GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MARCH 08: A Rangers fan in a "No Surrender" hoodie storms the pitch with a pole at full time during a Scottish Gas Scottish Cup Quarter-Final match between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox Stadium, on March 08, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Alan Harvey/SNS Group via Getty Images)
I have always been willing to criticise Celtic supporters when they step out of line, and I will continue to do so.
When my inbox began filling with messages last night from Ibrox fans making wild allegations against our supporters, I initially considered pointing them towards the numerous articles on this site where I have condemned our own fans in the strongest possible terms.
But I am not going to bother.
Anyone who has spent time on this site knows those articles exist. They know I have criticised offensive singing from Celtic fans when it mocks the dead and crosses those lines. They know I have condemned flares and called out hooligan behaviour whenever it has appeared.
This morning, I published a piece titled A Permanent Embarrassment. An Occasional Disgrace. The title was a direct reference to Ian Archer’s famous column written after the behaviour of Ibrox supporters in Barcelona.
I can speak about the behaviour of Ibrox supporters with credibility because I apply the same standards to everyone. I do not want to see anyone behaving like that in a football stadium and I do not care what colour of scarf they wear.
Chants mocking dead football fans disgust me just as much as songs celebrating being “up to our knees” in someone’s blood. One of those chants is rarely heard. The other is commonplace. That difference matters but I condemn both.
Earlier today I pointed out that there is a pattern involving Ibrox fans stretching back decades. I also issued a simple challenge to anyone who wants to criticise what I wrote.
Do not engage in whataboutery. Instead, find a comparable example anywhere in football where a club’s supporters have so consistently behaved in the same way over such a long period of time. Present the evidence.
If someone can do that honestly, I will happily correct the record.
Unsurprisingly, my inbox has filled with bile and abuse. Much of it only reinforces the point I was making earlier. Hatred defines a significant section of the Ibrox support.
But there is something even more dangerous at work.
That dangerous element is responsible for the ugliness we witnessed yesterday. The media will attempt to present what happened as a shared failure. They will frame it as a plague-on-both-your-houses moment.
But the truth is very different.
Football rivalries produce ugly behaviour. Some of it, unfortunately, has become normalised over decades here. It should not be, but pretending otherwise will not help us understand what happened yesterday.
Take the issue of broken seats.
Everywhere Ibrox supporters travel there are broken seats. When they visit Celtic Park, seats are destroyed. Toilets are damaged. Graffiti appears across walls and corridors as supporters attempt to mark territory. This is a fact.
Everyone involved in Scottish football knows it.
The clubs even maintain an unspoken understanding not to escalate the issue publicly. On some occasions they have quietly covered the repair costs for one another’s stadiums. It is vandalism. It is unacceptable. But it is also commonplace.
Across football, rivalry produces this kind of damage. Clubs often treat it as an unpleasant cost of doing business in the same way other industries deal with breakage or spillage.
Let me be absolutely clear; I am not saying that it is acceptable. Those responsible should be identified and made to pay for the damage.
What I am saying is that if we are going to have a serious discussion about what happened yesterday, we must separate ordinary rivalry-related damage from genuinely exceptional behaviour.
Otherwise, the discussion becomes meaningless.
The same applies to the graffiti that has appeared across the newspapers today. It is offensive, repellent and indefensible. But again, it is not unique.
Derby matches often produce ugly displays of hatred. Ask Spurs and Arsenal fans about some of what has gone on at their games. Ask fans of Liverpool and Manchester Utd; amongst their number are people who cannot just be rivals but must mock the dead of Munich and Hillsborough.
Anyone who has seen what sometimes appears on the walls at Celtic Park when Ibrox supporters visit will understand that reality.
Here in Scotland, if the conversation is going to focus on offensive expression, then it must also address the songs regularly sung inside Ibrox Stadium, but you will find much of the media is happy to gloss over that. They will call yesterday hateful; the atmosphere was no less hateful last weekend or at any of the times before.
Thousands of supporters chant those songs for the full ninety minutes.
Songs filled with sectarian hatred, racism and bile. Every single week.
