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POLICE in Glasgow are planning on removing domestic abusers from their homes ahead of the Old Firm derby this weekend.

Sunday’s match will be the first time Rangers and Celtic have played each other since February 2015, which saw them face-off in the League Cup semi-final, which Celtic won 2-nil.

In the past, Old Firm derbies have resulted in a spike in incidents of domestic abuse, but offices say this did not happen during and after last year’s match.

Police Scotland say serial offenders will be targeted ahead of Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi final.

The Times reports that people who are facing trial, charged with assault, or those who have been released on licence from prison will be the ones who detectives are interested in.

Detective Chief Inspector Sam McCluskey is head of the national Domestic Abuse Task Force. He told The Times: “What we’re trying to do is keep domestic abuse victims and their children safe. To do that, rather than managing the risk by just going out to attend incidents, we are trying to remove the risk by removing the perpetrator.

“What we’re going to try and do this time is capture some information around it that will be data that will allow us to actually measure whether or not it was related to the game, because now, we don’t know that.”

Officers are also keeping a close eye on known hooligans ahead of the Old Firm Scottish Cup semi final , checking what they’ve been saying in ‘locked’ fan forums.

Police want to avoid a repeat of the violent scenes seen the last time the two Glasgow giants met, which saw 37 arrests.