Rangers and Celtic fork out £500k to police Old Firm games

Police Scotland have raked in an astonishing half a million pounds on policing Old Firm games in the last two years.

Celtic and Rangers shelled out £500k on policing at Old Firm matches. Picture: John Devlin

Between April 17, 2016 to December, 30 2017, Rangers, Celtic, the SFA and SPFl shelled out a total of £555,568.80 to keep fans safe inside Ibrox and Parkhead when the two teams clash.

During this period, Rangers spent £206,796.00 on officers for three matches, while Celtic spent £168,194.00, despite Parkhead having a bigger capacity.

The figures, released in a Freedom Of Information request by the Daily Record, do not include the money spent from the public purse by Police Scotland on deploying officers outside stadiums.

In a statement relating to cash spent on officers outside the stadiums, Police Scotland said: “No costs are calculated for the policing outwith the stadium.

“By way of explanation, Police Scotland does not record the total costs involved for the specific policing of a sporting fixture. The nature of policing means that officers and staff are deployed to wherever their services are most required.

“There will be officers who were involved in policing these fixtures as part of their routine daily duties and can be redeployed to other duties at any time.”

The shock figures come after six people were arrested following Sunday’s Old Firm clash at Ibrox where Celtic won 3-2.

Money spent on policing

April 17, 2016 - Celtic vs. Rangers £41,438.40 (SFA)

September 10, 2016 - Celtic vs. Rangers £50,448.00 (Celtic)

October 23, 2016 - Rangers vs. Celtic £70,864.80 (SPFL)

December 31, 2016 - Rangers vs. Celtic £74,390.40 (Rangers)

March 12, 2017 - Celtic vs. Rangers £56,143.20 (Celtic)

April 23, 2017 - Celtic vs. Rangers £68,275.20 (SFA)

April 29, 2017 - Rangers vs. Celtic £69,019.20 (Rangers)

September 23, 2017 - Rangers vs. Celtic £63,386.40 (Rangers)

December 30, 2017 - Celtic vs. Rangers £61,603.20 (Celtic)