Celtic & Rangers wait for stadium closures ruling

Published3 hours ago

Rangers and Celtic are waiting for a Scottish FA appellate tribunal to rule on their respective appeals against an order that they must play their next home Scottish Cup ties behind closed doors.

The Glasgow clubs presented their cases on Monday and the tribunal will now undertake a period of deliberation before announcing whether the sanctions stand.

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.

They clubs are also challenging fines of £100,000 after their fans clashed on the Ibrox pitch.

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

Both clubs were warned that they could be forced play a second home match without supporters in the event of further unacceptable conduct.

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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