STEPHEN McGOWAN: Yes, Old Firm have to stamp out pyros, however they can not police Glasgow’s streets, too

Back in July, 50,000 music fans converged on Glasgow Green for the TRNSMT Festival. Over the course of three days, police made 40 arrests. A 16-year-old boy was admitted to hospital after sustaining serious injuries. Others were charged with drug taking and sexual assault.

There were no statements from First Minister John Swinney calling on organisers to get their house in order. No attempts to lay the blame for criminal acts at the feet of the promoters. No demands for fans of Gerry Cinnamon to self-police.

Before the Premier Sports Cup final last Sunday, neds in Santa hats rampaged down Argyll Street lobbing fireworks around like confetti. And the man who runs the country couldn’t stand in front of a camera quickly enough to tell Celtic and Rangers to sort it out.

Forget more bobbies on the beat, community wardens or fully-staffed CCTV cameras on every street corner. In the most conspicuous act of buck passing since Cyriel Dessers left Jack Butland to take a Hampden penalty, Swinney delegated responsibility for policing the streets of Glasgow to the city’s biggest football clubs.

It’s self-apparent Celtic and Rangers have a problem with their fan ultras. On one hand, the Green Brigade and the Union Bears bring noise, colour and atmosphere to stadia up and down the country. On the other they pollute the air with their offensive songs and illegal pyrotechnics.

Place their criminality in the confines of a football stadium and the onus is on the clubs to deal with it. When the criminality scares the bejesus out of Christmas shoppers three miles away the responsibility for keeping the peace resides with Police Scotland. It’s not the job of Brendan Rodgers and Philippe Clement to roam the streets of Glasgow city centre with a loud hailer appealing to feral teenagers to go home.

David Kennedy, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, blamed a lack of police officers for the violence and claimed it could all have been avoided if CCTV cameras in the area had been staffed in the hours before.

If he’s right, then that’s not an issue Celtic or Rangers are duty bound to confront. Accountability lies with a Holyrood administration guilty of a dereliction of duty.

No one disputes that the time has come for Scottish football to get to grips with criminal behaviour inside grounds. Pyrotechnics are not toys or a party poppers. They’re a threat to the welfare of players and spectators and they’re against the law.

Scotland’s justice system could always stop wagging fingers and ramp up the number of Football Banning Orders instead. While the number of FBOs issued by courts to hooligans in 2021-22 numbered 41, the number dropped to 27 in season 22-23. Last season there was just one.

This isn’t a problem unique to Scotland. With their fireworks, political activism and contempt for authority, fan ultras are becoming a headache across Europe.

Last year Newcastle fans were attacked in Paris, Brighton supporters were tear-gassed in Athens and four police officers were injured outside Villa Park after they were attacked by Legia Warsaw thugs.

UEFA employ a system of Strict Liability to punish clubs for the actions of fans who couldn’t give two hoots. Effectively a lucrative cash cow for Europe’s governing body, supporter groups couldn’t care less when their clubs are hit with another £30k fine. They don’t pay it.

The threat of closing stands usually tones things down for a bit, but not for long. When the threat recedes, they go back to singing the party tunes and chucking fireworks around like lit matches.

Despite pyrotechnics in football grounds becoming a criminal offence two years ago, the problem feels more acute than ever. And, if Police Scotland have no idea how to deal with it, it’s reasonable to ask John Swinney how he expects football clubs to shoulder the burden instead.

Chairmen see no reason why they should take responsibility for issues the criminal justice system won’t and, when it comes to bozos rampaging along Argyle Street, they have a point.

When it comes to sinister groups in balaclavas waving fireworks around stadia, however, the clubs have nowhere left to hide. It’s time to stand up and be counted.

If fines need to be paid, they should pay them. If stands need to close to send out a message, they should close them without complaint.

While Celtic and Rangers can’t be expected to police the streets of Glasgow, they have a responsibility to protect the safety of players and supporters in their own grounds. It’s time to smoke out the pyromaniacs once and for all.  

Hampden farce shows VAR is a waste of time and money 

Data-analytics experts expect artificial intelligence to replace referees inside 20 years.

If Scottish officials carry on as they are, they’ll be replacing them with wooden planks inside two.

Rangers have a right to be incensed by the latest VAR cock-up at Hampden.

The trouble here is that human error is an intrinsic part of the game. And the players who turned the Premier Sports Cup final into a brilliantly flawed spectacle are the living proof.

Greg Taylor passed the ball straight to Nedim Bajrami to gift Rangers the opening goal, then fell on his backside as the Ibrox side messed up a four-on-one early in the second half.

Nico Raskin poked his foot out at the wrong moment for Taylor’s equaliser, then erred with a defensive header to gift Celtic a 2-1 lead. Arne Engels? He might want to cover his eyes when he looks back at efforts to stop Mohamed Diomande’s leveller.

Celtic regained the lead for all of 21 seconds before they switched off and let Danilo in for 3-3.

Extra-time saw Rangers robbed of a penalty by an act of rampant incompetence by a three-man VAR team of Alan Muir, Frank Connor and Andrew Dallas before a penalty shoot out ended with Ridvan Yilmaz in tears after Kasper Schmeichel psyched him out from 12 yards.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a club statement decrying the human failings of players. They air their natural frustration, instead, on an expensive system designed to bring these interminable weeks of rancour and suspicion to an end.

So long as human beings are pushing the buttons in the VAR room at Clydesdale House, they’d be as well taking the cash into the street and pouring it down a manhole.

If it’s refereeing utopia clubs are after, then they’re looking in the wrong place. Human error is more rife as ever and, with every high-profile gaffe, VAR looks more and more like a complete waste of time and money.

Critchley’s villains deserved the panto jeers   

Christmas is on the way and Hearts fans have hit the boos early.

A home draw with Europa Conference League cannon fodder Petrocub triggered a chorus of panto jeering usually reserved for Captain Hook.

Knocked out of Europe on goals scored, the Jambos were given a 93-per-cent chance of progressing to the play-offs of the Conference League after the opening two games.

When Celtic were shipping seven goals to Borussia Dortmund and Rangers losing four goals to Lyon, Hearts were flying the flag with an away win in Minsk.

Their chances never dropped below 80 per cent until Serbians Backa Topola – no, me neither – scored three second-half goals against Noah of Armenia to consign Neil Critchley’s side to a depressingly mediocre exit.

There might be a more glaring example of a Scottish club mucking things up in Europe from a position of strength. Off the top of the head, it’s hard to think of one.