The Ibrox fallout continues as blame continues to be apportioned to Celtic and Rangers fans for the violent scenes after the Scottish Cup penalty shoot-out.
The Celtic Fans Collective have released a statement blaming Police Scotland and Parkhead Head of Security Mark Hargreaves for their failures to organise effective crowd control measures.
Frank McAvennie has also voiced his displeasure as the ex-Celtic striker levied his thoughts on the police’s dereliction of duty in the run-up and during the Ibrox fixture.
And now Simon Jordan has weighed in as the talkSPORT pundit vindicates the stewards but says ‘questions’ must be asked of Police Scotland and how many officers they assigned to the Glasgow Derby clash.
How can we ensure that the Glasgow derby can continue having full allocations after the latest incident?
Simon Jordan levies police blame for Rangers vs Celtic row
The outspoken pundit appears to be the only person with a calm head as he questioned the policing of the Ibrox fixture and rejected the notion that a blanket ban on away supporters is the only way to stop these scenes.
Jordan said on talkSPORT, “Well, that can’t be the utopia [blanket away supporter ban]. You can’t let the minority affect the majority because there are factions within these fan bases that choose to think they can behave as they want.
“I would imagine that Rangers, in order to have got safety certificates to put the game on, must have given undertakings to police the game in a certain way and to steward it in a certain way.
“So the observations being made about if there was sufficient stewarding put into place and I would imagine those are easily going to be answered.
“It then becomes about what stewards have to experience. We know that stewards aren’t going to avail themselves of violent altercations because it’s not their function.
“It’s not what they’re paid to do and it’s way beyond what they’re paid to do. You have to ask the question about policing and how much policing there was involved.
“We aren’t, irrespective of the unpalatable nature of the circumstances yesterday. We aren’t back in the 80s. This is not anywhere near what it was before.”
Fans of a certain age will remember the hooliganism of the 80s and into the early 90s where fan violence was more prominent.
Bans of supporters were never spoken about then, and it certainly shouldn’t be used as the only way to combat what happened at Ibrox on Sunday.
There was a clear lack of police presence within the stadium and virtually no cordon in front of the stands that supporters would normally see heading into the end of a tense clash between the two clubs.
Jordan slams ‘Scottish reporters’ and the police’s failure to arrest Rangers and Celtic ‘morons’
Jordan then goes on to the root and crux of the problem. The media narrative being spun and why Police Scotland only made nine arrests as the scenes unfolded.
Jordan continued, “And I’m not suggesting that should be a precursor to giving it an excuse. But we have to qualify that.
“I listen to certain people, and I picked up on certain clips on this platform where you had certain Scottish reporters coming in with the show with Alan Pardew and the other fellow [David Tanner] who he works with on Sunday afternoons talking about they’ve been tolerated for too long.
“I’m curious to understand why it is that people that don’t actually know how to run football clubs can sit there pining upon what people do and don’t tolerate, and why they will placate the Green Brigade or why they will placate the Ultras at Rangers.
“You can’t legislate for morons behaving in a certain way. You have to get the balance right between making the argument that you were making which is, ‘Have we just proven the case that we should have no away fans in the O-d F-rm?’.
“No! We’ve proven the case that we have to eliminate the morons from the equation and then hopefully the rest of it will take care of itself.
“Why aren’t they nicking them on the pitch? Why aren’t the police nicking people? Why aren’t these guys that are running on the pitch with their Spider-Man masks on being nicked?”
For once, I find myself in agreement with Jordan. There are three big questions Celtic must ask about the Ibrox security measures as we detailed in the aftermath of the match.
Why was the police presence at the Celtic end of the stadium so heavy hours before kick-off, but so light during a match where over 50,000 fans were seated?
Why was there not a police and steward presence near the goalmouths as the penalty shoot-out ended?
And finally, why were Celtic staff allowed to be assaulted again inside Ibrox, when history shows that this incident is not solitary.
It’s easy to blame the fans but Celtic supporters will remind the authorities of one thing, there was only one set of supporters hell bent on causing violence.
And it wasn’t those who were celebrating with Celtic players.
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