When Celtic fans turn up for a match day, they take everything for granted. The stadium opening on time, the kiosks serving food and the watered down Coca Cola being poured.
Police Scotland are heavily involved in the security of the stadium on match days along with standard stewards.
The cost to the club is huge for every time they open the stadium.
Police Scotland has released figures for last season and how much Celtic spent on policing their games – the bhoys shelled out a whopping £470,794.
Not every game cots the same to police and obviously high risk ties like Glasgow derbies or European nights means more out the purse of the club.
Chief Superintendent Sharon Milton spoke about matchday policing and how figures are met, cited by the Scottish Sun: “The home club or event organiser is responsible for their event and the safety of those attending.
“Any match is risk assessed on its merits and this determines resources deployed within the agreed footprint of the venue.
“Factors in this process are the clubs involved, the design, condition and layout of the stadium, the day of the week, kick-off time, previous fixtures between the sides and intelligence.”
It’s a complex operation that not everybody feels is value for money. The relationship between football fans and police isn’t the best.
Football supporters feel they get a rough ride from the Police and the government when it comes to a lot of issues. Heavy handedness and constantly recording supporters inside grounds is the source of much debate.
In comparison, we see rugby goers not subject to the same sort of scrutiny.