The graffiti at Ibrox yesterday was allegedly the work of a small number of Celtic supporters. A handful of idiots does not compare with tens of thousands of people participating in organised displays of hatred.
If journalists or pundits wish to mount a moral crusade then they better have a long and storied history issuing not only condemnation of the Ibrox fan-base but demands for action. I’ll tell you right now, there’s not a single one of them who meets that standard and I can say that with full confidence because I’ve spent years waiting for that person to emerge.
If the media as a whole refuse to do that, their condemnation here is meaningless. More than that; it reeks of hypocrisy and performative outrage.
And that brings us to the central issue.
Most of what happened yesterday, ugly though it was, falls within the grim patterns football has produced for decades. There is only one element that does not.
Only one event elevated the situation beyond the ordinary ugliness of rivalry. That was the pitch invasion by Ibrox supporters whose intention was clearly to attack Celtic fans and staff.
That was the exceptional moment. The sole exceptional moment. Any media outlet seeking to present it as a mere endpoint to something uniquely ugly is at it.
Everything else is being used to obscure it.
Fans celebrate victories on the pitch all over the world. It happens constantly.
Just last month, Celtic supporters spilled onto the pitch at Kilmarnock after a dramatic late goal. Yesterday, when the Ibrox club put the ball in the back of the net a section of their own supporters poured down to the trackside.
These scenes are chaotic and clubs should try to prevent them. But they are not extraordinary. They do not all trigger a near-riot.
Masked supporters carrying weapons ran the length of the pitch towards celebrating Celtic fans.
That is exceptional. It is what elevated this to a whole new place. That was not celebration. It was confrontation. That was violence.
If anyone attempts to draw a moral equivalence between supporters celebrating with players and a group of masked individuals charging across a pitch to attack them, they are not interested in the truth. They are engaging in deflection.
We have already heard the usual excuse about “provocation”.
I am sick of hearing it. Provocation is not a defence.
In any court, in any disciplinary process and in any serious discussion, it carries no weight. If someone reacts violently because they feel provoked, the responsibility lies with the person committing the violence, not the person they claim provoked them.
When hundreds of masked supporters armed with weapons storm a pitch looking for confrontation, provocation does not create the problem. Organised thuggery does. It is a very serious problem indeed. In that moment the aggressors carry responsibility for everything that followed.
Supporters celebrating a victory suddenly faced rival fans trying to attack them. That is the reality. Every headline today flows from that moment and that behaviour. If the Scottish media cannot recognise that simple fact, their attempts to moralise will carry no credibility whatsoever.
Because credibility begins with telling the truth.
If they refuse to tell the truth about what happened yesterday, then nothing else they say about what went on around that game deserves to be taken seriously.
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Will never happen in a million years but I would love the club to set the record straight on events yesterday. More likely we issue apology for any upset we may have caused
Son in law follows the rangers wasn’t at game and even he thought it was Celtic fans at fault . Even with explanation why it wasn’t their fault he wasn’t getting it and he’s not bigoted in the slightest . The diehard bigots will never change .
McCoist as usual has been brough in by the media to deflect from the guilt of the Sevco fans by citing Celtic fans Ibrox disaster slurs.
McCoist will know the real story of the disaster but refuse to face up to it.
“Sheriff Irvine Smith QC presided over a civil damages trial into the Ibrox disaster, in which 66 people died in a crush on an exit stairway at the east end of the stadium on January 2, 1971, and found that it “was due to the fault and negligence of the defenders, Rangers FC”.
The board had refused to spend money repairing the stairway after numerous warnings and they literally got away with manslaughter due to corruption.
Sheriff was ostracised for the rest of his life.
I took a particular interest in this as I was in hospital at the time as the injured were brought in and beds were found all along the corridors for the horrifically injured.
For McCoist the biggest crime is mocking the disaster, without a mention the mocking of the Famine, and not the men who were actually responsible.
Going off topic here,but I was looking forward to the World Cup and our country taking part in it,but I can’t see that taking place now.
