GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MARCH 08: Rangers Ultras invade the pitch following the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup Quarter Final match between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox Stadium on March 08, 2026 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
As this week goes on you will hear a lot of talk about a “plague on both their houses” in relation to what happened at the end of Celtic’s win yesterday. I will cover that in more detail in a later piece. First, however, I want to offer a little history lesson to those seeking some kind of equivalence.
One of the most curious traditions in Scottish football is the way certain supporters talk about “standards” and “expectations”. Those words come up constantly in discussions about the club at Ibrox. The expectation to win. The demand for success. The idea that defeat is somehow unacceptable.
That rhetoric has echoed through generations.
Later today I will write about how major clubs decline over time. The further success drifts into the past, the smaller those clubs gradually become.
Yet something curious happens here in Scotland. The media continues to feed the supremacist mindset at Ibrox.
That mindset becomes dangerous enough when the club there wins regularly. Now the club has shrunk into a pale imitation that exists in Celtic’s shadow, yet the media still feeds that sense of entitlement. At this point the behaviour borders on insanity.
Because historically, when defeat intrudes upon the bubble they cocoon themselves in, there is a very long record showing that sections of that support have struggled badly to accept it with even the minimum level of grace.
I defy anyone to find a comparable record anywhere on these islands. Not just in Scotland. In England as well. If you want to search further afield in Europe then by all means do so.
Bring the evidence.
This is not a modern phenomenon. It did not begin with social media or modern football culture. It stretches back decades, across both incarnations of the Ibrox club, and the pattern appears again and again at key moments.
The incidents are not isolated. They form a pattern.
And the pattern goes back further than most people realise.
In 1965, after Celtic defeated Rangers in the League Cup Final, Celtic players attempted a half pitch lap of honour. The reaction from the Rangers end came immediately. Supporters invaded the track area and officials curtailed the celebrations.
Four years later the same behaviour appeared again on the European stage.
In 1969, after Newcastle United F.C. defeated Rangers in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup semi final, large numbers of Rangers supporters invaded the pitch to protest the result and to have the match abandoned at 2-0.
What should have been a moment of celebration for Newcastle descended into chaos.
That same year produced one of the most blatant attempts to influence the outcome of a match through disorder you’ll ever see.
During the 1969 Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Rangers, Celtic scored a fourth goal early in the second half. At that moment large sections of the Rangers support attempted to invade the running track behind the goal in what many observers believed was an effort to force the abandonment of the game.
Police and stewards pushed them back and the match continued.
Three years later the same mentality surfaced again in Europe.
In 1972, Rangers defeated FC Dynamo Moscow 3–2 in the final of the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in Barcelona. The Scottish side had raced into a three goal lead but Dynamo Moscow scored twice late in the match and began mounting a comeback.
As the pressure increased Rangers supporters repeatedly invaded the pitch, most notably after each Moscow goal. Their presence disrupted play and created confusion during the closing stages of the game.
After the final whistle the pitch invasion escalated into violent clashes with Spanish police. By the time the dust settled the scenes had overshadowed what should have been the club’s greatest European triumph.
The reaction in Spain was volcanic. One Barcelona newspaper ran a full page open letter urging the club never to return. Several Spanish newspapers wrote that the behaviour of the travelling support had disgraced Scotland itself.
It was that episode which prompted the Scottish journalist Ian Archer to write perhaps the most famous line ever directed at the travelling support of the Ibrox club.
“They are Scotland’s shame,” he wrote. “An occasional embarrassment and a permanent disgrace.”
Eight years later the pattern appeared again closer to home.
In 1980, after Celtic defeated Rangers 1–0 in the Scottish Cup Final, large numbers of Rangers supporters invaded the pitch and attacked celebrating Celtic supporters. The violence that followed, remembered as the Battle of Hampden, became one of the darkest days in Scottish football history and ultimately led to the introduction of the ban on alcohol at Scottish football grounds.
Even that did not end the cycle.
