Ally McCoist says police will need to arrest him and 48,000 Rangers fans, if they are to enforce Scotland’s ‘crazy’ new hate crime law, ahead of their game against rivals Celtic on Sunday

Ally McCoist has slammed Scotland’s new hate crime law and expects to break it – along with 48,000 Rangers fans – in this Sunday’s crunch Old Firm derby with Celtic.

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, which came into force on Monday, created a new crime of ‘stirring up hatred’ relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has already challenged the police to arrest her if they believe she has committed an offence after she described several transgender women as men. Rowling said ‘freedom of speech and belief’ would end as a result of the new legislation.

Former Scotland and Rangers striker McCoist, 61, described the new law as ‘madness’, pointing out those in attendance at Ibrox this weekend will be at high risk of breaching it.

The fixture is notorious for sectarian chanting. Celtic’s roots are embedded in Catholicism while Rangers supporters are typically associated with Protestantism, harking back to when settlers from Belfast first arrived in Glasgow. 

There will be no love lost when the two bitter rivals meet at Ibrox on Sunday, although only Rangers fans will be in attendance 

Harry Potter author and gender critic JK Rowling has already dared Scottish police to arrest her in a tirade against the new law, which came into effect on Monday

Critics of the new Hate Crime Act say it could be used to stifle free speech and that gender-critical activists could be jailed for using the wrong pronoun for a transgender person.

The bill, first approved in 2021 but only now coming into effect, creates a new offence of ‘stirring up hatred’ for which the maximum penalty is seven years in jail.

The act says a person can be found guilty if they communicate material or behave in a way ‘that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive’, with the intention of stirring up hatred based on the protected characteristics.

Previous clashes between Celtic and Rangers – known as the ‘Old Firm’ – have seen supporters hang effigies, chant sectarian songs and brandish offensive banners.

When the teams played each other for the first time in four years in September 2016, Celtic supporters hung blow-up sex dolls from the top tier of the club’s Jock Stein Stand – accompanying them with the message: ‘This is it Bhoys, this is war’.

A banner was also displayed in the stadium’s Green Brigade ultras section, reading: ‘Know your place. Hun scum.’

Meanwhile, Rangers fans sang the Billy Boys song, which has been banned at Scottish grounds since 2011, with its line: ‘We’re up to our knees in F****n’ blood.’

Scotland manager Steve Clarke has spoken about sectarian taunts from Rangers supporters over his Catholic upbringing, when facing the club as Kilmarnock boss.

Celtic head across Glasgow leading the Scottish Premiership table by just a point from their bitter rivals Rangers, who retain game in hand.

There will be no Celtic fans in attendance at Ibrox this time but away allocations will return next season after a truce was reached between the two clubs.

McCoist told talkSPORT today: ‘We’ve got a hate bill by the way, a hate bill has been passed in the country.

‘And I can guarantee you, next Sunday at Ibrox, I along with 48,000 will be committing a breach of that hate bill in the particular Rangers vs Celtic game we are all going to. It is madness.’

McCoist believes the new law is unpopular with the police because it is impossible to enforce.

‘That’s exactly what the police think about it. The police spokesperson has come out and more or less said that,’ he added.

The Scottish Government’s Hate Crime and Public Order bill, which comes into force on Monday, will criminalise threatening behaviour that stirs up hatred against people because of their characteristics

The Harry Potter author ridiculed the legislation a string of tweets on X where she sarcastically urged her followers to respect ‘lovely Scottish lass’ Isla Bryon – a convicted double rapist

‘He obviously can’t because he’ll get himself in trouble. He’s implied it – everybody with two brain cells in their head knows it’s absolute madness, crazy.

‘There is nobody in our country who thinks that is a good idea, who I have spoken to.’

Harry Potter author and prominent gender critic Rowling posted a string of tweets on X where she sarcastically urged her followers to respect ‘lovely Scottish lass’ Isla Bryson – a convicted double rapist.

In another, she ridiculed the new legislation by referring to Katie Dolatowski, a transgender paedophile who assaulted children in supermarket toilets, as ‘fragile flower’ who was ‘rightly sent to a women’s prison in Scotland’.

Rowling sarcastically highlighted other trans women who had been convicted of crimes.

She said Samantha Norris – a transgender charity worker who was jailed for possessing thousands of ‘abhorrent’ child abuse images – was ‘still a lady to me’.

In other posts she scoffed at those who had been given high-profile roles to represent women, such as UN Women selecting Munroe Bergdorf as its first ever UK champion.

She wrote: ‘What makes a woman “a woman” has no definitive answer, says Munroe. Great choice, UN Women!’

Rowling said in a lengthy statement on X: ‘The re-definition of ‘woman’ to include every man who declares himself one has already had serious consequences for women’s and girls’ rights and safety in Scotland, with the strongest impact felt, as ever, by the most vulnerable, including female prisoners and rape survivors.

‘It is impossible to accurately describe or tackle the reality of violence and sexual violence committed against women and girls, or address the current assault on women’s and girls’ rights, unless we are allowed to call a man a man.

Nearly 50,000 Rangers fans will pack into Ibrox on Sunday for the crucial Old Firm game

‘Freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal.’

The author said that while she is out of the country, her series of tweets this morning ‘qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act’.

She added: ‘I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment.’