Roger Hannah put forward an argument as to why Police Scotland found it difficult to manage their resources for the weekend’s Glasgow Derby.
The world watched as Rangers fans charged Celtic supporters in the aftermath of the Scottish Cup penalty shoot-out at Ibrox on Sunday.
And as the debates raged about policing and stewarding, Hannah rejected the notion that Police Scotland should have invested more into the operation to ensure crowd trouble was controlled on the day.
Hannah said on Superscoreboard, “100 percent it does, of course it does. And why should she [Police Superintendant] deploy every officer in the West of Scotland to a game of football?
How can we ensure that the Glasgow derby can continue having full allocations after the latest incident?
“What happens if your house gets broken into on a Sunday afternoon and you phone the police and they say, ‘Listen, I’m sorry, every officer in the west of Scotland is currently standing at Ibrox.”
Nobody is asking for every officer to be deployed to one football match, but it is becoming abundantly clear that there was nowhere near enough of a police presence at Ibrox on Sunday. Well, at least inside the stadium.
How much Celtic pay Police Scotland
We wrote a piece on how much money Celtic pay Police Scotland back in October, and the figures are staggering.
Here is the list in descending order:
- Rangers: £1,600,000
- Celtic: £1,500,000
- SFA: £829,107
- SPFL: £382,691
- Aberdeen: £332,791
- St Mirren: £295,605
- Kilmarnock: £277,235
- Hibs: £258,476
- Hearts: £247,440
No doubt that figure will rise so surely Celtic should expect much more from the authorities considering the vast sums of cash the Parkhead club plough into the police?
Police Scotland numbers mean controlling Celtic vs Rangers games should be easy
Looking at the numbers of police officers available to Police Scotland, the running and organising of effective crowd control at a Glasgow Derby should not be difficult.
Glasgow City alone has 5511 officers available at any given one time. With only four games per season, an organised rota should be (if it’s not already) scheduled well in advance to ensure the smooth operation of the fixture.
And if there are not enough police officers available in Glasgow, there are other divisions who can help out:
- North East division: 3386
- Tayside Division: 3205
- Edinburgh City Division: 3551
- Ayrshire Division: 3840
- Argyll and West Dunbartonshire Division: 3591
All within close proximity of Glasgow and all with a number of officers who could have been drafted in. Imagine just asking for 50 from each of the above areas, would that be too much to help back up Glasgow City numbers?
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