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 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 now face disciplinary charges after the review, led by sports event consultant Mark Blackbourne, warned that the ugly scenes 'came within a very small margin of becoming a violent mass confrontation'. The cup tie, won on penalties by Celtic, sparked what the report called a 'wholly inexcusable' pitch invasion by hundreds among the more than 8,000 visiting fans. That triggered an 'immediate hostile' counter invasion by Rangers supporters, many wearing face coverings.
“Damning review warns Old Firm disorder came close to violent mass confrontation as clubs face charges.”
Blackbourne, a Uefa match delegation and stadium inspection veteran, is withering in his assessment. He writes that Scottish football is dealing with an 'upward trajectory of recorded unacceptable conduct by fan groups and individuals' – pyrotechnics, objects thrown, pitch incursions, anti-social behaviour, targeted intimidation of players and officials. 'It is not a statistical fluctuation. It is a trend,' he says.
The disciplinary frameworks exist to reverse that trend, Blackbourne says, but '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.' Instead of fines or suspended sentences as a starting point, Blackbourne calls for 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.