Falkirk does not owe an apology to its fans for Ibrox’s behaviour. The SFA does.

Before I get to the broader point of this article, I want to congratulate Falkirk on the outstanding statement they released yesterday in the aftermath of the game against the Ibrox club on Sunday.

It laid bare the behaviour of the visiting fans in a way that should set an example to the rest of Scottish football, our own club in particular, which said nothing whatsoever about the conduct of Ibrox’s fans at their home ground when we visited there in the Scottish Cup.

As has become all too routine, Celtic’s stony silence, and the lack of courage from the people in our boardroom, has been shown up by another club in the league taking the initiative and calling out what needs to be called out in this game.

That is something our own club should reflect on. It is simply not good enough that we allow our fans to be attacked, our players and staff to be assaulted, and then remain in stony silence because some people want an easy life.

Aside from condemning the behaviour of the Ibrox support, Falkirk also apologised to their own fans. That is the only part of the statement with which I disagreed.

It was Falkirk’s way of saying, “We are sorry we let these people into our house. We are sorry we subjected you to this under our own roof.”

Again, that is something Celtic should take note of, because all of those behaviours will be on full display again, in our house, a few weeks from now.

But it is not Falkirk that owes its supporters an apology. It is the Ibrox club, and more even than them it is the governing body itself. Like our own club, that governing body would rather play deaf, dumb and blind when it comes to this. It would rather not highlight it. It would rather not tackle it.

Our governing body has not only betrayed the Irish and Catholics of Scotland by allowing this racism and bigoted bile to continue, it shames itself every single day it pretends this is not happening.

It condemns every club in this country with Irish or Catholic supporters or players to listen to disgusting chants which would be unacceptable if they targeted any other religion, nationality or social group. We all know that is true.

Falkirk would not have had to apologise to its fans if the SFA had acted robustly after the events at Ibrox instead of trying to shift the blame onto our supporters and turn this into a plague-on-both-your-houses issue.

This is a plague on one house. It is a plague this game has allowed to rot for far too long.

Falkirk’s statement calls that out properly, just as previous statements from other clubs, including Hibs, have done before. The governing body carries sole responsibility for tackling this problem, and it is too gutless to do it.

It does not help that we have a media here which is even more gutless, even more determined to ignore the issue, and which has played this game for decades.

We should all hold our media at least partly responsible for everything the Ibrox support does now.

I hope there comes a point, although I have been saying this for years, when this country finally says enough is enough. I hope the people who run Scottish football eventually draw a line in the sand and say no more of this.

But that point has not come yet. That day has not dawned.

In the meantime, this is what we are left with.

A club has to apologise to its own fans for what other people have allowed to continue. Falkirk’s statement should shame those at Hampden who have spent years hoping this problem would simply go away. Or maybe that is too generous. Maybe they do not see it as a problem at all.

That is why we keep ending up back in this gutter.

A grown-up country would have a serious conversation about this.

A decisive governing body, one that put the game first, would reckon with it.

Clubs would act clearly and unequivocally to ban supporters who continue to do this. Players would walk off the pitch when they hear it. Officials would stop games, just as they do in England and across the continent in cases of racism.

There are plenty of solutions. But every one of them requires a more socially responsible media and a governing body that grows a backbone.

We are not going to get either of those things.

Scottish football is an overflowing sewer at times, and Ibrox keeps pouring its filth into it.

This is the club now trying to present itself as a model of Scottish football virtue by calling for a summit on officiating. I am going to write about that later today. But it is already clear where that club is content to leave the game. If it wanted something better it would deal with the issues inside its own house.

Instead, it keeps exporting its problems, its baggage and its bigots to every other club in the country twice a season. I am sure Falkirk are not looking forward at all to hosting the Ibrox club on the final day of the campaign.

Some serious thought will have to go into that fixture now.

Our so-called governing bodies will not lead on this.

Falkirk has nothing to apologise for.

We have a media that will not tell the truth. We have football leadership that will not act on that truth in any meaningful way.

They force us to keep putting up with this.

In an election year, I have one fervent wish; that our political class takes this out of football’s hands.

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