Rangers and Celtic will both play their next Scottish Cup home ties behind closed doors after a Scottish FA appellate tribunal dismissed the clubs' appeals against the sanction. The Glasgow clubs presented their cases on Monday but failed to overturn the ban on supporters. In addition, each club must pay £100,000 to the visiting team in their respective home ties in the national cup competition. A suspended ban on fans for any further infractions was set aside by the tribunal.
Celtic criticised the decision, describing it as an "excessive and disproportionate punishment" and arguing that a "false equivalence" had been drawn between the behaviour of their own fans entering the pitch "at a moment of emotion and celebration" and that of Rangers supporters. The club also stated it had no responsibility for stadium safety arrangements at Ibrox and therefore should not have been punished in the same way as Rangers. Rangers have not yet commented on the appeal decision.
The stadium closure penalty was originally announced in late August following disorder at the end of last season's Scottish Cup quarter-final at Ibrox, which Celtic won after a penalty shoot-out. Supporters threw fireworks and other missiles, police officers were injured, and 43 arrests had been made by 25 August. An independent review published in July, led by Mark Blackbourne, concluded the incident "came within a very small margin of becoming a violent mass confrontation". The report identified failings by both clubs and criticised the Scottish FA for not taking a tougher approach to crowd disorder.
In September, an agreement was reached to have no away fans at any of the Old Firm derbies in this season's SPFL competitions.
