A RANGERS fans group has said the police should have been involved over Celtic striker John Guidetti's singing of an "offensive" song about the Ibrox club.

 

Rangers Supporters Trust spoke out after the 22-year-old was issued with a Scottish Football Association notice of complaint following an interview on Dutch TV show FC Rijnmond earlier this month.

During the broadcast he repeated a chant sung about him by supporters featuring the line "the h*** are deid".

The SFA's compliance officer asserts that the on-loan Manchester City player broke disciplinary rule 73 by making a "comment of an offensive nature".

A Celtic spokesman responded saying: "We are very surprised and disappointed that this has even found its way to an SFA judicial panel."

But the RST said: "The only surprise that should be present in anyone's mind is about why the police are not involved in closely examining Guidetti's behaviour. We have recently seen fans jailed for precisely the same thing, why is this being treated any differently?"

The Celtic star sang: "Oh John Guidetti, puts the ball in the net-y, he's a Super Swede and the h*** are deid, walking in Guidetti wonderland."

The Celtic forward described the chant as "a good song".

The RST said: "The word 'h** is not simply offensive, it is sectarian."

Guidetti, a Swedish international, has until 3pm on March 30 to respond to the complaint, with a principal hearing date set for April 9. Celtic have said Guidetti will be defending the charge.

The Herald revealed the launch of a campaign backed by the official Rangers fans board to lobby First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to make the use of the word 'h**' illegal following online abuse of pop singer Amy Macdonald

The move is linked to an internet petition which says the word is a term of "religious hatred, a derogatory and sectarian term for a Protestant".

The campaigners say those using the phrase should be treated no differently than those who use offensive words to describe Catholics.

The campaign to outlaw use of 'h**' came after the word was used in a Twitter tirade directed at Macdonald after she criticised England footballer Stan Collymore in a row which began when he linked Rangers and Chelsea to right wing groups such as Combat 18.

Macdonald spoke out after the Talksport pundit said he we was vindicated as reports from Ireland claimed one Chelsea fan hunted for pushing a black man off the Paris underground was a former Royal Ulster Constabulary officer and had been a Rangers fan.

The campaign petition argues that the use of the word 'h**' is as offensive as the term 'f****n".

The organisers believe the word 'h**' is used as a "term of religious hatred, a derogatory and sectarian term for a protestant or those perceived to be protestant by supporters of other football teams".

The campaign's letter to Nicola Sturgeon also calls for a ban on chants in support of the IRA, saying they are "unacceptable and have no place in society". It says they should be "outlawed and made illegal and those singing them dealt with by the courts and banned from entering football stadia".

The letter, to go to justice minister Michael Matheson, concludes: "Let's clean up Scotland & Scottish Football and celebrate all that is good in the beautiful game and Scotland. Parity for all."

The petition was understood to have also been a response to Collymore's own online protest petition saying sponsors and TV schedulers should boycott Rangers matches as long as supporters continue to sing sectarian songs.

Collymore began his campaign while posting footage to his 700,000 plus followers taken at Hampden of fans singing the sectarian Billy Boys loyalist song which contains the reference "up to our knees in f****n blood".

Celtic warned fans they can no longer call Rangers fans 'h***' 14 years ago.

The ban emerged when some fans were reportedly thrown off the club's internet site for using it.

At the time, Celtic administrator John Cole said: "It's a word that can cause offence and at Celtic we don't want to be offending anyone, so we are asking that people who have a problem with this look at our social charter and other movements we are involved with."

The Scottish Government's 2014 Social Attitudes Survey found that 58 per cent found the term 'h**' in casual conversation was unacceptable, 12 per cent said "it depends", 14 per cent said they have never heard of the term used to describe a Protestant and eight percent found it acceptable.