The Green Brigade’s annual Foodbank collection for the poorest and most deprived people in Glasgow was targeted by Police Scotland for parking their vans outside the stadium.

The vans were parked and ready to take all donations to Foodbanks when they were approached by Pokice and traffic wardens.

A first hand account we had from someone helping to run the food drive claimed the Police even lied and told them Celtic had complained about the vans being parked – something that was completely false.

Police Scotland targeted the fans and contacted traffic wardens in order to hand out fines to the vans.

A spokesperson for the council had the brass neck to put out this statement:

“Parking restrictions are in place around Celtic Park on match day to ensure key routes are kept clear for emergency service vehicles at all times.

“On Sunday Police Scotland made our parking enforcement team aware of a number of vehicles parked on London Road next to Celtic Park, which were in breach of these restrictions.

“Our parking attendants spoke to the drivers of the vehicles and asked that they move on from the restricted area.

“Only when the drivers refused to move on were penalty charge notices issued against the vehicles blocking a route for emergency vehicles on match day.

“We received no request for a dispensation for the vehicles to be parked at this location at this time.

“But we will liaise with the club and Police Scotland to ensure such vehicles can be parked appropriately in future.”

Police Scotland knew exactly what they were doing. It’s become a pattern for them to harass football fans. Had this not been the Green Brigades food drive, common sense would have prevailed and the vans would have been allowed to sit for a short period while they were loaded to take to foodbanks.

It’s deplorable they issued fines and are now and the council are now sticking by them despite knowing why the vans were there.

This is happening in the back drop of Celtic looking to appoint Bernard Higgins to a role at the club. The police chief helped head up the harassment of football fans for nearly a decade with the now defunct Offensive behaviour act.