CRISIS POINT
Brown worried next pitch invader could be armed and dangerous
CELTIC captain Scott Brown last night voiced his fears that Scottish football’s next pitch invader could be carrying a weapon.
Brown admits he was horrified at the sight of Rangers skipper James Tavernier being confronted by a spectator as he prepared to take a throw-in during Friday night’s Premiership clash with Hibernian at Easter Road.
Brown was himself accosted by a Rangers supporter during an Old Firm match at Ibrox in April 2017 and concedes such occurrences are now taking place far too often — and causing damage to the Scottish game.
‘You just don’t realise it is happening when someone runs up to you,’ said Brown, speaking after Celtic’s 0-0 draw with Aberdeen at Parkhead yesterday. ‘Luckily enough, they don’t have something to hit you with because that is going to be the next thing — someone is going to run on the park and hit someone with something.
‘We have got to make sure that doesn’t happen.’
Brown’s words echoed the tenor of a statement issued by PFA Scotland in the wake of Friday night’s events.
Just a week earlier, his Celtic teammate Scott Sinclair had a glass bottle thrown at him from the same section of
the Hibs support as he prepared to take a corner in a Scottish Cup tie.
In the wake of two embarrassing and dangerous incidents, Hibs chief executive Leeann Dempster was again vocal in her condemnation on Friday evening. ‘It is a disgrace,’ added Brown. ‘You can’t have fans running on the park and trying to hit players or kick players or kick the ball. As Leeann says, it is not really a fan, it’s a hooligan more than anything.
‘Especially when someone is getting a bottle of Buckfast thrown at them. If that hits someone on the head, then the game ends up getting called off.
‘You don’t want to see that. You don’t want to see people getting hurt.
‘Usually it doesn’t happen that often in Scotland. Our football couldn’t be in a better place right now.
‘We have done well in the Champions League and the Europa League and we just need to get back to focusing on the football instead of individuals killing the game and making it more about them than it is about the teams.
‘It is down to individuals and it is hard to stop individuals.’