Fears over city centre ‘Auld Enemy’ violence

Thousands of English football fans are to flood into Glasgow before the clash with Scotland to collect match tickets, sparking fears of violence.

The FA has taken the decision not to post out the 5,000 briefs allocated to its supporters for next Tuesday’s powderkeg clash.

Instead it has asked people to travel to a city centre location to pick them up.

Fans have taken to messageboards to express concern at the plans while experts have warned it could create a flashpoint.

Former football casual Jason Marriner, once a member of the notorious Chelsea Headhunters gang, said: “The police will no doubt want this arrangement so that they can keep the fans in one place.

“They will resource the area heavily with bodies, but that’s not going to put people off. Despite what they say, there is concern about trouble.

“Hosting this sort of ticket point in a city means there’s bound to be the chance of damage, or bystanders being caught up.”

The Scotland-England game will be the first in Glasgow since a Euro 2000 playoff in 1999. It was marred by violence with more than 250 fans appearing in court charged with public order offences afterwards.

The Scottish Football Association dispatched the tickets for this month’s friendly at Celtic Park three weeks ago. But a spokesman for the FA said it had decided against posting them out.

He said: “There will be approximately 5,000 official England fans attending the game and the majority will be collecting the tickets from the FA in the host city, which is standard practice.

“As with any away game we have worked closely with the Scottish FA and Scottish police and will continue to work alongside them to ensure the appropriate measures are in place.”

Fears for a potential independence referendum backlash between the fans were raised after England’s Euro 2016 qualifier against Switzerland in September.

Choruses of “F— off Scotland, we’re voting yes” were sung during the game which Roy Hodgson’s players won 2-0.

UEFA did not take any action over the nationalistic chanting as it was not mentioned in the delegate’s report.

SFA chief executive Stuart Regan said: “Clearly playing England is a high-profile match that will carry a high-profile risk category, but we have nothing to suggest that it is anything to do with independence.”

The Tartan Army have raised concerns over potential trouble on internet forums.

One said: “Generally their fans are great but like Northern Ireland they do have a nasty element. How big that element is we will find out on Tuesday night.”

However, West of Scotland Tartan Army spokesman Hamish Husband said he thought the game would be trouble-free.

He added: “I’m not sure potential trouble makers will be prepared to travel for a fight on a Tuesday night.

A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “As with all big matches, both the city and the match will be policed appropriately.”