RANGERS FC “did not do nearly enough” to help avoid the chaotic scenes as fans celebrated the club winning their first top-flight title in 10 years, the First Minister has said.
Crowds of supporters congregated outside Ibrox Stadium and in George Square after their league victory and Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs yesterday she shared the “anger” over their “disgraceful” behaviour.
She said she would be speaking with Police Scotland’s Chief Constable Iain Livingstone to avoid a similar situation in future. Sturgeon said: “However, no one should doubt the deeply invidious situation that behaviour like this puts the police in as they discharge their responsibility to protect public order and safety.
“We will also be having further discussions this week with the football authorities and with certain football clubs who, in my view, need to show much more leadership.
“Let me be clear, in making these comments, I don’t care about the colour of the shirts.
“I said some harsh things about Celtic’s decisions at the start of this year. And as far as I am concerned in this case, Rangers Football Club did not do nearly enough to help avoid this situation arising at the weekend.
“The fact is that elite sport is being allowed to continue just now so that fans – deprived of so much else in life right now – can continue to watch and support their teams.”
Sturgeon’s comments came after Rangers wrote to her following strong criticism of the club’s approach to dissuading its supporters from their weekend celebrations.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney had said the “silence from Rangers was deafening” when he spoke about the issue at the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing on Monday.
In a statement to the First Minister, the club said: “It is particularly disappointing that there has been a lack of acknowledgement from the Scottish Government to the wide range of efforts we undertook to limit public safety issues.
“It is also particularly disappointing that Mr Swinney has chosen to lambast Rangers publicly, given the fact that we had proactively initiated engagement with Police Scotland, the SPFL, the Scottish Government as well as a local MP.”
The letter listed 10 events in which it claimed to have made efforts in recent weeks.
The chief constable, meanwhile, has asked John Scott QC to scrutinise his force’s handling of the unlawful celebrations in Glasgow at the weekend as part of the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) which look at the force’s handling of coronavirus powers.
Livingstone said: “I have asked Mr Scott to consider the events of the weekend at the next scheduled IAG meeting on Friday, having regard to the fundamental human rights principles of legality, necessity and proportionality, and to consider any relevant issues for the policing of future events over the coming months.”
Police made 28 arrests and seven people were issued with fixed penalty notices or will be reported to the procurator fiscal. The gatherings took place despite coronavirus legislation which forbids such gatherings due to the dangers to public health. Among the reasons for arrest were allegations of assaulting police officers, breaching coronavirus regulations and sectarian breaches of the peace.
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