After Deila hits out at fans will Warburton condemn songs of hate?

Celtic moved swiftly and decisively to deal with the idiots that caused problems at Stranraer on Sunday.

Within 24 hours of letting off smoke bombs, or pyro as it is now known, three supporters had been identified and banned for life by the club.

That was after Ronny Deila had made his and the club’s view on the matter crystal clear. Deila has enough on his plate to deal with but was blunt and straight to the point on the subject. No fudging. The club statement on the matter was similarly straight talking, no deflectiing, no ducking and diving around the matter.

With the SFA and Police Scotland weighing in there can be no doubting how seriously the issue is being dealt with.

The swift action following Sunday’s match at Stranraer contrasts sharply with the softly softly approach to THOUSANDS of supporters singing their hatred for Catholics and about their joy in being knee deep in their blood.

On December 28 BT Sport and Radio Scotland broadcast the anthem of hate from Ibrox without a single word of comment never mind an apology.

Three days later, after praising the wonderful backing of their fans at the match, Sevco came out with a half hearted statement on the issue which seemed more designed at avoiding punishment than tackling the problem. There wasn’t a word of condemnation from Mark Warburton on the subject.

In 2006 UEFA instructed the SFA that The Billy Boys had to be banned from football, in over 100 years no sanctions had been dished out for anti-catholic singing or a similar signing policy.

Commenting on the signing in the match against Hibs the club stated: “Rangers believes it is appropriate at this time to remind everyone of the Club’s position on anti-social behaviour within football grounds.

“The Club operates a zero tolerance policy and continues to work tirelessly via the Follow with Pride campaign while supporting all initiatives aimed at tackling this problem.

“The football authorities and Police Scotland know the Club is committed to eradicating all forms of unacceptable behaviour and it is disappointing that a minority engaged in inappropriate singing during the match against Hibernian at Ibrox Stadium on Monday, December 28.

“At every home and away pre-match operations meeting unacceptable conduct is included on the agenda with the attention of both the Police and Stewards drawn to the need to deal with this matter robustly.

“The Club will assist Police Scotland in identifying those responsible for the unacceptable behaviour on Monday.”

Despite the club assisting Police Scotland and having details of 33,000 season ticket holders there has been no further comment on those responsible for ‘unacceptable behaviour’.

At Sunday’s match against Cowdenbeath it was reported that the leaders of the Sons of Struth fans group were invited to the laughing labelled Loving Cup ceremony. Sandy Chugg, the son of Struth with the lower media profile but longer criminal record was present in the Blue Room of unsurpassed dignity to toast Her Majesty, Mr Chugg has twice been given lifetime bans from attending matches at Ibrox and has spent time in Her Majesty’s pleasure.

Should Sevco be serious about dealing with ‘inappropriate singing’ at their matches they have one man whose words their supporters hang onto more than anyone else.

Perhaps Mr Warburton can announce to his audience how much he dislikes hearing them singing The Billy Boys, and why the song is wrong and offensive. Over to you Warbo.