Old Firm stadium ban is a line-in-the-sand moment for the Scottish game. Finally, the authorities have shown a bit of backbone

For as long as anyone can remember, the fallout from violence and disorder around an Old Firm match has always tended to follow a familiar pattern.

There will be the usual tit-for-tat between the two clubs when they both release statements in the immediate aftermath.

There will be finger-pointing and whataboutery among both sets of supporters, without a shred of self-reflection.

There will be all manner of outrage and condemnation from politicians and the football authorities.

‘This is a national disgrace, an embarrassment to society, and must never happen again.’

That’s what they say time and time again, without ever having the courage or conviction to actually take meaningful action.

It’s just noise; empty rhetoric and cowardly governance. We’ve heard it all a million times before. It’s wearyingly and depressingly familiar.

But this is different. Eventually, the authorities have managed to get their act together and show some backbone.

A punishment of genuine consequence which bucks the trend of all that has gone before. A line-in-the-sand type of moment.

The decision to hit both Rangers and Celtic with stadium bans after the shameful violence that followed their Scottish Cup quarter-final at Ibrox in March is one such moment.

This is to be welcomed without reservation. At long last, the authorities have chosen meaningful action over the usual slap on the wrists.

The scenes that afternoon were a disgrace. It went far beyond the usual scuffles witnessed across Glasgow city centre on Old Firm matchdays.

It was a near-miss with catastrophe. Celtic supporters spilled on to the pitch in celebration after winning a penalty shoot-out.

They also took it upon themselves to vandalise parts of the stadium and leave graffiti which mocked the Ibrox disaster. Again, disgusting.

Masked supporters labelling themselves as ‘ultras’ have become the scourge of the game

Rangers supporters, many masked, many carrying metal poles and weaponised gloves, charged after them.

Flares and other missiles were thrown. Stewards and police officers were assaulted. A ten-year-old boy was struck by a coin.

For four minutes and 28 seconds, the authorities fought to restore control while the chaos was viewed by millions on national television.

The independent review led by Mark Blackbourne called it a minor miracle that no one was more seriously hurt.

For decades we have watched this unholy mess. Bedlam erupts. Clubs resort to a war of words and a points-scoring PR exercise.

The SFA or SPFL issue fines that barely register in the grand scheme of things, no more than loose change to these clubs.

A few individual fans receive banning orders. Life continues. The ultras regroup. The next high-stakes fixture arrives and the same toxic chemistry reasserts itself.

Blackbourne’s report was clear. The previous framework for sanctions held individuals accountable, whilst largely insulating the clubs from the consequences of their supporters’ behaviour.

It provided insufficient motivation to change. Frankly, that assessment was long overdue.

It hinted at a move towards strict liability without actually stating it explicitly. Well, here we are. This is strict liability in all but name.

Make no mistake, stadium bans change the equation. This is a game-changer for Scottish football, the likes of which we have never seen before.

An injured steward has to be dragged to safety as bedlam breaks out during a Scottish Cup tie

They strike at the heart of what these two clubs sell in the country’s showpiece fixture – atmosphere, passion, rivalry.

Empty stadiums change the landscape completely. They force directors to confront the fact that a section of their support has become a liability that cannot be excused.

They also send a signal to the wider public that Scottish football is no longer prepared to treat the Old Firm as a special case whose commercial power places it beyond meaningful sanction.

Some will protest that both clubs have already taken steps against their ultras. Celtic have imposed large numbers of club bans on Green Brigade members.

Rangers have spoken of zero tolerance and of the Union Bears being out of order at various times in the past. Yet, the review found those measures largely ineffective.

Individuals who were banned still found their way into grounds. Planning meetings still discussed the anticipated presence of groups who had supposedly been excluded.

The clubs have too often managed the problem rather than confronted it head-on. When the football authorities finally decide that these methods are no longer enough, the clubs have only themselves to blame.

In a statement yesterday, Celtic claimed that ‘our club has never defended supporters entering the field of play and we have repeatedly taken action when it occurs.’

Plainly, that is nonsense. At the end of last season, Martin O’Neill was on national radio and said the following after Celtic’s victory over Hearts – and mass pitch invasion – on the final day.

‘I do think if there’s going to be a universal ban on people coming on to the pitch that something would be lost from the game.’

Angry Rangers fans charged towards celebratory Celtic supporters as things turned ugly

In a recent interview with the club’s in-house media channel, Celtic interim chairman Brian Wilson said: ‘We continue to believe that the non-violent [pitch] incursion by a small number of Celtic supporters following the conclusion of the Scottish Cup quarter-final [at Ibrox] was not, in itself, a major or threatening incident.’

Celtic’s statement yesterday essentially ignored both of those interviews. It was gaslighting. By refusing to condemn these pitch invasions, O’Neill and Wilson became a big part of the problem.

There is a deeper cultural question here that goes beyond any single afternoon at Ibrox. The Old Firm rivalry has long been allowed to operate under a different set of rules.

The passion is marketed. The tribal intensity is celebrated. The bigotry, the pyrotechnics, the organised groups that treat matchdays as opportunities for intimidation, are treated as unfortunate but inevitable by-products.

We have spent years pretending that this poison is confined to a tiny minority while the evidence of sustained, organised disruption accumulates.

The review’s description of ultras operating like ‘organised crime groups’ was in no way hyperbolic. It was merely a simple and accurate observation.

The vast majority of supporters who fill Ibrox and Celtic Park are ordinary people who want to watch football.

They are, in most cases, fed up with the minority that turns the game into a vehicle for aggression and by the institutional reluctance to confront that minority.

This may not be a popular view, but meaningful sanctions protect the decent supporters, as well as everyone else for that matter, as much as they punish the guilty.

They protect the players, the stewards, the police officers and the children who should be able to attend a cup tie without fear of being caught in a rammy.

Critics will claim the bans are collective punishment and disproportionate. They will argue that innocent fans suffer for the actions of a few.

That argument has been deployed for years as a shield against any serious response. It ignores the reality that clubs are responsible for the environment they create and the supporters they accommodate.

Police wield weapons while millions of people watched the horrific scenes unfold live on TV

When hundreds of fans force their way on to a pitch, when missiles are thrown and officers are injured, the notion that the clubs bear no meaningful responsibility collapses.

Strict liability in these circumstances is not injustice. It is accountability.

Scottish football has a long and dismal record of treating the Old Firm problem as something to be managed rather than solved.

Fines that amount to small change, suspended punishments that never bite, and endless reviews that gather dust have become the pattern.

The decision to impose stadium bans breaks that pattern. It says that the safety of people inside the ground matters more than anything else – which is exactly how it should be.

Whether these bans prove sufficient will depend on enforcement and on whether the authorities maintain the resolve when the clubs inevitably appeal against it.

But the precedent has been set. For once, the response matches the gravity of the situation.

That is progress of a kind Scottish football has been far, far too slow to achieve.

The violence at Ibrox in March was a disgrace. The willingness to answer it with real consequence is long overdue and welcome.