Iran putting it out there that America should enjoy the World Cup while they can,as they have a few surprises up their sleeve.
Read into that what you want,but I wouldn’t go anywhere near America right now,or even for the tournament if Iran are planning something.
I had one (Sevco Huns) onto me earlier…
You’re lot did this did that…
Ok I canny argue about the ‘damage’ (But remember Huns are also allowed to buy permenant markers as well) and have previous for framing ‘Fenian’s (Silent Valley And Miami Showband to name but two atrocities)…
He bet me £100 that (his words) were the ‘first to spill outta the stands’ I told him that it was his very own Huns when Fernandez ‘scored’ – He went to ‘phone a friend’ got back to me admitting that I was correct then tried to move the goalposts by saying he ‘meant’ after the game was finished…
I wouldn’t have took his filthy fuckin lucre of him anyway and he’ll never be smart enough to beat me ever in a bet regarding these type of things but regardless they’re beyond fuckin parody and as fuckin dishonest fuckin club are !
I am not going to defend the behaviour of Celtic fans at Liebrox yesterday. Stay in your fucking seats you morons. You’ve just basically fucked it for future Celtic fans who won’t get to experience what you pricks experienced yesterday. I find that very selfish. Say all you want about celebrating v looking for trouble and attacking club staff. I don’t care about that lot’s rep. I know they are scum and that’s all that matters to me. But we’re supposed to be smarter than them. Yesterday called that into question. It was just so fucking stupid.
Agreed. Decades we’ve been going to that ground celebrating big victories without the need to dance on the pitch. No even when we won the league there en route to Lisbon did we enter the field of play.
Now we give this board of ours an excuse to lay the blame at the feet of certain groups of our fans again. An excuse for the media and others to lump us into the O.F. thuggery tag.
The discussion now should be on the ridiculous policing of celtic fans getting into that ground. Funneling 7500 fans through an extremely narrow passage when that whole end of the ground has a design of free access without the need for dangerous bottle necking to avoid crushing. The police should be put under the microscope for their terrible handling of fans, but all that with dissappear because of the aftermath. Again, for decades away fans turned up at parkhead or ibrox safely without the need to control movement of fans or holding of fans at the end. They don’t know how to police it now because our petulant city neighbours tool the groom huff at celebrating tims on their patch and changed the allocation.
Yet all we’ll hear now is how we’re all as bad as each other.
I watched the youtube clip , the craziest old firm by an english guy filming it live and he spurted out it was a repeat of the 2016 hibs hun game , the hibs fans well intentioned were attacked by the hun thugs the very same as Celtic fans were , there were no Celtic fans crossed the half way line like the huns in balaclavas , wtf would allow these sad cnuts support your team ,
I agree with every word of this James, I was prepared for the “they’re as bad as each other “ pish in the media but I’ve been surprised to learn it was all the Celtic fans fault really! There’s been some outrageous reporting which just goes to show how much the huns are hurting, I hold no hope of the truth being recognised and reported and can only imagine if it was the other way round. One thing is for sure, we know our board wouldn’t hesitate to punish our fans if it was the other way round but there’ll be the absolute bare minimum punishment if any for the huns. The real story is a Celtic coach getting physically attacked, police and stewards getting assaulted, all on camera but it turns out it was somehow all the Celtic fans fault.
The responsibility for years of disorder and rioting perpetrated by Sevco fans, lies with their Board. They have done nothing over the years to address their unacceptable fan behaviour, why because the media will always mitigate against any blame being apportioned to them, as we have seen today and they know it. Two Cup Finals where they lost late on in 2016 and in 1980 ended in riots, just as it did yesterday. Manchester 2008 was the same, If Sevco lose late on then a riot will follow. How many Celtic staff have been assaulted at Ibrox in the last few years at least three. By their own admission they cannot even guarantee the safety of TV broadcasters’ staff (Neil Lennon and Chris Sutton) so they ban them rather than addressing the issues. And the authorities turn a blind eye.
Ibrox should have a full stadium closure imposed for the next time we visit, after that there should be no away fans at any of these games. Football clubs have to comply with the laws of the land and violence and intimidating behaviour is no longer acceptable.
