Scottish police investigating hate crime reports following Sunday's Old Firm Rangers v Celtic clash at Ibrox... but won't say what they were about

However, they have not said how many they received, nor what they were about – nor whether the number of reports is greater than the last time the teams met before Scotland’s hate crime bill entered force.

Police Scotland indicated there had been a small number of reports, but didn’t give any further detail.

The last time the teams met was on December 30 at Celtic Park.

Sunday’s clash was at Ibrox (a 3-3 draw), and had been preceded by remarks from Rangers legend Ally McCoist that he and the team’s supporters as a whole would breach the new hate crime bill, which entered force on April Fools’ Day.

It was not clear what he meant by the remark, and in the event he did not attend the game anyway.

However it came amid intense criticism of the act, including from such big media figures as JK Rowling, Elon Musk, and US podcaster Joe Rogan (who called the act “crazy” and people behind it “f**king kooks”).

In short the act makes it easier for the state to criminalise people for things they say, if those things are deemed “abusive” towards a particular group of people as defined by race, nationality, or – controversially – their claims to be transgender or “non-binary”.

It extends existing law and on the subject of religion too; in particular it makes it theoretically possible to jail someone for seven years if they are deemed to have “stirred up hatred” against a group of people based on “religion or, in the case of a social or cultural group, perceived religious affiliation”.

This is particularly relevant to Old Firm games, given the historic association of Celtic with Catholics and Rangers with Protestants.

As previously reported, Northern Ireland is expected to get its own hate crime bill at some point, after Alliance leader and justice minister Naomi Long indicated it was high on her agenda:

• Naomi Long pressing ahead with Northern Irish hate crime bill amid Scottish furore - and it may contain the same things that sparked protests in Scotland