A POLICE investigation into alleged sectarian singing at a Scottish Premiership game between Hearts and Celtic has been hampered by in-ground CCTV cameras that do not have audio.
Police Scotland has confirmed that they have been examining complaints about offensive fan chants since the match three weeks ago.
But it is understood that officers have been unable to rely on CCTV footage in Tynecastle because the cameras are unable to pick up sound.
Police are continuing to pour over footage of activity on the terraces during the game which Celtic won 2-1.
News of the investigation comes after it was confirmed that two men were arrested following complaints about sectarian singing during the Rangers clash Kilmarnock on Friday.
The board of the Scottish Professional Football League governing body is due to meet today where it is expected any issues arising from reviews of match delegate reports would be examined.
A Hearts spokesman confirmed that CCTV equipment within the stadium does not capture audio but added: "We are able [in general] to retrieve audio from other sources, for example TV broadcast footage and police recordings."
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "Police in Edinburgh received a report of offensive behaviour at the Hearts v Celtic match at Tynecastle on August 7., "Inquiries are on-going into the full circumstances."
BT Sport which was broadcasting last week's Kilmarnock versus Rangers match live has apologised after receiving complaints from viewers.
One complainer described a "high level of sectarian singing" during the game at Rugby Park which ended in 1-1 draw.
Police Scotland later confirmed that two men aged 22 and 23 had been arrested in connection with alleged offences contrary to the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.
In April, Dave Scott, campaign director of Nil By Mouth, accused the SPFL of failing to tackle sectarianism in Scottish football.
One third of arrests for sectarian activities in Scotland are related to football.
Speaking as part of a debate, Mr Scott said that without the assistance of football authorities sectarianism will never be exorcised from the game.
And he urged all Scottish clubs to adopt the Strict Liability rule, in which they could be punished for the behaviour of fans regardless of their attempts to control them.
Without action, he said, sectarianism would prevail.
Speaking to the event hosted by Action on Sectarianism, he said: "The SFA has failed in that no club has been fined a point or a pound for sectarian behaviour.
"The clubs early on did make a show of trying to do something about it. But it was usually for the press opportunity.
"They do little unless it involves Uefa [the European football governing body]. Scottish football has just ignored the issue. Recently they asked for facial recognition software as a solution rather than work with the fans."
Two weeks after Scott's comments police investigated the singing of sectarian songs by Old Firms fans during the Scottish Cup semi-final. The match resulted in 18 arrests in and around Hampden and in the city centre.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel