Rangers have to do more than just condemn the abuse directed at Kevin Clancy and ban those who threatened the whistler for life, according to former official Steve Conroy.
Police Scotland are investigating threats sent to Clancy after Saturday's Old Firm between Celtic and Rangers where he sparked fury by disallowing Alfredo Morelos' opening goal. The SFA turned over a number of abusive messages received by Clancy after his personal details were leaked online, noting some of them were "criminal in nature."
Cops confirmed they were looking into "hate mail" and are treating the matter with "the utmost seriousness." And Conroy, speaking on the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme, believes it should be treated with an iron fist .Rangers released a statement on Monday night saying they "condemn in the strongest terms any abuse of match officials" before going on to note they were "astonished" by the SFA who stood by Clancy's decision to disallow Morelos' opener.
And Conroy reckons simply condemning the abuse isn't enough - they have to do more. He said: "Whether the goal is allowed or not is a debatable fact but their supporters threatened to cause harm because of the result of that. I don't know what clubs can do but there's never too much action that you can take against people like this. Even though they are condemning it, they should be doing more than that. If these people are found they should at the very least be banned forever from the game of football.
"There's lots of different things that put people off from becoming referees. I don't think this will put people off from refereeing at Glasgow green on a Sunday morning but it will certainly make people think twice about whether they want to pursue it (as a career). It's brainless from these people. Brainless. It's criminal. If it was me and I was threatening to kill someone, I'd be charged with a criminal offence and they should be no different just because it's a referee.
"It's not Kevin's fault he's chosen to be a referee and it's certainly not his family's fault. If people are so simple-minded that they would threaten to kill someone over a game of football then they should be removed from society."
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