A SIX-FIGURE public cash award to Celtic and Rangers has come under fire amid council funding cuts to Glasgow's voluntary sector of £12million.
City council bosses handed the clubs a combined £100,000 for outreach work with school children weeks after the multi-million reduction in its funding for community groups.
The move by sparked calls by opposition leaders for the clubs to self-fund their Old Firm Alliance, with one high-profile campaign group accusing Celtic and Rangers of "picking and choosing the issues it has a conscience on" at taxpayers' expense.
A move by the council's SNP group to redirect the money to financial and legal advice centres in areas of multiple deprivation was overruled by the Labour administration, which has said it has a stake in the work the Old Firm carries out.
Both clubs have received millions from Glasgow City Council in the last decade for a variety of initiatives but this has been cut drastically in recent years due to a combination of both the squeeze on the public purse and grant compliance concerns.
The grants have been reduced in the past year from an annual £39,200 each to £25,000, with council sources suggesting this could come down further after 2018.
Glasgow City Council has recently faced a financial black hole of over £130m.
Launched in 2005, the Old Firm Alliance works mostly with youngsters of primary school age in Glasgow and uses a combination of free football and workshops on health, sectarianism, diversity and equality.
But last year the Scottish Government's expert group on sectarianism recommended that clubs need to step up to the plate and fund grassroots work themselves.
SNP group leader Susan Aitken said it had recommended the grants go to other recipients because the clubs were "considerably better placed than others to fund their own grassroots activities".
She added: "The Celtic and Rangers charitable foundations between them had an income of over £2 million last year. Do they really need to receive £50,000 a year from public funds when, for example, money and legal advice centres in communities like Castlemilk, Easterhouse and Possil are being hit with significant cuts to their Council grant funding?
"At a time when many smaller, community-based charities and service-providers are struggling to stay afloat, it’s surely not too much to ask large private businesses like football clubs to fund their own corporate social responsibility work."
Nil by Mouth campaign director Dave Scott said: "Both clubs clearly have a role in tackling this problem but I'm really not sure it should be at the taxpayers expense.
"The game cannot be allowed to pick and choose the issues it has a conscience on and seek handouts for work in some areas whilst burying its head in the sand on issues, such as sectarianism, where it is a big contributor to the problem."
A council spokesman insisted money was made to charitable foundations to "support valuable projects they deliver for younger people" rather than the clubs themselves.
He added: “Due to the pressure on our budgets, these specific grants have been cut substantially, while the vast majority of awards to community groups have been protected this year.”
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A Rangers spokeswoman said: “Rangers is uniquely placed to help deliver powerful benefits for the people of Glasgow and the local community and is proud of its achievements in delivering the Old Firm Alliance project.
“In relation to the budget cuts being implemented, it is worth noting that the £25,000 budget for the next two years represents a 36% cut to the Old Firm Alliance project.”
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