Celtic and Ofcom: FOI reveals Hoops are most complained about club in Britain

Celtic are the most complained about football team in Britain, according to a Freedom of Information request.

Statistics from Ofcom revealed that the Scottish Premiership side garnered 332 complaints – more than seven times that of nearest rivals Manchester United with 48 and more than 30 times the number of complaints registered about rivals Rangers between August 2019 and August 2020.

Of Celtic’s 332 complaints, virtually all resulted from the Hoops’ match against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park in January 2020, specifically after Leigh Griffiths’ goal celebrating in which he “shushed” former Rangers and Killie striker Kris Boyd.

The FoI, carried out by BuzzBingo, found that of the 605 total complaints made about sports TV programmes screened on Sky Sports, BT Sport, and ITV more than 80 per cent – 552 – concerned football matches.

The 'shush' that launched 328 complaints

The 457 complaints made about Griffiths’ celebration fell under the “generally accepted standards” category of complaint.

Manchester United and Manchester City received 48 and 41 complaints respectively, while Spurs and Chelsea made up the rest of the top five with 34 and 29 complaints.

Rangers garnered just ten Ofcom complaints – fewer than Sheffield United, Liverpool, and West Ham.

A total of 53 comlpaints – 7.7 per cent of the total – referenced racial discrimination while 29 complaints (4.2 per cent) concerned violence.

Offensive language received just 23 complaints – just over three per cent of the total.

Of the 605 complaints, 11 concerned “hypnotic and other techniques” although there was no information given on what these might have referred to.