In 2008, Rangers reached the final of the UEFA Cup in Manchester against FC Zenit Saint Petersburg. After losing the match 2–0 sections of the travelling support rioted across the city centre. Police officers were injured, property was damaged and the scenes dominated headlines across Europe.
Incredibly, some voices later attempted to shift the blame away from those responsible. One narrative that circulated afterwards claimed the violence had been triggered by Chelsea supporters who had infiltrated the crowds.
It was an attempt to reframe the story rather than confront the problem.
The same inability to accept defeat surfaced again when the new Ibrox club reached the Scottish Cup Final in 2016.
When Hibernian scored their dramatic late winner to lift the trophy for the first time in more than a century their supporters flooded onto the pitch in celebration. Within moments the Ibrox support followed them onto the field and attacked the celebrating fans.
It is important to state something clearly here.
Ibrox’s supporters have invaded the pitch in celebration of victories and late goals countless times over the decades. One notable case was highlighted to me last night; a game some years ago when their fans invaded the pitch and climbed on top of the disabled section at Kilmarnock, collapsing the roof.
Over-exuberance happens in football. Supporters celebrate. They run onto the pitch. It happens across the sport. What does not happen across the sport is rival supporters then pouring onto the field to attack them.
That is rare. That’s why we remember it when it does occur.
Now, decades after the notorious events of 1980, Scottish football finds itself once again reflecting on scenes that feel disturbingly familiar.
Sometimes history does not just repeat itself. Sometimes it repeats itself because nobody is prepared to call it out.
When victory is treated as an entitlement rather than an achievement, defeat becomes intolerable. When supporters believe success is their natural state failure can feel like an injustice rather than a result.
That mindset has consequences.
Football is full of fierce rivalries, emotional supporters and bitter disappointments. Every club experiences defeat. Every fan base suffers painful days. Most accept those moments however reluctantly.
But every so often a club develops a culture where losing does not simply hurt. It provokes something darker.
When that culture is continually fed by a media environment that reinforces entitlement and excuses even its worst excesses, incidents like yesterday become inevitable.
For Manchester in 2008 the blame was placed on the authorities for not providing enough facilities for visiting fans, as well as on supporters from English clubs who weren’t even there. For the second Hampden riot some sections of the Scottish media attempted to blame Hibernian supporters for provoking the violence.
Over the coming days we will hear similar attempts to muddy the waters again.
But the pattern is there and it is undeniable.
Sections of that support do not believe they should lose. They believe they are entitled to win. When that entitlement collides with reality it produces a permanent sense of grievance directed at everyone and everything in Scottish football.
Until the media develops the courage to confront that reality, until it stops pretending the evidence does not exist and starts demanding that the club itself address the issue, the cycle will continue and sooner or later someone will get seriously hurt.
When that day comes the same people who ignored the warning signs will wring their hands and claim nobody could have seen it coming. That will be nonsense.
Worse; it will be cowardly nonsense.
And since the people who should be calling this behaviour out clearly will not do it, it is up to us to fight our corner and tell the truth and call them out until they do.
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The common denominator of your historical examples James, is joy versus hate. When joy wins, the haters try to wreak some sort of revenge, and when it’s unsuccessful on the field of play, they have to continue into the public domain afterwards. They’re mantra should be “no-one likes us and we’re devastated”
Well said Danny, but although it is certainly defeat that triggers it, the simmering hatred that is part of their very being is the the underlying reason for all of their inhuman reactions and their intolerance of anyone who is not an orange stauncher, they are fucking sick hun bastards.
Excuse my language but they have that uncanny knack of bringing out the worst in me.
Generations of THEM being allowed to triumphantly march through our Towns and cities deliberately debasing and mocking the Catholic faith has encouraged and emboldened them to treat everyone outwith their festering pit of simmering hatred like untouchable lepers, fenian lepers.
They are the scum of the earth, always have been and always will be.
