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 rejected Scotland’s new hate crimes law and expects to break it – along with 48,000 Rangers fans – in Sunday’s thrilling 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 ‘fomenting hatred’ in relation to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or intersex.

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

Former Scotland and Rangers striker McCoist, 61, described the new law as ‘madness’ and pointed out that those in attendance at Ibrox this weekend are at high risk of breaking it.

The fixture is notorious for its sectarian chants. Celtic’s roots are embedded in Catholicism, while Rangers followers are generally associated with Protestantism, harkening back to when settlers from Belfast first arrived in Glasgow.

In previous clashes between the two rivals – known as the ‘Old Firm’ – supporters hung effigies, sang sectarian songs and waved offensive banners.

When the teams played each other for the first time in four years in September 2016, Celtic supporters hung inflatable dolls from the top floor of the club’s Jock Stein stand – and accompanied them with the message: ‘This is the Bhoys, this is war’.

A banner was also displayed in the Green Brigade ultra section of the stadium that read: ‘Know your place. Their scum.”

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

Scotland manager Steve Clarke has spoken of sectarian abuse from Rangers supporters due to his Catholic upbringing when he faced the club as Kilmarnock boss.

Celtic head through Glasgow to lead the Scottish Premiership table by just one point ahead of their bitter rivals Rangers, who control the match.

There will be no Celtic fans at Ibrox this time, but away games will return next season after a truce is reached between the two clubs.

McCoist told talkSPORT today: “We have a hate law by the way, there has been a hate law passed in the country.

‘And I can guarantee you that next Sunday at Ibrox I will be breaking the hate law along with 48,000 people in the particular match we are all going to between Rangers and Celtic. It’s madness.’

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

‘That’s exactly how the police feel about it. The police spokesperson came out and more or less said that,” he added.

‘He clearly can’t do that, because then he will get into trouble. He suggested it: anyone with two brain cells in their head knows that it is absolute madness, insane.

“There is no one in our country that I have talked to who thinks that is a good idea.”

Harry Potter author and prominent gender critic Rowling posted a series of tweets on

In another, she ridiculed the new legislation by calling Katie Dolatowski, a transgender pedophile who attacked children in supermarket toilets, a “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 jailed for possessing thousands of “abhorrent” child abuse images – was “still a lady to me”.

In other posts, she mocked those who had been given high-profile roles representing women, such as UN Women who picked Munroe Bergdorf as the first ever British champion. She wrote: “What makes a woman ‘a woman’ has no definitive answer, says Munroe. Good choice, UN Women!’

Rowling said in a lengthy statement about impact, as always. , by the most vulnerable, including female prisoners and rape survivors.

“It is impossible to accurately describe or address the reality of violence and sexual violence against women and girls, or to address the current attack on the rights of women and girls, unless we can call a man a man.

‘Freedom of speech and belief will 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 offense under the terms of the new law.”

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