“If you hate the f***ing polis clap your hands,” rang the chant from thousands of fans who had travelled from Glasgow to see Rangers play Hearts at Tynecastle.
It was not much of a welcome for the frontline officers who had come with them from Glasgow, and were tasked with getting them to the game safely.
Rather than being an isolated incident, it is something that for too long has come with the territory for police managing Scotland’s high-stakes football matches.
The song was just one that greeted Stacey* as one of the officers policing the game.
“It was meant to be frightening. The songs, men masked up. It can be intimidating,” she recalls.
Football violence is back in the headlines, after police officers and fans were injured following the Old Firm Scottish Cup pitch invasion in March.
Stacey, who recently retired from the force after 26 years in frontline policing, worked at hundreds of games, from Scotland’s national team to big European nights at Celtic Park and Ibrox, as well as more routine SPL matches.
Her duties included segregation, manning turnstiles, trying to prevent fans ‘doubling up’ by passing through the barrier on one ticket, as well as policing the footprint of the stadium, speaking to fans outside and spotting trouble.
Games are ranked on a risk scale, with the ‘red’ most potentially explosive games requiring a huge police response.
While the Old Firm attracts the most attention, violence and disorder is not confined to matches between Rangers and Celtic.
In fact, Stacey says the worst experience she had was a game between Rangers and Aberdeen.
“We were in the middle of fans, screaming at each other, throwing things, throwing coins,” she tells 1919.
It is a long way from her first experience back in 2004, as part of a team policing at Celtic Park.
“That was an electric, positive experience. The stadium was full and everyone was singing. It can be amazing. There are times that it feels like a special thing to be part of.
“I’ve been at Scotland games at Hampden. You get fans swapping scarves and taking pictures. It’s positive. Everyone is happy. It’s a good vibe.
“But there is this other side of it. The hatred. You see kids being brought along too.”
Former police officer
Inside the grounds, she says officers often face “unpredictable” situations, with potential for trouble linked to alcohol, as well as injuries to the crowd, players and police when missiles like coins are thrown, or fireworks are set off.
“We do a lot of intelligence gathering, we know who the ringleaders are and where they are going,” Stacey says.
“But it is still unpredictable. You don’t know what is going to happen when you step in there.”
What could make things safer for officers? Stacey, who was once injured while on duty at a game, points to several issues.
Firstly, she says, frontline officers are absorbing pressure from two directions.
“There are public order cops ready to go, but there’s an unwillingness to deploy them because of how it looks to the community.
“Secondly, there are fewer police at games, and the gaps are backfilled by inexperienced stewards. That means the police aren’t supported as well as they could be inside the stadium.”
Worryingly, a new frontier has developed, with fans taking pictures of officers and posting them online to try and identify them.
“When that started happening, I would start putting my snood up as I didn’t want to be identified. It just feels intimidating,” Stacey says.
“It feels like the hooligans are in charge. It’s so difficult to police. We are totally outnumbered. In a stadium with more than 30,000 fans you have maybe 300 officers.
“If you need to arrest someone, you can’t always do it straight away. You need to wait for an appropriate moment.”
Policing football involves far more than what happens in the stadium. Anyone who has been in one of Scotland’s major cities on a Saturday afternoon will know there is an increased police presence needed in city centres, both before and after the games.
The knock-on impact includes officers diverted from routine duties, or non-uniformed police being moved onto the front line for games.
“I’m not a football fan. The first I really know about a game is my rota changing,” Stacey says.
“For big games, we’ll be lucky if one or two are left on from a team of eight. You have your rest days cancelled, or your shift pattern changed, and that leaves a gap for the rest of the team.”
Senior Police Scotland officers have echoed this in their reflections on the disorder that marred the recent Scottish Cup quarter final between Rangers and Celtic.
Assistant Chief Constable Alan Waddell told a recent SPA board meeting that policing football was diverting resources away from other areas.
“The impact of events and the impact of football brings a significant burden on policing,” he said.
“I cancel almost 20,000 rest days every year to police football and to police events, and that has a direct impact on our ability to deal with threat, risk and harm across the spectrum, the sphere, of what we are asked to do in the country.”
Over the past decades, robust street enforcement and strong intelligence-led policing have taken on football violence and tackled hooliganism.
But recent events, including March’s violence at Ibrox, and fighting between Celtic and Rangers fans in Glasgow city centre before Christmas, have raised fears that Scotland is going backwards on football-related violence.
Stacey says a lack of experience is a major issue for police at high pressure games. The twin crises of recruitment and retention is draining Police Scotland of much-needed experience at critical moments.
“When I joined the police, I had officers around me with 26 years’ service, we had 20 cops on a shift. But we are losing that experience, and we are losing bodies, and it shows,” she says.
That is a sentiment echoed by Jennifer*, a highly experienced detective who recently retired from the force. She describes the situation within Police Scotland as “chaotic”.
“Lots of cops have no idea about the layout of these stadiums and the surrounding area,” she says.
“This never happened years ago, but we had more numbers then. We have an awful lot of inexperienced cops who simply don’t know how to handle football crowds.
“That last [Old Firm] game was the first time that many of them would have had to deal with an angry crowd.
“You have officers being dragged from specialist roles to cover football. You never get to work with someone from your own department – it is always a stranger.
“We have cancelled rest days and change of roles frequently at the last minute.”
A passionate football fan herself, Jennifer watched events at Ibrox unfold with horror.
“It was the first time that that amount of away fans have been at Ibrox for years,” she explains.
“Fans were allowed to mix before and after the game with no proper segregation. There were supporters’ buses in the access road, and stairwells were blocked.”
Comments made by Chief Constable Jo Farrell point to a growing view that clubs need to step up to put a stop to the violence.
She told the SPA board meeting: “Most of the people are decent people who want to enjoy the game. Responsibility for safety in grounds lies with the clubs and the football authorities.
“It is our priority to ensure that the clubs and those who lead issues around safety step forward.”
ACC Waddell added: “This is about the environment that the football clubs and the football authorities create to make sure that fans and supporters know what’s acceptable within football grounds.”
He said he felt there were “genuine opportunities” to reduce police resourcing of football, but it needed to be done in a “measured and secure” way in partnership with clubs and football authorities.
This might be the only long-term solution to the violence and division that scars Scottish football, but it will be cold comfort to officers throughout the country who are preparing for the next game.
“Ultimately it is the ‘fans’ who are responsible,” Jennifer says. “It is Police Scotland’s job to respond properly to that and to properly prepare cops.”
*All officer names have been changed to protect their anonymity
