CALLS have been made for organised football fan zones in a bid to stop the ‘unacceptable’ scenes that followed Celtic’s Premiership triumph which left four cops injured.
Thousands of boozed-up Hoops fans gathered in the city on Saturday for a chaotic title knees-up that left the streets covered in debris.
Now the BBC has revealed Scottish Labour MSP Paul Sweeney has spoken to Celtic directors about “formalising events” to encourage partying fans against mass street gathering.
He reckons an organised event on Glasgow Green involving the team could be better managed with toilets and bars like at a major championship such as last year’s UCI cycling events.
Mr Sweeney said: “I think Glasgow needs to lean into this a bit more.
“We’re seeing on each occasion we are seeing around £90,000 of vandalism caused and clean-up costs.
“Let’s recognise that the combined contribution of Celtic and Rangers to Glasgow is hundreds of millions of pounds a year – it’s a Commonwealth Games every year in Glasgow.
“It’s a huge economic opportunity so let’s minimise the damaging effects.”
And he said the dominance of the Glasgow teams would allow an event to be organised well in advance.
He added: “A Glasgow team has won the Scottish Premiership every year for the last 40 years.
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“It’s a pretty safe bet it’s going to be in Glasgow so you can plan with a degree of certainty that it is going to happen and the branding can be changed over in fairly a late stage of the planning process.”
The Glasgow MSP spoke out as business owners in the Merchant City told of their anger at the damage and disruption caused as 25,000 turned the city into a no-go zone.
Trongate kids clothes shop Carriages and Castles had a windowsill broken from fans standing on it and closed up for the day due to the madness.
Shop boss Fiona said: “Customers can’t get in, it’s a children’s shop. You don’t want to bring children in to that, they get scared.
“The club should be held responsible for the damage that’s done. Could they not do that at their club grounds, because they wouldn’t damage that.”
Heather More, owner of Rose and Grants coffee shop, added “I do think the council should offer some sort of area for people to celebrate that’s not in the Trongate where there’s businesses just trying to trade as normal.”
Ms More added: “I understand [the council] don’t want to encourage people to celebrate but they know it’s going to happen.
“The disruption in the Trongate is embarrassing for the city.”
We told how four cops were injured and 19 people were arrested at a Celtic fans’ title party – where the chaos was slammed as “unacceptable”.
The booze-fuelled bash was marred by violent and antisocial behaviour – with footage shared online appearing to show a youth being knocked to the ground and a bus shelter wrecked.
Superintendent John Menzies said the celebrations continued “for a prolonged period of time”, adding: “Assaults on the public or police officers are unacceptable, and we continue to work to identify those responsible.”
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Local authority leader Susan Aitken tweeted: “Thanks to cleansing teams for their overnight clean-up.
“But it’s depressing and unacceptable that a significant number of grown adults are unable to celebrate their team’s success while also respecting fellow citizens and public property.”