A Rangers supporter who threw a coin at Celtic midfielder Arne Engels during a Glasgow Derby clash at Ibrox in January has avoided a prison sentence.
Cameron Douglas, 23, of Springburn, struck the Belgian international on the head with a coin during the second half of the game on January 2, 2025. Engels was preparing to take a corner near the Broomloan Road Stand when the incident occurred. The midfielder fell to the turf in a dazed state, prompting immediate medical attention and a brief pause in the match. He had a visible mark above his eye.
Douglas was later identified via CCTV. He handed himself in to the police after a media appeal and admitted to assaulting Engels. The court heard Douglas had been drinking heavily and was struggling with mental health issues at the time. He received a community payback order of 200 hours of unpaid work and a curfew tag. He was also banned from football stadiums for five years. [SunSport]
Engels later spoke about the incident back in January, saying: “It’s not really nice to experience things like that. You just want to play your game and enjoy football. It was not really enjoyable that night… but in the end, you need to get through.”
He added that while the pain was manageable, the experience was unsettling and had no place in football. “You are there to do your job… I think you guys never experience something like it, someone throwing coins at your head while working.”
This all comes as a Rangers fan threw a bottle at Vini Sinisalo and was jailed last week. Andrew Watt, 34, from Rutherglen, admitted to throwing a Buckfast bottle towards the Celtic goalkeeper. Watt, who also threw a cigarette, was jailed for 8 months.
