A damning independent review into disorder at the Old Firm has warned that ugly scenes between Rangers and Celtic supporters came within a very small margin of becoming a violent mass confrontation, with both clubs now facing disciplinary charges as a result.
Lead author Mark Blackbourne, a sports event consultant with experience of UEFA match delegation and stadium inspection, is withering across 37 pages in his assessment of every conceivable facet of what went on that day and in the days before — with Rangers, Celtic, the Scottish FA, the SPFL, police, and ultras from both sides all criticised. The report details a Rangers supporter counter-invasion involving individuals wearing face-coverings and carrying poles and reinforced gloves, with Blackbourne describing it as a minor miracle that no-one suffered serious injury. It took police four minutes and 28 seconds to establish control — a period, the report states, in which life-threatening violence was possible.
Blackbourne raises further concerns about crushing risks in the Broomloan Road when Celtic fans without tickets crashed through security, a lack of any police plan for supporters outside the stadium, and some officers saying they are now petrified of working at this fixture.
On the broader issue of fan behaviour, Blackbourne is unambiguous. Scottish football, he writes, is dealing with an upward trajectory of recorded unacceptable conduct, describing the volume and variety of incidents across seasons 2024-25 and 2025-26 — including pyrotechnics, objects thrown, pitch incursions, anti-social behaviour and targeted intimidation of players and officials — as not a statistical fluctuation but a trend. He states the current disciplinary frameworks are not reversing that trend, with sanctions described as too modest, too deferred and too inconsistently applied to deter the clubs, groups and individuals they are designed to target.
His central recommendation is that immediate restriction of crowd numbers should become the opening sanction for serious incidents, replacing fines or suspended sentences as the starting point. Blackbourne’s overriding conclusion is that football authorities must stop playing around in the margins of sanctions against bad behaviour — a position both clubs are expected to resist, as they have done every time the prospect of full strict liability has been raised.
Image credit: BBC Sport / BBC Sport
