Celtic and Rangers have both partially won their appeals in the manner of a supporter whose team has retained possession beside its own corner flag: technically something happened, but nobody is planning a parade. The Scottish FA has kept the sanction that matters most. Each club’s next home Scottish Cup tie must be played behind closed doors.
The two clubs were punished after disorder at Ibrox following Celtic’s penalty shoot-out win on 8 March. Supporters from both sides entered the pitch, missiles and pyrotechnics were thrown, police and others were assaulted, and dozens of arrests followed. An independent review later said the incident came close to a mass violent confrontation. That is the serious centre of this decision, however much football tries to wrap every fact in a scarf.
At the first hearings, both clubs admitted breaches of disciplinary rule 37. The original package included one immediate closed-door home tie, a £100,000 payment to the visiting club, and a suspended second closure with another potential payment if further unacceptable conduct occurred before the end of 2027-28.
The appellate tribunal removed that suspended second match and its linked payment. It also returned £500 of each club’s £1,000 appeal deposit. The immediate stadium closure survived, as did the £100,000 compensation order. This is why the official result says each appeal was partially upheld while every ordinary headline says the clubs failed to reopen the gates.
There is one beautifully football-shaped qualification. Rangers will not owe the £100,000 if Celtic are drawn as the visitors, and Celtic will not owe it if Rangers are the visitors. Any other away club is due the money within 30 days of the match. The door remains shut regardless. The cash, unlike the support, has been given an Old Firm exception.
The ruling applies to each club’s next home Scottish Cup match. It does not create a fixture or predict the draw, so the calendar cannot yet tell supporters which Saturday has been converted into a televised study of empty plastic seats. The practical consequence arrives only when either club is drawn at home.
The punishment also lands in a season where Old Firm league and League Cup meetings already have no away supporters under a separate September agreement. Scottish football has therefore developed several distinct administrative routes to an empty section. The spreadsheet is showing excellent positional discipline.
A stadium closure is a blunt penalty because thousands of supporters who caused no trouble also lose the match. The tribunal has nevertheless left that central sanction intact while trimming the future threat. Both clubs went to appeal seeking open gates. They came back with half a deposit and the same padlocks. I have checked the fixture list twice. The atmosphere is still working from home.
