Celtic have been urged to engage in talks with Police Scotland and football authorities after disorder broke out in Glasgow city centre following the club’s title celebrations.
Martin O’Neill’s side clinched a fifth consecutive Premiership crown with a dramatic 3-1 win over Hearts at Celtic Park on Saturday, but the celebrations were overshadowed by controversy both inside and outside the stadium.
Hearts have already alleged some of their players and staff were assaulted following the full-time pitch invasion at Parkhead, while further incidents were reported later in Glasgow’s Trongate area, where thousands of supporters gathered.
Police Scotland confirmed officers were injured amid what they described as “unacceptable violence and hostility”, with bottles and other missiles allegedly thrown as officers dealt with a medical emergency.
Ahead of the title decider, Celtic had urged supporters not to gather in the city centre due to ongoing safety concerns and disruption issues caused by previous celebrations.
In a statement released on Saturday morning, the club said:
“If we are fortunate enough to be successful, we would ask our supporters to be mindful of the challenges which have been faced by Glasgow City Centre previously.
“Celtic has met in recent weeks with Glasgow City Council. We understand that the pressure placed on the city on such occasions is immense.
“We know there have been instances in the past which have proved difficult for the local community in terms of movement, obstructions and impact on emergency services.
“Glasgow City Council has committed to working together with football clubs on facilitating potential celebrations which would be meaningful to fans and less impactful on communities.
“Until these options can be delivered, we need to play our role in trying to relieve some of the pressures.
“We are aware of some of the issues which have arisen, many of which have led to serious safety concerns.
“Importantly, this Sunday, May 17, Glasgow will also host the Cancer Research 10k Race for Life, a charity event which requires significant planning and support from the city.
“If successful this afternoon, we would absolutely want our fans to enjoy their own celebrations, but given these events and the wider logistics, we would therefore discourage supporters from attending gatherings in the city centre this weekend, where there is no safety management in place and which have such a high impact on the city.”
Despite that plea, around 3,000 supporters still gathered in the Trongate area following the final whistle.
Police Scotland later released a strongly-worded statement confirming arrests had been made and that investigations remain ongoing.
The statement read:
“Police Scotland officers dealt with unacceptable violence and hostility as fans gathered in Glasgow on Saturday, 16 May, to celebrate Celtic’s Premiership title win.
“Around 3000 people made their way to the Trongate area of the city following the match, where we faced significant levels of disorder in which officers were injured.
“Missiles, including glass bottles, were thrown at them when assisting with a medical emergency.
“Specially trained public order officers were deployed and action was taken to restore order, disperse the crowd and make arrests.
“Extensive enquiries are underway to identify others involved and further arrests will be made.
“A significant amount of alcohol and pyrotechnics were also proactively seized by officers across the day.
“We are engaging with Heart of Midlothian FC to establish if any of their players were assaulted on the pitch at the conclusion of the event. The circumstances of the incident are being reviewed.”
Celtic had already criticised the lack of planning prior to the match, with claims that they had again failed to bring forward any plan or take any responsibility for the wider conduct and safety of supporters outwith the stadium.
In the Police Scotland statement, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Sutherland said: “While we recognise that the majority of fans respected the appeal from police and partners to act responsibly, several thousand still descended on the Trongate area, some of whom engaged in serious disorder.
“Once again, we have seen unacceptable levels of violence and anti-social behaviour and Police Scotland’s officers have been left to deal with the consequences. Being assaulted is not part of the job and regrettably a number of them were injured. The levels of criminal behaviour witnessed, in particular the hostility directed towards our officers, is simply unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. Those involved should be in no doubt that they will be identified and arrested.
“This mass assembly of people caused significant disruption to local businesses, residents and members of the public in the City Centre. Urgent discussions with Celtic, wider Scottish football authorities and other stakeholders, including Glasgow City Council, is required to achieve a solution that improves public safety, reduces disruption and prevents this from happening again.”
GCC have disgraced themselves once again…all across Europe league winning football supporters are celebrating..but GCC don’t want that… let’s be clear Celtic annually bring multimillion pound uplift to the city.. supporters that work hard on charity work throughout the year are painted as thugs by GCC..Police Scotland know it’s wrong…so is it Sectarianism?…GCC would demand that any city hosting Scotland supporters at this year’s world cup treat them with respect and have appropriate fan zones in place ..time for Celtic to call out GCC
GCC dont want their city trashed, filled with litter, bus shelters, traffic lights, monuments vandalised.
Yeah lets call them out for that.
The vast amount of Celtic fans can celebrate properly but there is a large hooligan element in our support who choose to indulge in anti-social thuggery and it would make no difference if there were fan zones as they would ignore them and any rules and still head to the Trongate to specifically distrupt the area.
Take off the blinkers, respect works both ways.
Having not been in the area post match, but read a statement from
Police Scotland in the morning one wonders if the context of the system exacerbated the trouble. The police spokesman made it very clear that having had to cancel officers leave and recall others then “ police Scotland would be applying the law applicably. What he wiz saying I gather is.. if yeez win ye’ll have ruined oor weekend and we’ll make yeez pay. The levels of riot police seen were unprecedented for a celebration and appears they wanted confrontation. Not like the George Square fiascos with the ranjurs hordes