RANGERS supporters tonight hoisted a banner blasting the SNP over strict rules on football fans amid Omicron cases across the UK.

Thousands of fans had initially been locked out of matches from December 26 due to a rapid rise in the Covid variant in Scotland with large outdoor events limited to just 500 spectators.

The Covid curbs led to Scottish Premiership clubs voting to bring forward the winter break to follow the fan-limited Boxing Day fixtures.

Nicola Sturgeon then announced on January 11 that football could return to capacity crowds but with two major changes to entry requirements.

Firstly, organisers of events are now required to check the vaccination status of at least 1,000 and up to 50 per cent of those attending the event. 

It means matches with 60,000 spectators will be required to have 30,000 of those attending checked for Covid vaccine certification.

Events with just over 1,000 will have to carry out the minimum 1,000 person check threshold under the new rules.

The second change was to the vaccination certification itself. Ms Sturgeon announced that new rules require those attending events to have received the booster jab in order to qualify as fully vaccinated.

And at Ibrox tonight, ad Rangers play Stirling Albion in the Scottish Cup, a section of supporters hoisted an explicit banner slamming the government treatment of supporters and the football industry.

The Union Bears banner read: "No science. Only tyranny. F*** the SNP."

The protest comes after reports claimed the Scottish Government could provide 'no clear scientific data' for the strict curbs on outdoor live events.

National clinical director Jason Leitch also admitted football restrictions when limited to 500 fans were a "judgement call" adding "you have to draw the line somewhere".

Ms Sturgeon also explained the rationale for limiting fans was down to the "superspreader" nature of large events and the impact on emergency services.

She told the Scottish Parliament: "I tried to set out the rationale for limiting large scale events; it is about the superspreading nature of big events given the higher transmissibility of Omicron but also the greater impact that these events haver on emergency services that are already stretched,  and some of the risks associated with travel to and from events.

"So it's not easy, nobody wants to be in this position but these are the reasons why Scottish Government, in common with many other governments, have taken these decisions and hopefully they will not last for very long."

The Rangers fan banner comes just a month after Celtic fans had also slammed SNP measures citing the COP26 climate conference.

The expletive banner read: "Open your homes for Cop26.

"But closed doors for fans. F*** the SNP".