Police Scotland is assessing a "small number of reports relating to hate crime" received during Sunday's Old Firm match.  

The force would not say how many complaints or go into detail about the nature of the complaints, only that enquiries were ongoing. 

Ticketing arrangements between the two clubs mean there were no Celtic fans at yesterday's game at Ibrox, which ended 3-3.

The match - which was at times bad-tempered - was being shown live on Sky Sports.

Previously, the broadcaster has attempted to mute offensive chants.

Leading Scots lawyer, Thomas Ross KC, said it was likely fans would attempt to use the new Act to report rival supporters.

He told the Sunday Mail: ­“Historically there’s a lot of animosity between the supporters of the two clubs and each group of fans report the other for songs they each sing at matches.

“Undoubtedly, there’s the possibility things could be sung or said that could amount to an offence.

“It is highly likely that, come Monday morning, police will have received many more complaints from fans who have watched the game on TV.”

READ MORE: Jack McConnell: SNP hate crime law is 'unworkable'

Meanwhile, Former Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has criticised the Scottish Government's handling of the new hate crime law, saying her former SNP colleagues lacked “political nous.”

The ex-minister said the decision not to include sex as a protected characteristic was a “loophole” that had been “exploited” by the party’s opponents.

The scathing comments from Ms Freeman, who otherwise supports the legislation, came as Jack McConnell said he thought the law was “unworkable.”

The Labour peer — who was first minister between 2001 and 2007 — compared it to the doomed Offensive Behaviour At Football Act, which was repealed six years after it was passed by MSPs.

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act took effect on Easter Monday.

The legislation consolidates some existing laws and creates a new offence of stirring up hatred against protected characteristics, including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and transgender identity.

Police Scotland has promised to investigate every report. They have now reportedly received around 8,000 complaints.

While many have already been dismissed — including those against Harry Potter author JK Rowling and First Minister Humza Yousaf — the Scottish Police Federation has warned that the force's commitment could have financial consequences and could even mean officers being unable to help those in need of assistance.

The Sunday Mail reported that Police Scotland’s reporting system, Storm, had 329 calls and emails by the end of last week that were considered potential offences under the hate crime legislation.

A senior police source confirmed 85 of those had been made anonymously.

They added: “We know the ones made­ ­anonymously are more likely to have been to further the reporter’s own agenda rather than for any other reason, whether that’s a political reason or to be vindictive.

“That’s a quarter of reports logged under HCPOA which are ­anonymous. It doesn’t account for the thousands we’ve had where more guidance is needed before they can be logged as anything.”

READ MORE: DANI GARAVELLI: JK Rowling's tweets on trans community felt gratuitously cruel

David Kennedy, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, told the paper: “There’s a ­potential that a victim who genuinely needs police assistance urgently, won’t get it. We have no problem with genuine complaints, it’s those who are just mischief-making.”

Police Scotland rejected that saying that despite the “substantial increase in the number of online reports being received since April 1” there had been no impact on frontline policing.

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Asked for her thoughts on the legislation during an interview with BBC Scotland's Sunday Show, Ms Freeman said her impression was "that the furore and nonsense and genuine concerns" over the past week had "caught the Scottish Government by surprise."

She added: "And I really do not think it is beyond the wit to plan for and prepare that this particular piece of legislation, coming at this particular point in the electoral cycle, will be used, if you leave loopholes in it and don't set out clearly what it does and what it doesn’t do, by those who oppose your political stance overall as a government.”

Ms Freeman said misogyny should have been included in the legislation: “My own view is that was a loophole that you left in the legislation wide open to be exploited. That’s about political nous, frankly.

"So I have two sets of conflicting frustrations. One about how this has been handled, prepared for and presented, and the other being how it has been mishandled and misinformed in a lot of the presentation and comment.”

Scottish ministers have promised to introduce a separate Bill to tackle misogyny.

READ MORE: KEVIN MCKENNA'S DIARY: Scotland is not the hate-filled hellhole our elite tell us it is

Writing in the Sunday Mail, Lord McConnell said he thought the new Hate Crime Act "might fail."

He said: “Tight budgets set by SNP/Green ministers mean Police Scotland already don’t follow up every crime.

“Now they must deal with all these potential offences, many of which are simply spurious. Instead of healing division and changing attitudes, Scottish ministers have created a law that seems unworkable.

“And on a key flashpoint with this legislation – the arguments between feminist and transgender campaigners – excluding crimes against women from the Act has inflamed the situation with many women feeling their concerns are ignored.

“This is exactly what good legislation should seek to avoid. Good political leadership should try to win the argument, build a consensus not sow division.”

Also speaking to the BBC Scotland's Sunday Show, Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie said there had been a "deplorable level of misinformation" around the new legislation.

The Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights said: "If this was just about posturing and playing a political game, it would be shallow, it would be it would be trivial, and it would be dishonest.

"But this has real world consequences.

"I'm far from alone, in being subjected to the kind of abusive and threatening language that is churned up by this misinformation and this fury that has been deliberately created by people."

He appealed to "those who are creating this misinformation, creating this wave of confusion and hostility" to "think about the real world consequences of your actions because this is emboldening not the kind of online keyboard warriors, not the people who get to write angry columns in newspapers, it is emboldening the worst elements of our society who genuinely do pose a threat of outright abuse and violence against marginalized and vulnerable people."