The First Minister this afternoon spoke in the Scottish Parliament about the disgraceful scenes at the weekend as theRangers fans celebrated their club’s first ever major trophy win. And most of you will not be surprised to learn that Celtic has now been dragged into the controversy which could result in the Scottish game being shut down.
Nicola Sturgeon has been trying to avoid a confrontation with the current club operating out if Ibrox but today that position became untenable as theRangers chairman Donald Park took the fight to her by delivering a three page letter to her and making sure that the bluenoses in the media all were armed with copies.
And in the Scottish Parliament today hit out at the Ibrox club, founded by Charles Green in 2012, which today sent a three page letter to the First Minister blaming the vandalism, violence, bigotry and breaching of the Government restrictions on CELTIC Supporters. This letter incidentally was written by Donald Park, Chairman of theRangers and owner of Celtic bus suppliers Parks of Hamilton.
Donald Park is laughing all the way to the bank every time Celtic have to play away from home, supplying at least five coaches to get the Celtic squad to the game. Incredibly that’s the same number of theRangers players seen in cars over the last few days – without a word of criticism from anyone. And it’s also the same number of chins their current Chairman is currently sporting.
Park actually blames the Celtic Fans demonstrating at Celtic Park in December for the supporters of what he calls a 150 year old institution (words he’d presumably never have used had they not gone bust in 2012) hitting the town at the weekend and causing mayhem, destroying property and indulging in disgraceful sexual behaviour, violence and bigotry.
Celtic must as a matter of urgency end the association with Parks of Hamilton and indeed every supporters club must consider doing the same when football with fans resumes.
Here’s his letter…
Park also unbelievably hit out at Glasgow City Council for failing to remove the street furniture ahead of the hordes descending on George Square, claiming that this was “standard practice” – GCC dismissed this in their own statement.
Glasgow City Council spokesperson says it’s “not standard practice” to remove street furniture in George Square. “In particular, it is not standard practice to remove memorial benches as the vast, vast majority of people are possessed of sufficient human decency to not vandalise them.”
Looks like the go to guy for Douglas Park has flipped after publishing this comment from Glasgow City Council.
Their words really need no explaining, nor added to . pic.twitter.com/CjfnXBk0Pw— Highland__Paddy (@Highland__paddy) March 9, 2021
And here is Nicola Sturgeon’s response in the Scottish Parliament, note the dire warning for the Scottish game at the end…
“In terms of future fixtures, there are a variety of discussions happening over the course of this week including one between myself and the chief constable later today.
“We will report back on those in due course certainly before the scheduled Old Firm (sic) match on the 21st of March.
“The reason we’ve tried to keep football and elite sport generally going is not for the benefit really of the elite sports people but for the fans. Everybody is being deprived of so much right now that the ability to watch a football match and cheer on your team on the television should be something that people have the ability to do.
“But a minority can’t be allowed to act irresponsibly so I hope that we don’t have to spoil that for the majority but we will have to assure ourselves that there will be no repeat of the kind of scenes we saw at the weekend.
“And that frankly is still very much a work in progress,” Nicola Sturgeon said.
“At no point, unless I missed it, did Rangers simply and unequivocally say to fans ‘stay at home’ or ‘go home’”
.@NicolaSturgeon says three page letter she received from Rangers didn’t “even reflect fact” that crowds gathered “was deeply regrettable”.@LBC | @LBCNews pic.twitter.com/S5uwfPQWkN
— Alan Zycinski (@AlanJZycinski) March 9, 2021