Pissing against the wind James I’m afraid, this biased bastard media will never bite the hand that feeds them , their the darlings of the klanbase and vice versa, also most of these crayon scribblers
Pissing against the wind James I’m afraid, this biased bastard media will never bite the hand that feeds them , their the darlings of the klanbase and vice versa, also most of these deluded crayon scribblers are sevco affiliated and will run any half baked story that attempts to paint celtic in a bad light , their the hand that fits the glove perfectly.
FUCK THEM ALL.
By the way James, your article is a brilliant historical analysis of all the facts, an accumulative list of all their savage hatred throughout the ages, I just wish that someone with a set of balls would publish the same, where a much wider audience were able to see it.
Scotland is the best wee bigoted shite hole in the world. People need to start calling it for what it is. Has there been changes? Yes, but if you listen carefully and I don’t just mean at football matches etc it’s there. Same old tired rhetoric around Catholicism, the Irish and those from other places. I travel in different sections of the social strata and its all there.
It won’t matter that hundreds of masked , armed thugs invaded the pitch to try to cause riot and harm Celtic fans because obviously it was a few of our lads who jumped the boards to celebrate after a momentous win (after a shite game) . It will be our exuberance that is blamed rather than total pre-orchestrated violence from the orks that caused the problem
No matter how many times they do it and no matter where they do it, they are never at fault because they are good brits and love the king blah blah blah. Pay your fucking taxes and the bill from wrecking umpteen cities and stadia and then maybe we can talk about a few over excited Celtic fans who just wanted to celebrate with the players and not fight with the masked hoarder.
Fuck off bbc, herald, record etc etc
James F — you probably won’t like these comments.
Reason for not wanting Independence — No.13 and counting.
Civic society is too small and insular / too many pals in the mix.
Police Scotland’s organisational capabilities and prejudices regarding the policing of the Broomland Rd stand yesterday.
Media Scotland’s response to the pitch invasion by Govan FC’s fans yesterday.
The fire brigade’s response to the fire on Union Street yesterday.
Best wee country in the world — tea towel nationalism at its worst.
We have always had issues but after 19 years of Nat failure we are a failed state.
For the record the UK is not in a great place either.
Its ability for self reflection is much reduced after Cameron and Johnson.
We were in a poor place but the right wing media couldn’t bring themselves to understand our issues and accept that austerity was going to make our slow decline even worse.
Starmer has been given a hospital pass and the media still believe in magic wands.
We have this very scenario because of being a part of “the Union”. Not because of independence. Your Unionist shite is pathetic. And that includes your username. Anyone wanting to know who “Mad Mitch” is can do a shoogle on Google and you will read all about the darling of the Brits. Feckin’ halfwit.
The power of irony dear boy — the power of irony.
Got the name from my egg chasing captain for my loud support of Michael Foot in 1983.
So nothing for you to worry about apart from the way handles its current responsibilities never mind what some want in the future.
The “union” gas not delivered this situation rampant tribalism has.
With independence it will get worse.
Salmond gave the game away.
For them it is always two cheeks of the same erse.
And we will be the easier group to corral / subdue.
With its limited power I think the SNP are not perfect, but have been doing pretty well with limited powers over the past 19 years, compared with Westminster.
Free prescriptions, No bedroom tax, Free university tuition, free bus travel for over 60’s and under 22’s, Road equivalent tariff ferry fares for Island residents in Scotland. No strike within the Scottish NHS during the SNP’s time in Government, Female workers within Glasgow City Council win equal pay from the SNP run council after years of being refused by a Labour Council, etc.
Under the Union for 319 years, the sectarian hatred and divide and rule within the Celtic Nations of the British Isles was encouraged by their English masters.
I don’t think Independence would bring an end to sectarianism in Scotland overnight, but I do think it would change things over 2 or 3 generations.
You just have to look at who are the most vociferous Unionists in the British Isles to see who are the enemies of tolerance and left of centre Democrats within the Celtic Nations.
A brilliant and well-written article, James. The only negative i can say about it is that you’ve only just scratched the surface. There are plenty more examples throughout history. And don’t forget how those same fans celebrate some victories. Glasgow City-centre bears witness to that carnage.
