Swinney condemns weekend football violence as ‘utterly unacceptable’

First Minister John Swinney has condemned the violence across the country by football fans at the weekend as “utterly unacceptable”.

A number of Celtic fans caused disruption on Saturday as thousands descended on Glasgow city centre to celebrate the club’s Scottish Premiership title win.

Across the day, nine arrests were made, while 15 were charged with offences including being in possession of pyrotechnics or offensive weapons, assault and public order.

Six fixed penalty notices and four recorded police warnings were also issued after the 1-1 game with St Mirren.

On the same day, Aberdeen defender Jack MacKenzie was seriously injured by a Dons fan who threw part of a chair onto the pitch during the match against Dundee United at Tannadice, which the home team won 2-1.

Asked about the violence, the First Minister told journalists: “The incident at Tannadice is absolutely and totally unacceptable and it shows the implications and the impact of reckless behaviour.

“Now, that’s obviously got to be pursued by the football authorities and by the police.”

Police Scotland described the incident as a “mindless act” and urged witnesses to come forward.

Meanwhile, in Glasgow, Celtic fans held an unofficial celebration despite warnings from the club, police and the council not to go ahead with it.

Trongate and Glasgow Cross were packed with supporters, a “significant majority” of whom the police said were “highly intoxicated”.

Speaking about the disruption on Monday, Mr Swinney said: “The disorder that took place in Glasgow as part of the celebrations of Celtic’s performance this year is equally unacceptable.

“All of us want football to take its course, for people to enjoy celebrating their club’s success and their club’s performance but it shouldn’t involve such implications for other people, for other communities, but it certainly shouldn’t involve any form of behaviour that leads to damage and injury to other individuals.”

Asked about his previous stance against alcohol being introduced at football grounds, he added: “I’m not going to change our position on alcohol at football grounds and I think what we’ve seen at the weekend is just too many examples of disorderly behaviour that has an impact on other members of the public.

“Now, I understand why people want to support and celebrate the performance of their football teams and I don’t want to take away from that in any way, shape or form but that can’t be, surely, acceptable for it to be undertaken when it damages and disrupts the lives of others and causes injury to others – that’s completely unacceptable.”