Fights on the pitch and ticketless fans break into Ibrox – Old Firm violence must stop and players can help bring about change

Scottish football witnessed shameful scenes at the conclusion of the biggest game in the country – Rangers vs Celtic.

A terrifying pitch invasion involving both sets of fans brought clashes and police intervention – and talkSPORT’s David Tanner has had enough.

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After a 0-0 draw, Celtic beat Rangers 4-2 on penalties to book their spot in the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup.

What followed were images of high tension that spilled onto the turf at Ibrox and marred the celebrations from the green half of Glasgow.

One Rangers supporter was tackled to the ground by security, whilst other fans from both sides had to be separated by a police barricade.

The Scottish Football Association swiftly announced that they would open an investigation into the events that took place on Sunday.

talkSPORT reporter Tanner was in attendance and called the post-match chaos a ‘tragedy for Scottish football’.

And when he later spoke on The Final Word, he slammed the clubs’ ultras over their behaviour and disregard for fellow supporters.

Old Firm violence ‘had been coming’

“I’m in a state of shock after what I saw at Ibrox earlier on today,” he began. “I think we have to make this point clear that this isn’t a reflection on Scottish football.

“It’s a reflection on the supporters of Celtic and Rangers, and a small fraction of those supporters, the so-called ultras. It’s not the rank and file Celtic or Rangers supporters.

“It’s this sub-group that has grown up in recent times, a sub-culture, if you will, the ultras. They can’t behave.

“They do what they want, when they want, where they want and how they want it, and they have no regards for other supporters, for safety, or for the law of the land.

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“I welcome the Scottish FA’s quick response to this by announcing an investigation. The investigation has to have teeth, and it has to take action where it’s required.

“What we saw today has been coming for a long time for all of of us who’ve been watching these daft wee boys with face masks. So, it’s no surprise to me that it happened.

“It’s a shame that it happened today in such a high profile match. But something has to be done about it by the clubs and by the authorities, because this cannot happen again. But it has been coming, don’t be in any doubt about that.”

Pitch for players, stands for supporters

Tanner also called upon the Rangers and Celtic players to play their part in preventing similar scenes from happening again, adding: “It’s nothing to do with what happens on the football pitch.

“And most of the time, these groups are making a din that in no way is affected by the ebb and flow of what happens on the football pitch. It’s all about them. Look at us. Look at these tifos, we’ve got a boy with a drum. We’re shouting and chanting. Boring.

“They can’t behave. The pitch invasions are becoming quite commonplace now. Some of the players need to look at themselves when they’ve gone into the crowd after scoring goals.

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“There’s no excuse for that. Every time it happens, I quietly say, or sometimes I’ll say on social media, ‘Every time they do that and the crowd spills on, it’s dangerous for the people who are being, you know, when the spill is happening’.

“But also, ‘Where does this go next?’ We saw in the Scottish Cup final about a decade ago here when Hibs (Hibernian) had a historic, wonderful win against Rangers (in 2016). All the Hibs supporters came onto the pitch.

“Now, the ones who got on to party, it was a tense moment. But there were others who went across the halfway line into the Rangers end of the stadium and that’s when things got spicy there. So we saw similar scenes there.

“We have to keep the fans in the stands. The pitch is for the players. The stand is for the supporters. The players shouldn’t be in the stand and the supporters shouldn’t be on the pitch. It’s pretty simple.

“I feel really sorry for the police in all of this because they have had to watch on and try and manage these idiots while the clubs have indulged them for over a decade now.

“The police in the UK police the country by consensus. In other words, they have to agree, people have to agree to obey the law of the land. And these people choose not to obey the law.

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“They bring in their explosive devices, these pyros, these ridiculous phrases that I see adult morons tweeting about, ‘No pyro, no party’. Grow up, they’re dangerous.

“There was a child burnt at a game recently because somebody threw one of them in their direction. It has to stop. There has been a breakdown in behaviour in a very small segment of the supporters at Celtic and Rangers.

“They are beginning to spread into other clubs in Scotland. It has to stop now. It has to be nipped in the bud.

“The face masks that they were all wearing today make it difficult for the cops and the clubs to identify who they are. You might consider that that side of things was pre-planned. The Rangers supporters had face masks on, some Celtic.”

‘Decent’ Celtic supporters were displaced

Tanner also reminded listeners of footage posted on social media of Celtic fans storming the gates at Ibrox before the match.

“Listen, at the start of today, which was an extended Old Firm clash, there were videos doing the rounds in the press box at Ibrox of Celtic supporters bursting in the disabled entrances without ticket,” Tanner said.

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“I saw a lot of them heading straight to the front of the stand where the so-called Green Brigade, the ultras, were housed today. They didn’t have tickets to the game and they didn’t have any right to sit in those seats.

“So the Celtic supporters, the decent supporters who had tickets to those seats, were displaced. They might not have been able to get a seat at all.

“That’s the sort of chaos, at away games in particular, that Celtic and Rangers supporters, the decent supporters, have to put up with. I have no idea why the clubs have done nothing about this over many years.

“Maybe they like the noise, maybe they think it turns away games into home games for them and it gives them a sporting advantage. It needs to stop now. Stop it right now.”