Celtic’s return to Ibrox is still overshadowed by a punishment we can’t accept.

The punishments handed down to Motherwell, Elliot Watt and Derek McInnes over their comments after Celtic’s win at Fir Park are now largely settled.

Motherwell were fined £5,000 under Rule 72 for their social media comments. Watt was handed a four-match suspension. McInnes was also given a four-match suspension, although his appeal was partially upheld and the balance was altered so that two matches were immediate and two suspended.

The important distinction is that those disciplinary cases were about what was said afterwards, not a fresh judicial ruling on whether Celtic’s penalty should have been awarded.

But on that point, we already have the answer anyway. Willie Collum publicly reviewed the incident and said the penalty was correctly awarded.

So that part of the story is finished.

People will still howl about it from time to time, because some people are never going to let it go, but the governing body’s refereeing department has ruled on the decision and the disciplinary process has dealt with the subsequent comments.

Celtic’s penalty was deserved.

Those who spent the aftermath screaming that it was some kind of outrageous theft were howling at the moon.

Other situations have never been dealt with nearly as satisfactorily, and some remain a thorn in Scottish football’s side.

I still believe Hearts should have faced far greater scrutiny over their behaviour and public comments following the title decider at Celtic Park.

The allegations that Hearts players had been assaulted were certainly never established in the way they were initially presented. Martin O’Neill said at the time that Celtic had reviewed the footage and could find no evidence of it, while Police Scotland was investigating whether any criminality had actually taken place.

That matters. When accusations that serious are made publicly, particularly when they smear another Scottish club and by extension the wider game, there ought to be consequences if they cannot be substantiated.

I am amazed it has not happened.

Yet the fallout from Ibrox in the Scottish Cup quarter-final continues to roll on and on.

The collateral damage is everywhere.

There will be no Celtic supporters at Ibrox this weekend. There will be no Ibrox supporters at Celtic Park in SPFL competition for the foreseeable future under the current arrangement. Both clubs have been ordered to play their next home Scottish Cup ties behind closed doors.

That punishment also carries a £100,000 compensatory payment to the away side drawn in each club’s next home Scottish Cup tie, with a further identical punishment suspended until the end of 2027/28 if there is another relevant breach.

That is a very heavy sanction. So far, there has been no public confirmation that Celtic has appealed it. The Ibrox club has done plenty of foot-stamping about its own punishment, and clearly this affects them in a different way because of their almost supernatural ability to get home Scottish Cup draws.

We have already calculated the odds on that particular run.

But Celtic’s response so far has been much quieter. The club issued a statement when the punishment was handed down, described it as disproportionate, made the point that Celtic was not the home club responsible for stadium safety arrangements and said it would study the panel’s reasoning before deciding on its next steps. Fine. That was the correct initial response. But that cannot be the end of it.

Celtic has now had time to study the punishment and consider its position.

I am not trying to rush the club into doing something stupid while its lawyers are still going through the ruling. If they are examining every line of it, good. That is exactly what I would expect them to be doing.

But supporters are entitled to expect something beyond the original statement. At the very least, I think they expect an appeal.

Because this is not a punishment Celtic can simply take lying down.

It is too severe. The financial cost is too high. The sporting damage is too serious. And the underlying implication is too damaging.

If Celtic simply accepts it, that will inevitably be read as acceptance of the equivalence the punishment creates. That is the part I cannot stomach.

We are not talking about turning this into some existential war with the governing bodies. Leave that sort of melodrama to the Ibrox club and the people who seem to think every disagreement requires banners, statements and declarations of institutional persecution. But Celtic cannot quietly absorb this either.

The club has been placed on the same level as a club whose supporters entered the pitch masked and armed during the disorder at Ibrox. That is the plague-on-both-your-houses narrative made flesh. It cannot simply be allowed to stand without challenge.

Like every disciplinary process, there will be formal rules around appeals and time limits.

Celtic will know them. If there is a deadline by which an appeal has to be lodged, then obviously that matters. And if an appeal has already been submitted privately, fine. But neither Celtic nor the governing body has publicly announced one.

That silence cannot continue indefinitely.

The original club statement was strong enough as far as statements go. But if that is all we ever get, then we are not much better than the Ibrox club issuing furious communiques which disappear into the ether without producing any actual result.

Words are useful only if something follows them.

If Celtic eventually pays the £100,000, closes the stadium for a Scottish Cup tie and then tells supporters there was nothing more to be done, that would be even harder to understand. A sanction this serious should be tested as far as the rules reasonably allow.

This is not some trivial fine. It affects revenue. It affects supporters. It affects the sporting spectacle. And more than anything else, it affects the reputation of the club.

That is why I do not believe Celtic intends to ignore it.

For all the criticism this board receives, and rightly so, this is one area where it has shown itself willing to engage in a fight with the Ibrox club and with the structures around these fixtures. Perhaps it is the only battle it seems truly invested in.

But if that is the case, then this punishment is exactly where that willingness has to show itself. Because there is no benefit to Celtic in allowing the idea of equal culpability to become embedded. None.

We have been tarred with the same brush.

That cannot be allowed to become the accepted version of what happened.

So, whether the response comes this week, before the match at Ibrox, before the league game at Celtic Park or shortly afterwards, I expect to hear from the club. Seven days to two weeks. Whatever the legal timetable permits.

But I expect something.

If the lawyers are preparing a brief, let them prepare it properly. If they are examining the written reasons, let them examine every word. If there is an appeal route, use it. Because the original statement promised that Celtic would consider its next steps.

Supporters are now waiting to see what those next steps are.

This weekend will be our first trip back to Ibrox since that fateful Scottish Cup afternoon. It is another cup competition. This time there will be none of our supporters there. Punishment already handed out to our club and fans for what theirs did.

Whatever happens off the pitch cannot be pinned on Celtic fans because there will not be any Celtic fans inside the ground. It will probably still be ninety minutes of hatred.

As I said on the podcast, Celtic can even turn that atmosphere to its advantage if we get an early goal and watch what happens inside that stadium. What happens on the pitch is obviously of enormous importance.

But we cannot take our eyes off what is happening away from it either.

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