Celtic has given the SPFL its worst nightmare. Yes, they should be careful now.

Today, the SPFL is pushing back the deadline for making a decision on the Celtic-Ibrox ticket standoff.

I think most of us expected that decision today, especially since that was what had been announced. The general feeling, I think, is that most of us would rather this matter was put to bed as quickly as possible.

Celtic, I am sure, would like it resolved immediately.

I wrote this morning about how the decision is much more straightforward than it was previously. Yet in some ways, perhaps that is the wrong way to look at it. Because the decision now has a new element, and that may make it more complicated.

I am sure the SPFL would have ruled differently a week ago than it would rule now. But as I said earlier, the new factor it has to take into consideration is this: what if this is a season-ending game for the away club?

Are they willing to take responsibility for what happens?

There has been a lot of disingenuous nonsense in the press over the Ibrox fans, and their ultras in particular. One of the things I’ve seen repeated over and over again is that one of the people arrested over their conduct that day was not even in the far away end of the ground, where all the masked yahoos poured from, but someone who emerged from the main stand to attack one of our officials.

I find it incredible that this is being offered as a defence. It’s like being accused of a stabbing and saying that you actually shot the guy.

I also find it incredible that the likes of Keevins are offering, as part of their defence, the idea that if Celtic fans had stayed in the stand none of it would have happened.

But the supporter who came out of the main stand and attacked one of our members of staff is the example that disproves the theory. In fact, it is quite possibly the example that strengthens Celtic’s case all the more.

The Ibrox support as a whole represents a danger. The general conduct around that club makes that ground dangerous to visit. They don’t need to see Celtic fans on the pitch to go on the rampage; that guy didn’t attack a Celtic fan.

The other argument is about “provocation”, and it raises a number of interesting points in and of itself, mostly about the state of our media, because that is not an argument that stands up in a court of law for even one second.

If someone taunts you, you do not have the right to respond with violence. If you choose violence, then you are the problem, not the other person. You are supposed to act in a restrained and civilised way.

Celtic fans did not taunt anyone on that pitch. They celebrated a victory. But even if they had, so what? Does that absolve anyone of responsibility? Does it make what happened acceptable? Parts of our media behave as though it does.

For years, people have used the provocation argument to excuse the behaviour of Ibrox fans.

They used the same argument when Hibs fans entered the pitch to celebrate their first Scottish Cup in over 100 years. They even used it to excuse the Manchester riot. Faulty big screens, they said. That argument was rubbish then, and it remains rubbish now.

Many of us reject the provocation argument because it shifts the burden onto everyone else to manage their behaviour around Ibrox fans, as though those fans lack any capacity for self-control.

We live in a twisted time, but this kind of victim-blaming stands out even now.

As I’ve said before, people can believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden if they want. But they should not expect the rest of the world to bend around that belief.

People should not have to tiptoe past their house. Traffic should not have to stop at the end of the street lest it disturb the magical universe.

The idea that football in Scotland should bend around the whims and will of the Union Brats, and avoid offending them in any manner, is about as perverse a logic as you will ever get.

Taken to its most extreme example, we are talking about the same logic as blaming a rape victim for the clothes she wore. The principle is exactly the same. If that is a defence people want to offer, then shame on them.

Some of the hacks who have written this nonsense have actually accepted Celtic’s case without seeming to realise it in pointing out that it is very difficult to identify perpetrators who wore masks and identical clothing.

Exactly. That is part of the point.

If the Green Brigade had done this, no one would excuse them or Celtic. The media would throw its full weight behind the Ibrox club’s position. The support would be loud and almost unanimous.

I know that. We all know that.

The reaction to what happened at Ibrox has not been even-handed or responsible. Bias and selective reporting have shaped the coverage at every turn.

As I said earlier, the SPFL now faces a dilemma. This puts it exactly where it does not want to be. It has to take responsibility. It may even face real scrutiny if something goes wrong.

If it takes a few extra days to consider the full implications, that does not surprise me. It should take that time. It must.

Then it must reach the right decision. The one it should have reached from the start. The Ibrox club’s fans need proper sanctions.

Had it done that, we would not have had to go through weeks of this.

Celtic would not have had to act in the manner they have.

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