WELL into my second decade of being a Celtic fan, I finally got a ticket to the Glasgow derby this past weekend.
You can imagine my disappointment, to have scored a ticket after years of trying only for it to be one of the few unfortunate instances in recent times that Rangers have beat us – and at home, no less.
Despite an impressive wider performance, form against our biggest rivals has been seriously lacking this season and to say it isn’t good enough would be a major understatement. But it wasn’t even the most disappointing part of the day for fans.
While the Union Bears were seated comfortably in the away end – banging their drums for the entirety of the game to the tune of three goals and setting off their prohibited pyrotechnics – the green brigade were kettled by an overbearing police presence on London Road, seemingly for being suspected to be carrying said pyrotechnics.
Detained for more than four hours without access to even a toilet, food or water unless they complied with draconian police demands, they never made it to the game. Love them or not – indeed, love football or not – what happened to Celtic fans on Sunday should strike fear into any person in Scotland who values their civil liberties.
Something felt amiss walking down London Road on Sunday before the game. Granted, I’m sure nerves were high given that Rangers were returning to Celtic Park for the first time since the ticket dispute broke out in 2023 and tensions between the two teams run notoriously high, but even so, the police presence was complete overkill and felt intimidating. Not just for the green brigade, but for fans generally who were left feeling criminalised simply for turning up.
Around 850 officers were deployed for the match, emboldened by multiple marked vans, cars and some even on horseback that lined London Road from early in the morning. If you didn’t know any better, you’d be forgiven for thinking there was some kind of terror threat given the extremity of the operation. In reality, it was just a case of some football fans going to support their team in one of their biggest games of the season.
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In a statement posted to their Instagram page on Monday, the green brigade confirmed that fans had departed from the Celtic Social Club at 10.45am towards Celtic Park as is usual protocol, only to be stopped en route and detained. They were initially told this was in an effort to allow away support to enter the stadium, but as time went on, it became apparent that they wouldn’t be allowed to move on as promised.
After an hour, fans were informed that they had been detained under section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which allows the police the power to stop and search a person without reasonable suspicion. Walking down the street is apparently criminal behaviour if you’re a football fan, or a specific type of football fan, I should say.
In order to leave the kettle, fans – some of whom were young children – were expected to submit to police detention whereby they’d be held by two officers by the arms, submit to a full body search (including a refusal to privacy for women), disclose their full personal details, show ID to verify those details, have hats, sunglasses, scarves and snoods confiscated – and have it all filmed including all ID documents.
Whatever your opinion on football or Celtic generally, that is quite clearly an egregious overreach of police power that is rightly being condemned by fans across Scottish teams. It’s difficult to believe an operation this extensive would not have been pre-meditated and urgent questions are being asked of the Celtic board who passed down sanctions to the very same group earlier on in the week.
Police Scotland have since argued that fans should simply have complied with orders and they would have been allowed to the game, in a statement that came across every bit as authoritarian and heavy-handed as they made sure to appear on Sunday. The kettle resulted in 0 arrests, with one arrest being made in total on the day. More than 90 people spent almost five hours in police detention for a total of 0 arrests. A worthwhile use of public money? Or a draconian assault on basic civil liberty?
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The facts speak for themselves, and this insatiable need to paint football fans as violent criminals isn’t just hindering the game and sowing division, it’s costing the public millions.
Football fans are no stranger to this kind of police overreach, it’s been a point of contention in Scotland for years. In fact, eerily, Sunday marked 12 years to the day that the Gallowgate kettle took place and sparked mass protests against heavy handed policing in football.
In a similar vein to Sunday, fans were detained in the Gallowgate and held for hours. The demonstrations that followed served as a catalyst for the Fans Against Criminalisation campaign that was ultimately successful and saw the Offensive Behaviour and Football Act (OFBA) repealed in 2018.
The SNP have long been under scrutiny in this policy area after the disaster of OFBA. The Act, passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2011 after being introduced by then government minister Kenny MacAskill, criminalised “offensive behaviour” at football matches in an effort to tackle sectarian behaviour.
In reality, it did little to subdue sectarianism and was instead often employed to target fans. One instance saw a fan being detained and questioned at Tynecastle for wearing a “Free Palestine” T-shirt.
Fans argued that the Act allowed the police too much power and created an “authoritarian vibe” that was understandably rejected en masse. They also said it was inconsistently applied across class divides, and saw working-class fans criminalised more than any other group.
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One fan told me that this period was “an insufferable time in Scottish football” and left many feeling ostracised and distrusted. And why wouldn’t it? For years, mostly working-class men have been targeted by over the top government crackdowns that just aren’t replicated fairly or even consistently.
Just the other week, the First Minister came under fire for suggesting that there should be no change to the alcohol ban in football stadiums. I say alcohol ban, but it doesn’t apply to hospitality. Essentially, if you can afford to have a drink at the football, you can. If you’re just a regular punter who can’t afford hospitality – which is the majority of Scotland’s football support, the luxury remains out of your reach. Another example of the rife class division in Scottish football that the government, whether intentionally or not, continually helps to perpetuate.
It’s an area they have consistently got wrong, and the biggest losers are the working-class football fans who are the life and soul of Scotland’s world renowned football scene. They're fans we should be proud of, and who don’t just make a difference here in Scotland but consistently do good around the world.
Just a few weeks ago, the “Show Israel the Red Card” campaign orchestrated by the green brigade condemning Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza took off and was replicated globally.
One thing is for sure, tensions between fans and the state are on the rise and with trust in the SNP all but extinguished, fans’ eyes will be on them in the run up to 2026. If they want to win trust back, they’re going to have to employ a little more faith in the fanbases that keep Scottish football alive.
