The SFA and the SPFL today proved what cowards they are.

Yesterday, the SFA’s general meeting was held and all the talk is of an organisation that’s suddenly got very serious about pyro. The ultimate threat now being floated? Expulsion from the domestic cup competition. Wow. Sounds extreme, doesn’t it? Sounds like the sort of sanction every club should be terrified of. But are they?

Look, it’s a bold thing to put on the statute book.

It sounds like they mean business. But I would bet every penny in my pocket and every penny in the bank that no club will ever be banned from the Scottish Cup over pyro use. Fill in a form wrong? Sure—unless you’re based out of Ibrox, of course, in which case you’ll get away with it. But pyro in the stands? Considering some of the behaviour we’ve seen in Scottish football over the years?

There’s more chance of seeing Santa Claus in goal for Celtic in next season’s Champions League than there is of a club actually being handed that kind of sanction. The SFA is very good at looking tough and talking tough. But being tough? They’re hopeless at it. And fans up and down the country know it.

I’ve called on the SFA before to actually be tough—not just play-act at it. We’ve had regulations on the books for years about fan behaviour in the stands, but there’s always a slippery little get-out clause. Always a convenient excuse not to act.

The excuse that’s been used for years when it comes to the bigoted singing pouring out of the Ibrox stands is that if the club can demonstrate they’ve done everything reasonable to stop it, they’re off the hook.

Well, they’ve asked the fans to stop. They’ve run the Everyone, Anyone campaign—or whatever it’s called. That, apparently, is good enough for the SFA. It’s nonsense. It’s PR fluff. But PR fluff is enough to pass muster.

So what’s the small print on this rule? What’s the get-out clause this time? Because there has to be one. There’s always a get-out clause.

There is no way the SFA is going to put itself in a position where it might actually have to follow through on this. No way they’re going to open the door to punishing clubs at that level. Not really. Not over pyro. That would require a level of bottle and backbone the SFA just does not possess.

Just as the news of this was still settling in my brain, the SPFL issued a Notice of Complaint against Celtic for an un-named incident which happened at the end of last season. As every Celtic site which has written about this has already pointed out, they have not issued any Notice of Complaint against the Ibrox club for the behaviour of its fans in pelting Celtic players with objects … and as for the bigoted singing or those shameful banners? Don’t make me laugh.

This offends me on a moral level. I am sure I’m not alone.

We’ve had our players pelted with objects for years in matches against their club. We’ve had our staff targeted. We’ve had our fans abused. And we’ve endured the sickening chants out of their ground for years.

And nothing has ever been done. Nothing real. But now, a couple of years into the whole pyro phenomenon, clubs are losing Hampden ticket allocations, and now we’ve got the threat of expulsion from competitions and Notices of Complaint?

If only we’d known it was that easy to get things done.

Because clearly, it was always that easy.

They just didn’t think we were worth the effort. Protecting us was never a priority. Eradicating hate songs from the stands, from the game altogether, was clearly never something that moved those in power. Nor, it seems, does it seem to be a priority to sanction clubs whose supporter throw things at rival players … err … well, one club anyway, as others are clearly in the firing line for it.

How can you take these hypocritical bastards seriously?

I mean I do get it. When you consider the kinds of people who’ve held power at the SFA, I’m quite sure some of them know all the words to the sectarian songs themselves. Certain former Scotland managers definitely do.

But whatever we got a Notice of Complaint here for, it was surely not as serious as the objects thrown at our players, right? So are we taking this lying down? I would think that our club will have a statement out before the end of the day. If some of our fans have been out of order I’m sure that’ll be reflected in what we say … but we can’t stay silent on the bigger issue, which is the selective nature of this?

I hate fake posturing. I hate window dressing. Celtic will take this seriously—because they have to. The club will make it clear to fans that this is serious. But Celtic should fight whatever this is tooth and nail, with every weapon in the arsenal.

If the “governing bodies” had any guts, those games that led to us banning Ibrox fans from Celtic Park would have ended in sanctions. Serious ones. Punishments that would have made our ban unnecessary. But they didn’t act. Taking a couple of hundred tickets off a club—that’s about as far as their courage extends.

Even now they can’t bring themselves to open the case against the Ibrox club which the behaviour of their fans richly deserves, and I’m not here defending our own fans who might have crossed the line on occasion. We know that there’s a section of our support which needs a hard lesson. But why should we stomach hypocrisy? Why should we accept a double standard as blatant as this?

Because the problem here isn’t just pyro—it’s decades of inaction on other issues, decades of ignoring songs of hate and bile which any other association would have banned. It’s years of failing to act when our staff and players and fans have come under bombardment. Sanctioning us right now when they’ve gotten off scott-free is an outrage. Years of misbehaviour in their stands has resulted in no sanctions at all and now we’re in the firing line?

The SPFL leadership are gutless frauds. Their cowardice damns them.