NEW officers who have never policed an Old Firm match will be taught sectarian songs ahead of this weekend's match between Rangers and Celtic.
Officers who have joined the ranks of Police Scotland since the last flashpoint derby will be briefed on some of the hate songs favoured by bigots.
It has been almost three years since the last Old Firm clash - but police say that will not be used as an excuse and have vowed to arrest anyone singing sectarian songs.
Senior officers will lay down the law to new recruits on which songs are considered illegal.
A police source said: "Obviously some of these songs are recognisable.
"But we will be making sure all officers involved in policing the match are aware of what is acceptable and what is not.
"If you sing an offensive, sectarian song, we'll arrest you."
'Rest days' for some officers in Glasgow have been cancelled ahead of the match and extra police will be on duty. It is feared the 1.30pm kick-off time for this weekend's game will give fans time to drink before the match and possibly fuel trouble.
The match is being shown on BBC1 Scotland and police are determined viewers, who are watching around the world, will not have to listen to sectarianism from the stands.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said the match would be "policed appropriately".
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 hereComments are closed on this article