorious in the match.

He said: “That was not replicated by Celtic and in Glasgow, so that’s got to be explored to determine what more could be done to make those arrangements. What’s unacceptable is that the police are left picking up the pieces as the last line of protection for the public.

“We’ve got to have very deep engagement with football authorities, with the clubs, and the clubs have got to take responsibility for this to make sure that the proper arrangements are in place to ensure that the police are not exposed to the violence they were exposed to at the Trongate and that businesses and members of the public are not inconvienienced in the way that they were inconvienced yet again at the Trongate.”

Glasgow & West

Two police officers ‘seriously injured’ amid disorder at Celtic title celebrations

Two officers were seriously injured and three members of the public required hospital treatment, Police Scotland said.

Swinney said it is possible for football fans to celebrate big wins without celebrations descending into chaos, pointing to Aberdeen FC’s Scottish Cup win last year.

He said. “When Aberdeen won the [Scottish Cup last year], it was a great moment of celebration for the city of Aberdeen and the communities involved. So it can be done, it’s not all football culture that’s a problem, but there is a particular problem when thousands of people gather at the Trongate and engage in totally unacceptable violence and disorder.”

He added that the Scottish Government will do all it can to bring people together to ensure football violence is avoided.

He said: “The government will play its part in bringing people together, but there are key partners that have to accept their responsibility and primarily that’s the football clubs and the football authorities, and we will be engaging with them on that question.”

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