And then you have the constant feeding of that mindset taking place between football matches. I’m talking about tolerating ‘The Klans’ other hobby, sectarian Orange Parades. I’m not a Catholic myself, but i oppose this blatant hatred and intolerance of a different religion and its practitioners.
A very large number of those masked-up cowards at Sunday’s game were from Norn Iron. They’ve been getting away with their unacceptable behaviour on our soil for years. The police know exactly who all the main players are but they choose to do nothing. Just look at the policing of that game yesterday. Most of the police & security personnel were positioned at the Celtic end. Both inside and outside the shit pit.
Yesterday Celtic fans where victims of 120 mins of disgusting songs of hatred, bigotry and what ever else they sang about the Pope, then came the onion brats dressed like papa Smurf and his extended family attacking the celebrating Celtic fans, as someone not from Scotland i just can’t understand why Scottish government, UEFA and Scottish fa aren’t doing everything possible to stamp this out, plus Police where total unprepared for that yesterday,
Why was a UnionBear allowed to walk to the Celtic end , throw pyro then allowed to amble back to his seat and no one thought to intervene ?…
Why was a UnionBear allowed to walk to the Celtic end , throw pyro then allowed to amble back to his seat and no one thought to intervene ?…
James, great article. I am sure there are more incidents which can highlight their scum following.
Saw a video yesterday posted by one of their fans showing players and staff going up the tunnel. It looked like the canopy to protect the players had not been rolled out and it looked like fans were stopping it. Surely Celtic should be questioning this as this could have been an area where players safety was put at risk.
Plus who and why was one of their players being restrained. His head completely gone.
I’m absolutely raging at myself for not taking a photo of those nazis at central station, throwing flares into buildings. I’m looking a media reports and they’re not making a connection between those thugs and the fire. Surely they’re not trying to cover that up?
Danny gal ,The fire was started in a vape shop due to faulty vapes ,eye witness accounts ,concentrate on the real facts at the hunnery and stop making shit up .
So you are asking an eye witness, who saw the Union Bears throwing flares into buildings at the Central station to stay shtoom? Why? He is not making it up.
The atmosphere yesterday, was no different from the last 150 years in both incarnations of the sons of William. This time the Bigot dome surpassed its self, a cesspit full of bigoted hate lapped up by nearly 50, 000 to a man. The Pope got it, fenians got any one Catholic, Irish or anyone connected to Celtic and yet Celtic is now dragged into this to justify the actions of the blue hooded clowns.I listened to the Clown, Bill Leckie today blame the club’s for allowing the hate to fester and basically say they love making a living of it, I thought you half wit, So do you! They blame schools for segregation due to religion, I’m sorry that is no excuse, down South no bigotry and they have separate schools. Those that keep it going indoctrinate the next generation and the cycle begins again. Back to no fans they say, Celtic will be punished because the powers that be won’t come out and say Sevco where wrong, Jim White said on Talk sport they all invaded the pitch and met in the middle, Celtic fans hardly got out the penalty box, the clowns in blue just can’t take it, the sooner that manky club go down the swanny the better
madmitch @ 11.25am…
Away and get your fellow Butchers Apron loving bastard Wilson out for a back slapping swanky meal at a table surrounded with wee Butchers Aprons for good fuckin measure…
Why not make it at Liebrox while yous are at it as that’s the place for blood as ya seen yesterday…
The only fuckin difference is youse wouldn’t get a swanky munchi…
But you’d both absolutely love everything else in your cosy (for youse two) environment !
Wee correction, James. The Ian Archer comment came after the Huns rioted in Birmingham in 1976 v Aston Villa.
As a matter of fact, I have always believed that the Huns behave even worse when they are winners of Trophies. Thankfully, supporters of Sevco, and Sevco FC itself, have not tested this hypothesis oft times in the last 13 years.
Hail Hail.
To thewifeisout, I did read that account of how the fire started, however all of us on the bus also saw the balaclaved mob running along throwing flares at buildings. If that vape shop wasn’t one of their targets then it’s quite a coincidence!