What would have happened if this game was at CP and they had won and came on the pitch around the goal area? Would the GB have walked out the door and left them to it?.. Hey yes, I guess they may well have done.
I was at the game when the huns won the league at CP on the Sunday night and it was total bedlam. If they had gone on the pitch that night to celebrate they would have got destroyed, absolute no doubt about it….it was madness different times, if you were there you would know.
Yesterday was kids with handbags in comparison, but times have changed.
I was at that game in 1999, the atmosphere was certainly bad and mad courtesy of Mr Hugh Dallas and an idiotic Celtic fan who hit him with a coin, Whether Celtic fans would have come on to the park is a mute point, it didn’t happen, even as the Rangers players celebrated in front of their fans for a good while after the game and even mocked Celtic by doing the Huddle.
Celtic fans commenting here about some celebrating fans coming on to the Park and criticising them for it, seem to forget that this happens all over the World when games are won at the very end of matches. It is an emotional game, that’s what makes it so enjoyable. We done it at Kilmarnock with no repercussions from disappointed Killie supporters and the police, the reason being it was an explosion of joy and recognised as that.
The Rangers FC[2012] and the previous club Rangers FC [1872] have had a problem of thuggish and sectarian behaviour for years, which their many owners have failed to address, it has become part of their DNA of that club , let’s face it, even when they win they still show hatred whilst celebrating rather than joy.
Most Football clubs have a percentage of idiots amongst their fan base, but The Rangers FC[2012] are in a League of their own, when it comes to showing hatred and bigotry.
Did we all see the huns getting led back to their seats by they’re friends from police Scotland, they should have been lifted on their way back from committing breaches of the peace and carrying offensive weapons.
Feck all done about it,
They weren’t wearing masks, they were wearing they’re sisters used knickers sniffing the gusset
Excellent article. Martin O’Neill was brilliant in the media. On two separate occasions I heard him putting it out there in his gentle, seemingly casual way that fans shouldn’t be on the pitch but when one group crosses the halfway line there’s a clear distinction between both groups. I’ll be very surprised if any media outlet reports that, because it’s an indirect but obvious challenge to the false narrative they immediately started spewing about both sides being equally to blame.
Listened to fat Tom English on news last night and he’s blaming Celtic fans surprise surprise, f@#k all will be done about papa Smurfs army or their sectarian song book because it’s the norm in Scottish society and excepted and i say again Scotland is a bigoted sectarian country, sad but true
The behaviour of the huns was as usual disgraceful and predictable. They did the same a week earlier. Invading the track and pitch edges and throwing objects at Celtic fans as we were hemmed in by cops. I myself was hit by a drinks carton containing goodness knows what, but, it wasn’t coffee that came out of it. So the scene was again replayed on a grander scale. The incompetence or indulgence of Police Scotland by creating dangerous conditions for Celtic fans aided and abetted them. The home club also knew what could happen but did not have proper security in place to stop it. The SMSM know this and will ignore it. A lot of the people involved that came from the side stands were grown men, some middle aged. It’s in their make up and imprinted in their mindset, they won’t change as they’ve lived in their bigotry since the day they were born. They, like the SMSM are incapable of admitting it. The cops are as bad as the RUC/PSNI and like all cops cover up their actions it inactions. The Celtic board are back of the bus shit** bags.
Sorry James what i should of said was Scotland is a bigoted sectarian anti Catholic country who’s government accepts the filth flowing from the stands at Liebox
Celtic have been hated by a good percentage of Scottish society since they played their1st game in 1888,
The media still reflect this, and are incapable of being even handed in reporting the kind of incidents that occurred on Sunday.
Some elements of Scottish Society have changed for the better, as the offspring of our Irish forefathers climbed up the social and economic ladder. The media unfortunately hasn’t changed over the years, and even those from our background who did manage to become part of the media Industry, have been scared or too cowardly in speaking the truth, for fear of the repercussions and their future job prospects.
Our Board are another group of cowards who do nothing to protect our club and its supporters.