Police called after referee Clancy abused following Celtic’s win over Rangers

Police have been called in after the referee Kevin Clancy received “threatening and abusive” messages in the wake of the clash between Celtic and Rangers on Saturday.

Michael Beale, the Rangers manager, claimed Clancy had got two major decisions wrong during his side’s 3-2 defeat, which left Celtic 12 points clear in the Scottish Premiership.

The Ibrox club subsequently wrote to the Scottish Football Association seeking an explanation for one of them, an early goal from Alfredo Morelos which was disallowed.

The SFA revealed on Monday that it had “referred a significant volume of threatening and abusive emails to Police Scotland after personal and professional contact details” of Clancy were published online following the game.

A statement added: “The association’s security and integrity manager has been liaising with Kevin and Police Scotland following a series of unacceptable messages being sent via email and phone over the holiday weekend. We offer our full support to Kevin and reiterate our wider support to the referee community.”

The SFA chief executive, Ian Maxwell, said: “The nature of the messages goes way beyond criticism of performance and perceived decision-making – some are potentially criminal in nature and include threats and abuse towards Kevin and his family.

“We have referred the correspondence to the police and condemn this behaviour in the strongest possible terms, as well as the posting of a referee’s personal details online with the sole purpose of causing distress.

“Football is our national game. It improves and saves lives. Without referees, there is no game, and while decisions will always be debated with or without the use of VAR, we cannot allow a situation to develop where a referee’s privacy