20 Mar 2011

Police warning to Old Firm footballers ahead of cup final

As Celtic and Rangers prepare for this afternoon’s cup final, Scottish football journalist Hugh Keevins writes for Channel 4 News on why the Old Firm fixture is unlikely to be a “family fun day”.

Celtic and Rangers last Old Firm clash was a troubled game (Getty)

The Scottish government’s Justice Secretary Kenny McAskill will attend this afternoon’s Co-operative Insurance Cup final between Celtic and Rangers at Hampden Park.

His visit, at the invitation of the Scottish Football League, comes after both Glasgow clubs were summoned to a meeting in Edinburgh by Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond.

Government intervention followed a highly controversial match involving the Old Firm in which three Rangers players, Madjid Bougherra, Steven Whittaker and El-Hadji Diouf, were sent off.

Rangers’ assistant manager, Ally McCoist, was also involved in an angry exchange with Celtic boss Neil Lennon on the touchline after the final whistle two weeks ago.

The players of both sides have been visited by members of Strathclyde Police this week in order to be reminded that they have a responsibility not to incite crowd trouble inside the ground or create problems for police elsewhere on the day of the match.

The Scottish Police Federation has already expressed the view that the Old Firm match, Scottish football’s showpiece fixture, should be banned altogether.

And Elish Angiolini, the country’s Lord Advocate and the highest legal figure in Scotland, has seen fit to remind the players that serious misconduct would constitute a breach of the peace and could lead to their arrest on the park.

The sides will meet for a record seven times this season, having been drawn against each other in both cup competitions on top of their four scheduled league matches, and tension has risen as a result.

The presence of the Justice Secretary will heighten the scrutiny of both teams and how they react to their last, controversy strewn clash.

Police figures show a marked increase in violence on the days when the clubs meet and soaring levels of domestic abuse.

Salmond and the Scottish government’s Sports minister, Shona Robison, will miss today’s game because they’re said to be involved with constituency business.

But the presence of the Justice Secretary at the National Stadium will heighten the scrutiny of both teams and how they react to their last, controversy strewn clash.

Opinion has been sharply divided over whether the government’s reaction to that match has been unnecessarily harsh or simply a wise decision to highlight a game that’s causing so many problems in the country at large.

Rangers’ manager, Walter Smith, will be making his last appearance at a domestic cup final. The sixty-three year old leaves the club at the end of the season and is on record as saying he will not miss the game with Celtic because it now carries too much baggage that he finds distasteful.

The Scottish Football League’s Chief Executive, David Longmuir, says he wants a “Family fun day” at Hampden.

That would seem like a forlorn hope, given the historical bad blood that exists between the rival fans, and which has now started to create enmity between the respective management teams as well.

But the occasion will need to pass off without serious incident to satisfy political leaders and prominent police officials that their warnings are being heeded by the clubs.

Celtic have not won a trophy since Gordon Strachan left the manager’s office eighteen months ago. Rangers are the holders of the prize at stake today.

The final meeting of the two sides this season, on a date still to be decided, is shaping up to be a potential decider in the league championship.

There have been calls for the Old Firm game to be played behind closed doors to minimise trouble, but every statistic assembled points to each club’s ground being the safest place to watch the derby match.

The extent to which trouble involving the players provokes violence among the fans watching on television in pubs throughout the country is what will once again come under examination today.