Rangers boss Steven Gerrard hails 'class' response from Celtic and rest of Scottish football to Glen Kamara race row

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has expressed his pride and gratitude for the collective show of support throughout Scottish football for his midfielder Glen Kamara.

Steven Gerrard issues intructions to his Rangers players during their 1-1 draw against Celtic at Celtic Park on Sunday afternoon. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

UEFA are investigating the alleged racist abuse of Kamara by Slavia Prague defender Ondrej Kudela during the Europa League match at Ibrox last Thursday.

The sense of outrage caused by the incident, along with subsequent social media abuse of Kamara and some of his team-mates, prompted several Scottish Premiership teams to stand tall rather than take the knee before their games on Saturday.

Celtic and Rangers both did likewise ahead of their 1-1 draw at Parkhead on Sunday, while home captain Scott Brown also made a point of approaching Kamara and giving him his backing during the warm-ups.

Celtic's David Turnbull and Glen Kamara of Rangers tussle for midfield superiority during the Old Firm match at Celtic Park on Sunday. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

“I thought it was class and I thought it was class from both clubs,” said Gerrard. “Credit to all the people representing Celtic today.

“We knew what we were going to do. I spoke to Connor Goldson and James Tavernier on Saturday and they told me what they wanted the team to do and I backed them 100 percent. We need to change things and I believe we will eventually. We just need to keep pushing.

“Glen has had some fantastic support and we as a club have had fantastic support. The reaction from Scottish football has been brilliant.

“I saw other clubs getting involved in the last few days and making it clear they’re not accepting it and are striving to improve things.

“It’s made me really proud to be part of Scottish football, even more so than I’d been.

“I have always been proud to be part of the game up here, representing Rangers and doing this job.

“But the last few days have made me feel really, really proud given the reaction from around the country. It’s been fantastic. It feels different, so credit to everyone who has played a part in that.”

Kamara played the full 90 minutes at Celtic Park and was warmly praised afterwards by his manager.

“He’s fine and I knew he’d be fine,” added Gerrard. “I know the kid, I know his character, having built a really strong relationship with him.

“He doesn’t want attention, he just wants to go about his business. He didn’t deserve what happened. It was bang out of order. He was deeply, deeply upset but his reaction has been fantastic because he wants to move on and he wants to play football.”

Gerrard was content with the outcome for his still undefeated Premiership title winners at Celtic Park in a match dominated by the hosts in terms of possession and chances created.

“I wish people knew what we’d been through in the last two or three weeks,” he said. “We’ve done a bit of partying, we’ve done a bit of travelling and we’ve had tough games.

“We knew coming here that there would be times when we had to suck it up and soak it up. We were playing against good players, so they would always have passages of play.

“But the proud thing for me is that our players never gave up and they kept fighting. We were still going end to end in the last 30 minutes trying to win a game. We couldn’t do that but it’s still a positive result.”

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