KENNY MILLER, the former Rangers striker, believes players could have to walk off the pitch in order to combat racist behaviour from fans in Scottish football.
Police Scotland are liaising with Rangers and Hearts after striker Alfredo Morelos was allegedly targeted with racist abuse during the 1-1 Premiership draw at Tynecastle on Sunday.
Hearts have vowed to ban any supporter found guilty of racism from Tynecastle and have launched an investigation into the incident that occurred after Morelos had scored in the first half. And Miller has called for more severe punishments to be handed down to those convicted of such offences.
He said: “There is no place for it. It’s rearing on it’s ugly head too often of late to be honest. But all credit to Hearts, they have acted swiftly, they’ve came out and addressed the situation and there is an ongoing investigation and lets hope it gets dealt with properly.
“For me, harsher punishments do probably need to come in. What they are I don’t know. Is it going to be ground closures?
“Personally I’ve been someone that as a player, as fans, as a club you never want to see that kind of thing happen in terms of maybe stadium closures. But there needs to be something now. Again, all credit to Hearts, they’ve acted swiftly and we will see what the outcome of that investigation is.
“I think Alfredo loves his football and loves the football club. You can see that with the passion that he has got. But it is a side of the game that definitely needs to be addressed because there is no place for it.
“There is a lot of talk about taking teams off the pitch as well, again I don’t think we want to see that but if that is what it is going to take maybe to put a stop to it then that might be what needs to happen.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here