Brendan Rodgers voices concerns over Celtic airport security

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers during a press conference at Lerkendal Stadium in Trondheim, Norway. Picture: Ole Martin Wold / NTB scanpix via AP

As the Scottish champions flew out to Norway from Glasgow on Tuesday Leigh Griffiths was involved in a spat.

A man at Glasgow airport shouted “paedo” at the striker who responded by saying: “Your club’s deid mate, beat it”, a reference to Rangers’ liquidation in 2012.

Rodgers wouldn’t be drawn on the Griffiths incident but voiced his concern on airport security for his team who face Rosenborg in a Champions League qualifier in Trondheim on Wednesday.

The Celtic manager said: “First of all I don’t want to comment on any incident. I haven’t seen it, I haven’t heard about it.

“The second thing is that the club know my feelings on our travel and our organisation with that.

“That’s something that’s obviously internal for us but hopefully with the help of Glasgow Airport we can get something that’s maybe more suitable.

“Incident or no incident, I just think it’s something we can look at that allows us to travel and travel safely. That’s the most important thing.”

Asked if he thought there were times his players were at risk at airports, he replied: “I think any team would.

“Any team in any airport in the world - going from the first entry at the airport right the way through where you have to pass every element in the airport. That’s every restaurant and every bar.

“In a busy period there’s always a risk. That’s not just as Glasgow airport but at any airport.

“But we would hope that maybe with the help of the airport we could organise something.

“If there was an incident then that’s certainly not something we would want. It’s not something any team should need to go through, really. You want to get in, get checked in, get to your plane and then fly to whichever country you’re travelling to. And you want to do it safely.”