Former referee Hugh Dallas has claimed football fan threats have been made "100 times worse" by social media as he blasted abuse faced by Kevin Clancy.
The Scottish FA official was targeted by supporters after Celtic's 3-2 win over Rangers on Saturday with Police Scotland launching an investigation into alleged threatening communications.
Hampden chief Ian Maxwell had revealed threats had been made to Clancy and his family with details of a referee's address shared online.
Dallas - who required a police cordon at his family home after a Celtic vs Rangers clash - was previously struck with a coin during a derby match and left bleeding after the incident.
But he reckons abuse has only gotten worse in the time since the horror incident 24 years ago.
He told the Daily Record: “I think social media has made it 100 times worse than it was in my time.
“Thankfully, in my day, we didn’t have to contend with that. Yes, you’d get the odd phone call from or a text message from somebody who had managed to get hold of your mobile number. But you just deleted it and it was finished.
“But now it’s out of control. If some moron is going to take the time to find out the referee’s contact details, I don’t want that guy turning up at my door. Because he’s obviously unstable and that’s pretty frightening.
“It’s quite sad that you’ve got this type of person out there who obviously thinks it makes them feel better to get involved in this kind of stuff. But the impact it has on the individual, on his family life, his personal life and his business life is not pleasant at all.
“We can talk about how it affects recruitment and retention – and it will – but at the end of the day there’s a poor guy in the eye of the storm here and he has a family and a business. It’s just not on.
“The game finished at 2:30 on Saturday afternoon and that’s when his work should have been done. But here we are facing a situation which is spiralling out of control.
“Of course, people will always want to debate and discuss the big moments in matches – that’s what football is all about – but this level of abuse is something the game should not tolerate. When you’ve these cowards who go to the trouble of finding out contact details and posting them online, the situation becomes totally unacceptable.”
He added: “...it was terrible. My family certainly never signed up for that. Neither did Kevin Clancy’s family."
Ian Maxwell, Scottish FA Chief Executive: “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 and safety, and those of his family, are compromised.
“We all have a responsibility to protect our game and those essential to it.”
A Police Scotland statement on Tuesday read: "We are investigating alleged threatening communications which were reported to us by the SFA today.
"All reports of this nature are treated with the utmost seriousness and will be investigated thoroughly.
"We will provide support to those affected as our investigation progresses."
