John Swinney would not commit to criminalising pitch invasions despite the ‘astonishingly poor behaviour’ by Celtic fans at the weekend. But he has criticised the lack of planning for the chaotic title celebrations in Glasgow on Saturday.
First Minister’s Remarks
The First Minister pointed out Hearts had worked closely with Edinburgh City Council in the event it lifted the trophy. But he noted the absence of forward thinking in the country’s largest city with the apparent ‘acceptance’ fans would gather at the Trongate with ‘unacceptable’ consequences.
Jubilant Hoops’ fans stormed the pitch in the final moments of the game when it became clear there was no comeback for their rivals with the Hearts players quickly escorted out. Officials later said the game had concluded rather than been abandoned.
Soon after, around 3,000 supporters descended on the area in the immediate aftermath of the title clash for the unofficial party despite pleas not to do so. Some 400 officers had their days off cancelled to deal with the disorder which saw flares set off, property vandalised and missiles including glass bottles thrown.
Two police officers were seriously injured as they attended a medical emergency during the mayhem with a total of 14 arrests so far, including four at the Parkhead stadium.
No New Legislation
But instead of pledging tough new legislation in line with England to prevent similar scenes from unfolding again, Mr Swinney said the Scottish Government was looking at whether to update the law on Football Banning Orders to tackle ‘various forms of football-related disorder’.
He added: ‘At the weekend, there was astonishingly poor behaviour by a small minority of fans that were at the sporting occasion. Most of the fans that were there were there to celebrate the football, to observe their teams and caused absolutely no issues whatsoever. But a minority created real difficulties with the invasion of the pitch and then also with the scenes at the Trongate.’
The First Minister continued: ‘Hearts, for example, engaged with the city council in Edinburgh and arranged a programme that would be designed to ensure an orderly celebration of the success of the club, if that had happened. There was not a plan here in Glasgow for that and that resulted then in, I suppose, the acceptance that there was going to be some gathering at the Trongate and, based on the weekend, that was completely unacceptable. Huge police resources had to be put in place, huge council resources had to be put in place to protect people and infrastructure around the Trongate, and we saw unacceptable violence.’
Labour MSP Calls for Action
Meanwhile, Labour MSP Paul Sweeney said he was ‘astonished’ by the ‘lack of leadership’ to curtail the disorder from Celtic fans after their team’s 3-1 victory over the Edinburgh rivals. He called for an organised fanzone to be created to avoid repeat scenarios and demanded clubs should help pay for it.
Mr Sweeney also said there clearly was a need for a law change to ban pitch invasions and tailgaiting, where people without tickets go through the turnstiles at football stadiums by staying close behind those who do have tickets. The Glasgow MSP 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.’ Mr 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? 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,’ he said.
He called for Scotland to follow England by introducing legislation to ban pitch invasions and tailgating, and said clubs should be ‘sanctioned if necessary’, adding: ‘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.’
Council Rejects Fanzone Idea
Glasgow City Council dismissed Mr Sweeney’s fanzone idea, with a spokesman adding: ‘It simply isn’t credible to think that people who want to fight among themselves, vandalise buildings and infrastructure and throw bottles at the emergency services will attend a fanzone – or that any responsible organiser would consider letting them in.’
He continued the move would also be too expensive and concluded: ‘Glasgow is unique in Europe in that a team from the city has won the league every season for the last four decades. This means we are likely to have fans celebrating in most years and, while the city has offered clubs senior technical support, it is clearly not possible for the council to bear that cost. We have been working with the city’s two biggest clubs for the last year to look at how we reduce unacceptable ad-hoc celebrations. Although the behaviour of a minority of supporters on Saturday was deplorable, the numbers attending Trongate and Merchant City were significantly down on previous years.’
The council has had to dig deep for the clean-up costs following the previous ‘impromptu’ title celebrations, with the 2024 bill exceeding £100,000 including vandalism damage.
