Brian Wilson delivers Celtic response with criticism for Police Scotland

Brian Wilson the interim Celtic Chairman then appeared on a club video being interviewed by Gerry McCulloch to provide a Celtic response with our highly paid CEO Michael Nicholson nowhere to be seen, pointing to a disengagement from him ahead of a summer exit from the club.

Wilson dealt with two matters – the trouble at Ibrox caused by the Rangers fans aggression and the on going stadium ban of the Green Brigade from Celtic Park with both separate issues having the role of Police Scotland entwined across the issues.

Speaking about Sunday’s Scottish Cup victory at Ibrox the interim Celtic chairman said:

“It is unfortunate that the events after the game have to some extent detracted or overshadowed the actual result. I was frankly disappointed by the chief constable’s comments, as she presumably knows we work closely with Police Scotland.

“We respect the role of the safety advisory group and when there is evidence of unacceptable behaviours, we act against both individuals and groups. All of that is on the record. Measuring responses by condemnatory statements isn’t really accurate,” Wilson said.

“If this could be resolved by statements of condemnation, it would have been resolved decades ago. It’s actions that matter and the way we handle these experiences as a club and the way others handle these experiences.

“If you’re going to be asking for condemnation, you have to be more specific and I would happily condemn and regret. But the highest profile aspect of this (the chaos) was after the penalties and Celtic had won.

“What you had there was a euphoric response from our supporters. It is not uncommon. It has happened on numerous occasions this season alone in Scottish football where you have an overspill onto the pitch.

“That in itself does not usually draw expressions of condemnation. What I would say is that I welcome the SFA’s intention to have a full inquiry. Let’s look at the evidence. If there’s evidence of violence, if there’s evidence of threats of violence, then of course I will condemn that – but let’s look at the evidence before we create maybe a false narrative.”

The Police have plenty of questions to answer themselves, particularly surrounding their match day plan to use the same entry procedures for the away support as the previous week for the Scottish Premiership match with a much lower crowd rather than the tried and tested system last used in March 2018 when Celtic supporters were occupying the entire Free Broomloan. This always worked well so it was reckless and stupid for Police Scotland’s actions to lead to another near crush event involving large numbers of Celtic supporters.

Will they never learn?

On this Wilson said: “That will be part of this inquiry by the SFA, and I welcome that. We met this week with the Celtic Supporters Association, a well-established, well-respected organisation which doesn’t raise issues lightly.

“They had real concerns about the access to the Broomloan Stand – a departure from previous procedures which they believed had worked well. They had a genuine concern about supporter safety.”

Wilson concluded: “We didn’t rush out a statement on that because we think the way to address that is through discussion with the authorities and an evidence based approach. We take that very seriously and I can assure you that people with a lot of experience attending these games had genuine concerns.”

Yesterday The Celtic Star posted five questions for Police Scotland.

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