Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton has revealed the ‘ridiculous’ details, which saw him and ex Hoops boss Neil Lennon locked out of Ibrox on TV duty last Thursday.
Sutton was classed as a ‘security risk’ and denied entry to Ibrox as he prepared to cover both Celtic and Rangers games for BT Sports TV coverage. Writing in the Daily Record, the Englishman gave his side of the events which led up to the European ties during the week.
“To me, it just looks like Rangers have gone full Trump these days. It turns out their groundbreaking diversity and inclusion programme ‘Everyone Anyone’ doesn’t apply to former Celtic players.
“It’s just ridiculous. The security issue Stewart Robertson raised with BT just sounds like nonsense. The timeline doesn’t work for a start.
“We would have been inside Ibrox long before kick-off when there would not be many fans around. We would have been gone by half-time, so at no stage would we be walking into traffic.
“But by telling BT Sports there were security concerns, ask yourselves these questions?
“Where was the risk? Was it caused by two former Celtic players working as pundits at Ibrox as they have done on many occasions – or was Stewart Robertson questioning the behaviour of his own club’s supporters?”
He continued: “I know there was talk about anti-discrimination group FARE being in the stands, so was Robertson concerned there might have been some reaction to us that could have got them into trouble?
“If that’s the case, it says more about Rangers than it does about us.
“What does it say about Lennon? They don’t like him as a former Celtic manager who might have upset them from time to time.
“If they’re saying he’s a security risk now, what happens if he comes back as a manager of another Scottish team? Will they not be able to guarantee his safety then? That’s mind-blowing.
“But what if it’s not about this so-called security risk? What if it’s just because they don’t want anyone in to Ibrox who isn’t prepared to just say nice things about them? That’s even more ridiculous.”
It was indeed a bizarre series of events that took place on Thursday evening, which saw a change-up in the TV coverage for the Hoops game against Real Betis with Stylian Petrov coming into cover.
On a regular basis, we have seen pundits enter the ground on the day of Glasgow Derbies to provide coverage. So, why now was there a switch-up in attitude for Sutton ahead of this fixture.
You would imagine that the former Celtic frontman will continue to ask these questions, that is for sure.
