Old Firm disorder report damning - how will authorities respond?

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Police create cordon on pitch to separate Old Firm fans

BBC Scotland's chief sports writer Published 44 minutes ago It took four months to land but, when it did, the independent review of crowd disorder at the Old Firm Scottish Cup quarter-final at Ibrox in March arrived with a mighty thud.

Across 37 pages everybody gets it in the neck - Rangers and Celtic, the Scottish FA and the SPFL, the police, the ultras from both sides.

Both clubs face disciplinary charges, with the review warning that the ugly scenes "came within a very small margin of becoming a violent mass confrontation".

The lead author, Mark Blackbourne - a sports event consultant with experience of Uefa match delegation and stadium inspection - is withering in his assessment of every conceivable facet of what went on that day and in the days before.

His over-riding conclusion is that the time has come for the football authorities to stop playing around in the margins of sanctions against bad behaviour.

Blackbourne is damning of both clubs. Fines from governing bodies are not cutting it, he says in wholly unambiguous terms.

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Published 8 March "Scottish football is dealing with an upward trajectory of recorded unacceptable conduct by fan groups and individuals," he writes.

"The volume and variety of incidents across seasons 2024-25 and 2025-26 - pyrotechnics, objects thrown, pitch incursions, anti-social behaviour and targeted intimidation of players and officials - is not a statistical fluctuation. It is a trend.

"The disciplinary frameworks exist to reverse that trend. The evidence is that, in their current form, they are not doing so. The sanctions are too modest, too deferred and too inconsistently applied to alter the behaviour of the clubs, groups and individuals they are designed to deter."

Blackbourne goes on to say that instead of fines or suspended sentences being the starting point in punishing serious incidents, it should be immediate restriction of crowd numbers as an opening sanction. No warnings, no slaps on the wrist.

The Glasgow two will no doubt rail against this as they have every time the prospect of full strict liability has raised its head.

The report is an evisceration of the way of things among these two clubs and the way in which their Ultras groups behave.

Blackbourne catalogues that day in detail, a cup tie won on penalties by Celtic, a victory that sparked a "wholly inexcusable" pitch invasion by hundreds among the more than 8,000 visiting fans.

Then there was an "immediate hostile" counter invasion by Rangers supporters, many wearing face-coverings and carrying "poles and reinforced gloves". It is said in the report that it's "a minor miracle that no-one suffered serious injury".

It took police four minutes and 28 seconds to establish control - "a period in which life-threatening violence was possible".