Scotland’s football clubs have been urged to take action to prevent match day stewards from being violently attacked by fans inside stadiums in future in the wake of the crowd trouble which flared at the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup quarter-final at Ibrox.
There was disorder before, during and after the last eight encounter between Rangers and Celtic, whose supporters were handed 7,500 tickets for the Broomloan Stand for the first time in eight years, in Govan nine days ago.
Fans of the Parkhead club forced their way through disabled access gates, vandalised the ground with graffiti which mocked the victims of the 1971 Ibrox Disaster, damaged seats and threw missiles at Emmanuel Fernandez and his team mates after the centre-half scored a disallowed goal in extra-time.
Hundreds of away supporters invaded the pitch and destroyed trackside LED advertising hoardings after Tomas Cvancara had netted the winning penalty in a shootout to consign the hosts, who had dominated all 120 minutes of the tie, to a devastating defeat.
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Seeing followers of their ancient adversaries celebrating at their ground prompted hundreds of Rangers fans, who had pelted Daizen Maeda and his team mates with objects after the forward had netted a second half goal that was chalked off, to force their way onto the playing surface.
They attacked rival players and coaching staff, threw lit pyrotechnics, coins and bottles into the Broomloan Stand and physically assaulted stewards and police officers before order was finally restored. Nine people were arrested during the worst unrest to be witnessed at a football match in this country since the 2016 Scottish Cup final.
Video footage of one balaclava-wearing Rangers ultra punching a steward in a high visibility jacket on the pitch and then running away to avoid being apprehended went viral on social media following the cup tie and drew widespread condemnation.
The SFA, the tournament organisers, have commissioned an independent review panel to carry out an investigation into the shocking scenes which broke out after the game and Police Scotland have also convened a special team to examine the reasons for the affray and set up a major incident portal online.
Lilian Macer - the Scottish secretary of UNISON, the trade union which represents a wide variety of workers in both the public and private sector – was appalled by the treatment which stewarding staff were subjected to at a match which was broadcast live across the United Kingdom by Premier Sports.
She would like to see clubs and the authorities do far more to prevent stewards, several of whom were hospitalised as a result of the injuries which they sustained during the last eight tie, from being harmed at football matches going forward.
Amid calls for encroaching onto the pitch at a football match to be made a specific criminal offence in Scotland, as it currently is in England and Wales, she also appealed for the individuals responsible for the unrest which broke out following the showpiece derby match at Ibrox to be punished accordingly.
“No one should be assaulted at work,” said Macer. “No matter what their role is. These are low paid workers putting themselves in harm's way to keep the rest of us safe.
“UNISON research shows that there were more than 75,000 assaults on Scotland’s public service workers in past year - that’s at least 200 assaults every day.
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“Employers and the Scottish government must learn from this awful event and take every action to protect staff too. That means using the full force of the law, learning from what happened, following up appropriately and supporting each worker affected.”
UNISON produce an annual violence at work report which is based on Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to local authorities and health boards as well as other public sector bodies which are subject to FOI legislation. They found there had been a 15 per cent increase in incidents last year.
“Violence at work is a big issue in public services across Scotland,” added Macer. “Staff are increasingly bearing the brunt of frustration from the public, often due to delays, staff shortages or services being cut altogether.
"Yet those carrying out these shameful attacks won’t have given a second thought to how stressful it is for NHS, police staff, security workers or council staff who are already stretched to the limit.
"Paramedics and accident and emergency staff are struggling to deal with long queues, NHS staff are coping with the worst waiting times since devolution and custody staff at police stations are overworked. It’s totally unacceptable that this dreadful behaviour adds to this too.”
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