Celtic & Rangers Scottish Cup stadium closure upheld

Published29 October 2026

Rangers and Celtic will both play their next Scottish Cup home ties behind closed doors after the clubs' respective appeals against the sanction was dismissed.

The Glasgow clubs presented their cases to a Scottish FA appellate tribunal on Monday, but have failed to overturn a ban on supporters.

They will also be required to pay £100,000 to the visiting club in their respective home ties in the national cup competition.

However, a suspended ban on fans in the case of further infractions was set aside by the tribunal.

Celtic criticised, external what they called an "excessive and disproportionate punishment" and claimed a "false equivalence" has 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 said it had no responsibility for stadium safety arrangements at Ibrox, and so should not have been punished in the same way as Rangers.

Rangers are yet to comment on the appeal decision.

The stadium closure penalty was announced in late August following the disorder at the end of last season's quarter-final tie at Ibrox, which Celtic won after a penalty shoot-out.

Supporters threw fireworks and other missiles and police officers were injured, while 43 arrests had been made by 25 August.

An independent review published in July concluded the incident "came within a very small margin of becoming a violent mass confrontation".

The report, led by Mark Blackbourne, identified failings by both clubs and criticised the SFA for not taking a tougher approach to crowd disorder.

An agreement was reached in September to have no away fans at any of the Old Firm derbies in this season's SPFL competitions.

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Football

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