Rangers and Celtic will both play their next Scottish Cup home ties behind closed doors after the clubs' appeals against the sanction were dismissed. The Glasgow clubs presented their cases to a Scottish FA appellate tribunal on Monday, but failed to overturn the ban on supporters.
Both clubs 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 what it called an "excessive and disproportionate punishment" and claimed a "false equivalence" has been drawn between the behaviour of its 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 should not have been punished in the same way as Rangers.
The penalty was announced in late August following 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, police officers were injured, and 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." Led by Mark Blackbourne, the report identified failings by both clubs and criticised the SFA 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.
Source: BBC Sport Football · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing