Martin O’Neill has revealed that a Celtic coach was ‘approached’ by Rangers fan and that the supporter was ‘wrestled to the ground’ in shocking Ibrox Scottish Cup scenes.
While O’Neill is playing his cards close to his chest regarding ‘silly comments’, his focus on the security warning and the ‘halfway line’ suggests the club’s main concern will be the safety of the staff on the pitch.
With the SFA already condemning the Ibrox scenes, this testimony from the Hoops boss could be pivotal in any upcoming disciplinary hearing regarding stadium security failures.
Celtic beat Rangers after a thrilling penalty shoot-out booked the Hoops’ place in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden next month.
But the result was marred by shocking scenes as Celtic and Rangers fans invaded the pitch as emotions boiled over. And O’Neill has confirmed the reason why an Ibrox fan was bundled to the ground after a Hoops coach intervened.
How can we ensure that the Glasgow derby can continue having full allocations after the latest incident?
Martin O’Neill refuses to be drawn into ‘silly comments’ after Rangers vs Celtic scenes
The Hoops boss was asked immediately after full time his thoughts on the Ibrox scenes and O’Neill said that he will need to look back at the footage before apportioning blame to fans.
O’Neill told BBC Radio Scotland, “To me, watching it from a distance, I thought the O-d F-rm fixture lost a little bit of a bluster because of that.
“And so, you know, as I say, from a distance, advocating that both sets of fans or the full allocation would be good for the SPFL, as much as anything else.
“There was a lot of euphoria, of course, when you have just won to penalty shoot out, those type of things may happen.
“But I need to have some sort of analysis of it before I start making some silly comments.”
Martin O’Neill says Celtic coach tried to stop Rangers fan incident
When asked if there could be some repercussions because of the Ibrox scenes, the Celtic boss said, “There could be that, I don’t know, but yeah, in the heat of the moment, I’m hoping that they, both sets of fans, didn’t cross the halfway line.
“When we were told by security, I certainly was on the field at the time, just acknowledging the away fans, and then the security told us, get off now as quickly as possible. I thought we tried to do that.
“But I need to have a look, and I will see, not that, whether I see anything, it doesn’t really matter. It’s for the authorities.
And on the Rangers fan approaching a Celtic coach, O’Neill said, “I don’t know how it started. I think one of our coaches was wanting to prevent an incident happening, and I think that was why the person who was on the field was wrestled to the ground.
“But I don’t really know any more about that at this stage.”
You can listen to the full remarkable interview below:
As for Celtic and Rangers, they will await an investigation from the SFA, who have promised to look into the Glasgow Derby incidents as both teams now face possible fines and sanctions.
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