Scottish Football Association upholds Celtic and Rangers' stadium closures

Celtic and Rangers must each play their next home Scottish Cup tie without spectators after the Scottish Football Association’s appeal tribunal upheld their stadium closures. The clubs presented their appeals on 26 October, BBC Sport said on 29 October.

The penalties were imposed on 28 August following crowd disorder after Celtic’s penalty-shootout victory over Rangers in March’s Scottish Cup quarter-final at Ibrox. Each club must also still pay £100,000 to its visiting opponent. The tribunal removed an additional suspended spectator ban that would have applied following further infractions.

The disorder behind the sanctions

Supporters from both clubs entered the pitch after the quarter-final on 8 March. Fans threw fireworks and other missiles, police officers were injured, and 43 arrests had been made by 25 August.

An independent review led by Mark Blackbourne and published in July concluded that the incident “came within a very small margin of becoming a violent mass confrontation”. The review identified failings by both clubs and criticised the Scottish Football Association for not taking a tougher approach to crowd disorder.

Both clubs admitted breaching Disciplinary Rule 37, which concerns unacceptable conduct, PA said in its 25 September report. The £100,000 payments compensate visiting clubs for lost ticket income from the closed-door matches; they are not payments to the association.

The clubs' objections and the matches affected

Responding to the original August punishment, Celtic called it disproportionate and described its supporters' pitch incursion as relatively small and a moment of emotion and celebration. Rangers said it would consider the outcome and its implications before deciding its next steps. Both clubs subsequently appealed.

A separate agreement reached in September excludes away supporters from this season’s Old Firm derbies—the matches between Celtic and Rangers—in competitions run by the SPFL. That agreement concerns visiting fans. The cup ruling requires each club’s next home Scottish Cup tie to take place without any spectators, with the visiting club receiving £100,000 in compensation.