John Swinney condemns ‘absolutely reprehensible’ conduct of Rangers fans

Thousands of fans defied Covid-19 warnings against large gatherings and massed in George Square to celebrate Rangers lifting the Scottish Premiership trophy.

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Social media footage showed George Square strewn with hundreds of broken bottles, plastic bags and spent flares after flag-draped fans had been seen attacking each other and launching traffic cones, plastic bollards and other missiles at lines of riot gear-clad police officers.

Rangers fans celebrate winning the Scottish Premiership in George Square (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Speaking to BBC’s Good Morning Scotland John Swinney said: “Every exhortation was given by Police Scotland, the Scottish Government and Rangers Football Club for fans not to assemble.

“But unfortunately 15,000 people did so and they started off behaving peacefully and then they descended into thuggish behaviour in George Square.

“I’m limited as to what I can say this morning because there’s an ongoing police investigation but the conduct on Saturday was absolutely reprehensible.

“There was absolutely no need for them to gather, absolutely no need whatsoever, and the warnings were given very clearly… and then some of them went on to behave in a loutish and thuggish fashion in George Square – devastating property, circulating and expressing vile anti-Catholic bigotry in the centre of the city of Glasgow.

“Police officers were assaulted on Saturday, which is completely unacceptable and obviously that will be a matter which is pursued vigorously by Police Scotland and so it should be and there’ll be various actions taken to address the behaviour and the conduct of the fans on Saturday.”

On Sunday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also condemned "the violence, vandalism and the vile anti-Catholic prejudice" on display in the heart of the city. 

Calum Steele, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), tweeted images on Sunday night of some of the injuries sustained by officers, including broken bones and lost teeth.

He described the scenes as “horrific”, also telling the BBC programme: “There are almost no polite words left to describe how bad the events (were) in Glasgow at the weekend – and indeed the wider west of Scotland.

“Many of the officers who are quite long in the tooth have probably quite rightly described it as some of the worst violence that they’ve experienced in over 20 years of police service.

“People being critical of the police, that’s nothing new, and those that don’t have an appreciation and understanding as to what’s involved in the policing tactics are rarely shy in holding back their points of view.

“The notion that the very limited resources of the police service would go into a crowd of that size to enforce the dispersal without any consideration of the inevitable consequences of such action I think shows just how narrow the thinking of those that are critical of the police in those circumstances are.

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“There is no way that a police service of almost any size could have stopped that number of people moving and gathering – equally there may well be legitimate questions to ask about whether the gathering should have been broken up at an earlier stage, or notices to disperse the crowd should be given at an earlier stage.

“I don’t believe that the club is responsible for what took place yesterday, I absolutely believe the club has got a fundamental role to play in trying to make sure that the behaviour of fans – indeed football authorities in general have a role to play in making sure that these kinds of disgraceful behaviours, laying down what’s acceptable, what’s not acceptable is addressed in the future.”