Celtic’s appeal doomed to fail despite evidence in independent report

Celtic has rightly appealed their recent punishment in light of the mayhem that occurred in the aftermath of last season’s Scottish cup quarter final win over the Rangers at Ibrox…

Celtic has been ordered to play their next home tie in the competition behind closed doors, with a compensation sum of £100,000 having to be paid to whoever happens to be the opposition.

The Ibrox club have been handed the same punishment and like Celtic, they have also appealed the decision, although it’s hard to find any justification for them do so other than their sense of entitlement. We are the people and all that nonsense.

Celtic’s Scottish FA punishment is disproportionate and therefore unjust

It’s quite clear that the punishment was unjust, in Celtic’s case that is, as the home side should consider themselves fortunate to get essentially what was a wrap around the knuckles considering the entire chaos was a result of their supporters wreck-less and thuggish behaviour and their own proven failures in their match planning that came close to causing fatalities.

Celtic supporters are merely guilty of letting their emotions get the better of them, and their only crime was entering the pitch in the conclusion of the game.

There was no intention of anything other than celebration, and certainly no thoughts of violence were expressed by a group of joyous supporters.

The home supporters on the other hand can’t claim the same, as they breached the inept Ibrox security, and invaded the field with the sole purpose of causing harm to the Celtic supporters, and members of Celtic staff who were still present on the field.

Balaclava clad thugs assault police, stewards, Celtic staff and Celtic supporters

The watching world then witnessed a group of balaclava clad thugs assault police, stewards, Celtic staff and Celtic supporters, as the scenes turned violent. Pyrotechnics were even fired into the away support, but luckily didn’t cause a serious injury or god forbid even worse.

The governing body in their wisdom, after a long and drawn out ‘independent’ inquiry decided to punish both clubs equally, mainly because they were afraid to do the correct thing and sanction the guilty culprits, all to avoid upsetting them and their supporters.

Yes, the home club should be the ones taking the vast majority of the blame and responsibility for the entire debacle that unfolded.

It was their negligent match planning failures that almost caused a catastrophe outside the Broomloan stand ahead of the match and resulted in too few stewards and police inside the ground in a match that had to be played to a finish.

It was their supporters who caused the violent scenes at the match. They were armed, they wore face coverings, they launched flares as weapons firing them into the Celtic supporters in the Broomloan stand.

Acts of violence were committed on supporters, stewards, Police officers, and even members of the Celtic staff – and not for the first time in recent years at Ibrox with zero punishment ever being brought down by the footballing authorities.

The home side were also responsible for terrible match planning

The home side were also responsible for terrible match planning where they purposely excluded Celtic, they were in charge of the security at Ibrox and they are ultimately responsible for their own supporters’ behaviour.

That equates to them being responsible for what unfolded, and naturally will have to accept the consequences of such. Their punishment should be severe, certainly much more severe than Celtic’s.

That is why Celtic has quite correctly appealed the decision.

Unfortunately in my view the appeal is doomed for failure as the governing body don’t have the backbone to reduce Celtic’s punishment while not doing the same for the guilty party. They certainly won’t do the right thing and punish the Ibrox club alone.

The correct outcome would have been to impose heavy sanctions on the home side, and a lesser punishment on Celtic, but it sadly that’s not going to happen. The Scottish FA’s own commissioned report clearly sets out all the facts but the governing body clearly don’t want to upset the latest Ibrox club and their aggressive support.

If Fergus McCann was still in charge at Celtic we could expect him to fight this all the way. Less so with our current custodians.