PLANS to turn schools into detention centres for football hooligans were hatched by Labour ministers in the 1970s, newly declassified documents reveal.

Senior members of Jim Callaghan’s government were so concerned about the behaviour of football supporters north of the border that they wanted to lock up troublemakers on match days. The plans were drawn up after Scottish football was plagued by a series of violent incidents by fans throughout the 1970s, culminating in the destruction of the Wembley goalposts by members of the Tartan Army in 1977.

Ministers believed that known troublemakers should be locked up on match days to prevent them causing trouble within and outside football grounds.

Rather than building detention centres, however, politicians suggested schools and other buildings unoccupied at weekends could be used to detain the thugs.

The proposals were set out in a report written by Bruce Millan, Labour’s Scottish secretary, in December 1978 for Merlyn Rees, the then home secretary.

It suggested giving sheriffs powers to send fans convicted of hooliganism offences to the centres every Saturday during the football season.

“The offender would be required to report to the centre, to remain there for a period of three hours, to run from half an hour before kick off,” wrote Millan.

The plans were advanced by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government the following year, but never introduced.

Three centres were planned for Glasgow, two in Edinburgh and one each in Aberdeen and Dundee.

Ernie Walker, secretary of the Scottish Football Association from 1977 to 1990, said he recalled proposals to establish detention centres. “The main problem we had in the 1970s was between Celtic and Rangers’ fans,” he said.

“The Football Association wasn’t clamouring for detention centres, although they may have been helpful. I suspect the reason they didn’t get off the ground was that the police weren’t keen on dozens of people having to report to them on Saturday afternoons.”

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