GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MARCH 08: A Rangers fan faces off with Police as fans storm the pitch 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 Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Police Scotland issued a statement on the violence following the Celtic v Ibrox quarter-final on 8 March.
Many Celtic supporters had waited for it. In the days after the match, supporters expected the authorities to step in, identify those responsible for the disorder and make it clear that the scenes from that afternoon would not be tolerated.
Instead the statement raises more questions than it answers.
What happened at Ibrox that afternoon was ugly. Nobody disputes that. Supporters suffered injuries, police officers suffered injuries and the footage that circulated across social media and television showed the kind of disorder that damages the reputation of Scottish football as a whole. It should never have happened.
But what has angered many Celtic supporters is the way the authorities have framed the situation.
When Chief Constable Jo Farrell described the events as “absolutely disgraceful” and criticised both clubs for not condemning the violence quickly enough, the implication was that responsibility lay evenly across both sides. For many Celtic fans that framing simply does not match what they believe they saw.
Celtic supporters did enter the pitch after the match. That much is obvious. But they did so in celebration of a major victory. Pitch invasions during moments of celebration are hardly unheard of in football. They occur across Europe and beyond, particularly when supporters witness dramatic wins or cup progress.
What shocked many observers was what happened next.
Masked individuals ran onto the pitch from the home end and confrontations quickly followed. Missiles were thrown. Violence broke out. Police intervened and the situation escalated rapidly.
From the perspective of many Celtic supporters, that sequence of events matters.
The frustration stems from the belief that instead of examining who escalated the situation and why the stadium lost control of events, the official response has focused on spreading blame across both sets of supporters.
For those who believe the violence was triggered by the reaction of home supporters, the language of “both sides” feels deeply unsatisfactory.
And that frustration is not new.
Many supporters recall other incidents involving the Ibrox support that they believe the authorities handled in a similarly cautious or ambiguous way. The 2008 UEFA Cup Final 2008 in Manchester remains one of the most infamous examples.
Tens of thousands of supporters travelled to the city and gathered in large numbers even though many had no tickets for the match itself.
Technical problems caused the giant screen broadcasting the game to fail. Disorder followed. Supporters threw missiles, clashes with police erupted and dozens of officers suffered injuries. Broadcasters carried those scenes around the world and the images did enormous damage to the reputation of Scottish football supporters.
More recently, the celebrations in George Square in May 2021 after the Ibrox club secured the league title also descended into disorder. Supporters injured police officers, damaged public property and circulated images online showing confrontations between supporters and police.
Those incidents remain fresh in the memory of everyone who witnessed them. I raise this now because I only watched some of those scenes myself in the aftermath of last Sunday’s game. I was shocked. They are some of the worst scenes I have ever seen.
Because of that history, some Celtic fans feel that the latest statement from Police Scotland does not reflect the seriousness of what they believe happened at Ibrox. They feel that the authorities have again reached for the safest possible public narrative: condemn everyone equally and avoid identifying the specific causes of the disorder.
Police Scotland, of course, faces a difficult balancing act. The Glasgow rivalry is one of the most intense in world football and any statement that appears to favour one side risks inflaming tensions further. The police are therefore understandably cautious in the language they use when discussing such incidents.
That caution, however, can sometimes look like avoidance.
When supporters hear the phrase “disgraceful behaviour from both sets of fans”, many feel that the details of what actually happened are being flattened into a convenient narrative that avoids uncomfortable questions. Why did stadium security lose control of the situation? Why did individuals reach the pitch so quickly? Could anyone have prevented the violence? Why did it escalate the way it did?
Those are the questions supporters want answered.
Supporters also feel frustration because official statements rarely acknowledge the wider context of the rivalry. For decades fixtures between Celtic and the Ibrox club have featured sectarian chanting, offensive songs and an atmosphere that often crosses the line from rivalry into hostility.
When those tensions spill over into violence, many supporters believe it is impossible to understand the incident without acknowledging the wider culture surrounding the fixture.
Yet official responses rarely go that far.
Instead, the language tends to focus on disorder, safety concerns and generalised condemnations. While those points matter, they also leave many supporters feeling that the deeper causes of the hostility surrounding these matches remain unaddressed.
Violence at football matches should never be excused. However, if the authorities want to rebuild confidence among supporters, then they must show that they are willing to examine events honestly and transparently.
That means identifying where security failed. It means understanding how the situation escalated. And it means acknowledging the factors that contribute to the toxic atmosphere that sometimes surrounds this fixture.
Right now, many Celtic supporters feel that the statement from Police Scotland has not done that.
Instead of clarity, this is what we got.
And that, for many of them, feels less like accountability and more like deflection.
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I agree with much of this Paulina and a good article. The issue is that we were not squeaky clean. Ticketless fans presumably GB burst into the stadium storming the turnstiles. The hate graffiti, vandalism no matter how small or large casts us in a bad light and must be addressed. 3 occasions I remember of disgraceful scenes of this scale, are 1980 cup final which was the worst and last time I remember us getting on the pitch in numbers. This one of course and the title decider at CP in 99 where our fans attacked the referee and individuals on pitch 3 times during game. That one is an outlier of course. The latest one the officials should have had a massive cordon to prevent our fans initially getting on the pitch. You cannot normalise fans doing this no matter if it is celebratory. We can celebrate in the stands as normal. The stewards and police must take a lot of the blame for allowing this and what followed and are trying to shift the blame. I agree the focus should be on the home fans of course.
