Ibrox has dodged a major UEFA sanction, but their problems in the stands still remain.

Yesterday, John Gilligan, the stand-in chairman at Ibrox—let’s see how long that lasts—gave an interview that aimed a sharp rebuke at their fans regarding claims of a leadership vacuum at the club. Even as he did so, he confirmed that another long-standing leadership figure is set to depart.

Also, reluctantly, he finally addressed the ongoing issue of pyrotechnics.

It turns out that the Ibrox club has been fined but narrowly escaped a more serious sanction for their pyro use during the game against Lyon. Their sanction actually turns out to be a lesser one that Celtic has gotten. That doesn’t change the trouble they are in, or that which they just avoided.

It’s astonishing that they managed to dodge a hefty penalty after a firework was discharged towards the pitch during the match. They really got away with one there, and you wonder why UEFA didn’t hammer them to set an example. It’s far worse than what happened in Dortmund.

However, Gilligan’s warnings come far too late, and it’s impossible to take those warnings seriously anyway, especially in light of years – actually years – of making excuses for the behaviour of their most vitriolic supporters.

His demand for an end to such practices would have carried more weight if it had been made immediately after the game rather than after the fine was levied. It would have carried much more weight had it come after previous statements criticising their behaviour for a series of other incidents going back a long time.

In a piece I wrote a few weeks ago, I pointed out that their actions endangered not only the club but also the safety of the players on the pitch. More importantly, they put their club at risk, and the club’s response to that was over a fortnight of utter silence. To me, that would be inexplicable at any other club. Theirs is not one from whom we can expect any different.

Gilligan stated, “My message is the use of pyrotechnics must stop and stop now at all of our matches, home and away. Not only could the repercussions become ever larger for the club, but many supporters also have difficulty coping with the effects of pyrotechnics, whether that be the smoke or loud bangs they produce. It is desperately unfair for any supporter to come to a match and be affected in such a manner.”

Frankly, I find that response pretty weak. If you’re going to make statements like that, you cannot make them weeks after the fact if you want to be taken seriously. Furthermore, no-one would take them seriously anyway. This Ibrox board has a sordid history of not only failing to condemn the behaviour of its fans, but of defending them.

The right time for such comments was immediately after the game, on the night of the incident. If the club were genuinely concerned, that’s when they would have spoken out. I’m thoroughly tired of the pyromaniacs in the stands and have written extensively about our own particular brand of morons who can’t seem to leave this stuff alone.

Indeed, my final piece last night was explicitly on this subject.

While some may tout pyrotechnics as a great spectacle, they conveniently ignore the fundamental safety issues at play. The spectacle is not worth the health risks posed to anyone in attendance. I continue to be astonished at how such items can be smuggled in, and it is clear that some major changes are necessary to prevent this from happening.

So in terms of the punishment from UEFA, their club dodged a major bullet here, whilst ours was hit with one but the damage deferred to another day.

But I can say with complete conviction and absolute certainty that Gilligan’s comments will make no difference to the way their fans behave. They are used to getting away with renegade behaviour as they are to their club spending money it doesn’t have.

Pyro will almost certainly make an appearance at both away and home games involving them in the coming weeks and months. Following those incidents, I suspect we’ll see more gentle slaps on the wrists for the same supporters.

As I’ve said before, that club is a prisoner of its most extreme fans. It caters to these individuals far too much and cannot afford to lose a single paying customer right now.

At Ibrox, they only pay lip service to the notion of weeding out their unruly elements. The fact that it has taken this long for any comments to emerge about one of the most irresponsible and downright stupid acts I’ve ever witnessed in a football stadium speaks volumes about how seriously the club takes this matter.

This club has a long history of turning a blind eye to this type of behaviour from its supporters, and worse. When I refer to the club, I mean those who currently occupy its boardroom. It’s a topic the media frequently overlooks, as it does so much else.

Their history of excusing aberrant behaviour among their fan base dates back to at least the Dave King takeover, though the roots go much further.

Since that takeover, there have been several concerning incidents involving their supporters, and instead of condemning the actions, the club has continually offered excuses—ranging from the insulting to the utterly farcical and even delusional.

One of the earliest indicators of their board’s attitude towards hooligan behaviour came in the aftermath of the Scottish Cup final against Hibs.

After Hibs’ late goals, their fans stormed the pitch, attacking players and clashing with Hibs supporters celebrating their club’s first Scottish Cup win in over 100 years.

Any reasonable club would have condemned such disgraceful behaviour. How did they react? By blaming the Hibs supporters, claiming their fans were “provoked.”

They even concocted a ludicrous lie—one which some in the media were happy to peddle—that their fans had invaded the pitch to “protect” their players, almost all of whom were safely in the tunnel when the chaos erupted.

During the Covid crisis, they actively encouraged their supporters to take part in the infamous George Square gathering, known now as the George Square riot.

Did they condemn their fans’ behaviour? No, instead, they shifted blame onto “outside elements” and the police, despite the hands-off policing approach being evident until things spiralled out of control. The riot occurred in blatant defiance of social distancing measures, which were meant to safeguard public health.

Late last season, the Hibs supporters groups came together to demand an allocation cut for their supporters after widespread problems with their fans whilst visiting Easter Road. The Hibs board decided to include our fans in the allocation cut, something that did not go down terribly well with many amongst the fan-base, who were quite explicit in that they had directed their concerns at the club over the conduct of Ibrox’s hordes.

Celtic, when confronted with similar complaints from Motherwell and Dundee, did not ignore those issues. They acted on them.

This brings us to Ibrox’s conduct regarding the Celtic ticket standoff, where their response to Celtic’s legitimate safety concerns was nothing short of disgraceful. Initially, they refused to even engage with Celtic on the issue. Then they started playing their delaying games and obfuscating. Celtic finally retaliated by banning their fans from Celtic Park, and when our concerns were still not taken seriously we were forced to do it again.

They failed to conduct any safety assessments or upgrades, despite an agreement to carry out the necessary work. It took Celtic forcing their hand to prompt any action.

Their club allows sectarian and racist chants to ring out from the stands week after week. As journalist Graham Spiers exposed, John Gilligan, the current chairman, has even defended the singing of “The Billy Boys.”

Rather than condemning a racist and sectarian anthem, and forcing their director (now chairman, let’s not forget this) to apologise, their club tried to pressure Spiers’ newspaper to censure him. When his own editors demanded an apology from him for simply stating the truth, he resigned in protest.

Their failure to properly address the firing of a firework at players on the pitch the night of the Lyon game is hardly surprising in light of this.

They’ve never taken the unruly conduct of their supporters seriously. At best, they turn a blind eye to it; at worst, they seem to revel in it. They certainly have no interest in addressing this problematic section of their fan base, likely because they rely on it for financial support.

I lean towards the worst possible interpretation of their behaviour because we’ve seen them use this faction of their fan base for intimidation purposes.

These are the same supporters who were stirred up when the club specifically demanded that Willie Collum no longer be allowed to referee their games. That information was leaked to fan media to whip up hysteria, signalling to their more extreme followers that the club believed Collum was biased against them.

A club that acts this recklessly, promotes dangerous conspiracy theories, and fails to tackle serious fan issues is hardly going to care about fireworks and smoke bombs. The problems in their stands run much deeper than that. And the idea that their club is genuinely committed to resolving these issues is nothing short of a fantasy.

They are a reckless and dangerous club, led by people who are either so lax that they fail to grasp the gravity of the situation or are just as reckless and dangerous as the crazies in the stands. Either way, while they have been fortunate to get away with this incident, further problems in this regard, and in other areas, are inevitable. You can count on them.