There should be about as much chance of Scotland’s senior clubs being punished for the conduct of their supporters as there is of a fan at the World Cup being able to buy a ticket for one of their national team’s matches for $60.
There is no strict liability – a rule which holds clubs responsible for their followers’ behaviour regardless of the measures which they have put in place to maintain order in the stands – in this country.
The SFA were eager to follow the lead of the FA in England, DFB in Germany and the KNVB in the Netherlands and introduce it back in 2013. They believed it would help enable them to tackle offensive and sectarian singing, missile throwing, pitch invasions, pyrotechnic use and other activities which are a stain the modern game.
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However, just five per cent of their member clubs voted in favour of adopting the UEFA-style regulation at the governing body’s AGM at Hampden that year and the motion required a 75 per cent majority to be passed.
So kudos to the SPFL for this week managing to sanction Celtic, Hamilton Academical, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Motherwell and Stenhousemuir for the crowd trouble which flared at their respective league games towards the tail end of the 2025/26 campaign.
For many years, their chief executive Neil Doncaster would have publicly condemned racist abuse, players being pelted with coins, lighters and bottles and pyro being set off in the strongest possible terms.
But nothing else would, as long as clubs showed they had made every effort to identify and discipline those responsible, have happened and the offenders would have carried on causing unrest on a Saturday afternoon safe in the knowledge there would be no repercussions for them or the team they purport to love.
That has changed. The dramatic rise in the use of flares, smoke bombs, strobes and rockets inside stadiums in the last few years has resulted in a definite shift in the attitude of the organisation which runs the William Hill Premiership and Premier Sports Cup. No longer can the members of the hardcore factions which every club has among their fanbases act with impunity.
There is some evidence that this admirable and much-needed new approach is making a real difference. Celtic and Rangers were both hit with reduced allocations for their next Premier Sports Cup game at Hampden in March last year as a consequence of the organised pyro displays which were staged at their semi-finals that season.
The stern warnings which were issued after those last four matches fell on deaf ears. The Parkhead and Ibrox ultras were at it again when the city rivals met in the final. But having the number of tickets they were given slashed meant there was no repeat of the affray last term. It was definite progress.
Yet, the suspended stand closures and reduced ticket allocations which Caledonian Thistle, Celtic, Motherwell and Stenhousemuir received from the SPFL on Thursday still felt inconsequential. As one online wag remarked, they are as much use as a woodpecker with a rubber beak.
Does a stronger message not need to be sent out? Do the repercussions for individuals endangering the safety of players, spectators, match officials, managers, coaching staff, stewards and police officers not have to be far greater? Is more of a deterrent not required?
Celtic have been fined £7,500 – a trifling amount for a club whose last audited accounts showed they had £77.3m sitting in the bank – and told their capacity at a Premiership fixture at Parkhead will be reduced by 1,000 seats if there is another significant pitch incursion at one of their home league matches before June 30, 2028.
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That is the result of hundreds if not thousands of their fans flooding on to the playing surface to celebrate after Callum Osmand had scored in the eighth minute of injury-time in their Scottish title decider against Hearts in the East End of Glasgow last month.
Debate about whether any of the visitors’ players were assaulted as they tried to make their way off the field has raged since. Major Tynecastle shareholder Tony Bloom and many others have wrongly claimed they were. Parkhead chairman Brian Wilson and kindred spirits have hit back at those false allegations.
But that argument detracts from the fact that what took place was absolutely appalling, put the personal wellbeing of those who were wearing maroon jerseys at serious risk and should never have been allowed to happen.
Yes, Lawrence Shankland and his team mates were only accosted, harassed and goaded, not punched, kicked or spat on. But as they were surrounded by hordes of jubilant opposition fans you feared for their safety. It was ugly and unsettling. It was a miracle that nobody was badly hurt.
The circumstances which led to those scenes, which were loudly booed by the vast majority of the home support, were unprecedented. There was probably nothing the host club could have done to prevent them. Still, the rap on the knuckles they have effectively received does not go nearly far enough.
Hooligans run the risk of criminal convictions – no fewer than 37 people have been charged with various offences, including assault, culpable and reckless conduct and breach of the peace, following the horrifying flashpoints which erupted at the end of the Scottish Cup quarter-final in Govan back in March – and being issued with banning orders which prevent them from entering grounds.
But the football authorities have a huge part to play in ensuring that what was witnessed at Ibrox and Parkhead this year does not take place in the forthcoming season and beyond.
Maybe the threat of further penalties being meted out down the line will have desired impact. It has certainly reduced, if not snuffed out altogether, pyro. But if these paltry measures fail to keep persistent troublemakers in line then the SPFL will need to give serious consideration to doling out far more than a ticking off in the future.