Good stuff Paulina, a lot of fan articles to come I guess 🙂
You never miss an opportunity to have a go at the GB and the Celtic support in general.
You are kidding no one, we know what you are no matter how you dress it.
Totally agree. His replies are written by ai
Are you for real? I’m sick and tired of your half truths and exaggeration when describing the behaviour of our fans. As far as the game in 1999 goes, there was no fans[plural] attack on the referee, one person threw a coin which hit the referee cutting his head, to talk of 3 people on the the pitch, well it must have passed me by, it was certainly a dramatic and angry game, not helped by one of the most one sided refereeing performances I ever seen. Where the referee carried on his one man vendetta against our L/B Mahe by booking him in the first 5mins and later sending him off. It’s a fact that in every Celtic game Dallas referreed he booked Mahe or sent him off.
Dallas was proved to be lacking in character by being dismissed from his SFA employment for repeating a sick joke about the Pope around the time he was visiting Scotland. He then unbelievably turned up at UEFA , which just shows that the old pals act in football spreads far and wide.
Yep I agree that the lack of proper planning and policing was a lot to blame for how easily people got on the park. Celebratory fans coming on to the park after a dramatic ending to a game isn’t unusual, but rabid angry defeated fans coming on with violent intent is, and has happened on numerous occassions where Ibrox fans have been concerned.
The Graffitti about the Ibrox disaster by a handful of our sick fans is just sickening and beyond belief.
Dallas only did one thing wrong, micmac…he got caught. Just like Jim Farry before him.
Hail Hail.
If the Independant Review is fit for purpose it is duty bound to address the official descriptions of responsibilities below:
“Football match safety responsibilities in Scotland primarily rest with the football club, which is in charge of the event, stadium, and its footprint. The club must appoint an occupationally competent Safety Officer responsible for safety, security, and stewarding. Police Scotland provides a supporting role, focusing on crime prevention and disorder, typically acting on a “police-free” basis for many fixtures, with 83% of matches operating this way in 2018-2019. “
“A Safety Officer at a major Scottish Premiership club like Rangers FC is responsible for the overall safety management, compliance, and risk control of the stadium, particularly at Ibrox Stadium, ensuring compliance with regulatory bodies like the Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) and Scottish Police. “
First time I’ve had a chance to comment on last Sunday.
Firstly, i wasn’t at game and can only opine on what I’ve read and viewed via many sites/ videos and third party accounts of events.
I do not condone fans going onto the pitch regardless of celebratory or not but it is the job of our stewards and police to ensure that the requisite cordon is in place to prevent this. As we now know, there were not sufficient numbers inside the stadium to police this fixture safely & effectively!
I also do not condone storming of gates, doors or turnstiles, ( if this happened,) to try and enter if you do not have a ticket.
Health & safety is paramount for everyone that has paid good money for a ticket and most importantly, a seat !!! Overcrowding obviously compromises this !
To also sing or write about the dead is thoroughly reprehensible, unforgivable and completely moronic.
The game itself was a turgid, non event but we won it in the end and given all the circumstances/call offs and injuries we have had to contend with, it was a marvellous achievement.
Shame again on this board that had us so under the cosh in this game, against a bang average Sevco outfit. Great credit to MON & squad for coming through such a difficult 4 games.
As the commentator said, one set of fans came on to celebrate and the other came on to retaliate. The false equivalence that has been reported and narrated by so many is no surprise to those of us who support our great club !
The evidence is out there and only one set of fans came onto the pitch to cause disorder. Assaulting stewards, Celtic staff players, fans and firing flares into the Broomloan.
For anyone to challenge this is deluded, blinkered, bigoted and severely obtuse.
We still await someone, somewhere to give an accurate account of events and call out their club for this element of their fanbase that will cause problems wherever they go.
The history books don’t lie but our media and Sevco’s friends will!
I will never take the moral high ground, and fully acknowledge that our club has its share of rogues too.
Nevertheless, only in this part of the world can one club continually sing anti Irish Roman Catholic songs , and be pandered to.
The silence is always deafening when this issue is raised !
Our wonderful support is made up of so many different denominations & cultures, and we should all be rightly proud of that.
Personally speaking, as a proud Roman Catholic, with Irish grandparents, I love the fact that we welcome so many to our club.
I think that helps us rise above the hatred and enmity that sadly engulfs so many from Ibrokes !
If only those that purport to run our club could value our fans in the same way…rather than indulging those that continue to try and lump us in with the tired Phoenix outfit !
Anyway, we have a league to try and retain, starting today ! HH
The first i saw mention of the term “false equivalence” was a Celtic fan on ‘X’ (i think) hitting back at a Sevco blog for using photoshop to attach Celtic scarfs onto pictures of rioting Huns. Then trying to falsely accuse those fake “Celtic” fans of rioting and assaulting stewards & police etc. There is not a level those Huns will not stoop to. Scum of the earth.
BTW, good article, Paulina.
You will be writing a book soon. One Polish Lassies Travels With Celtic
Pardon the pun but it was a Cop out by The Cops !