The Scottish Professional Football League has charged Celtic, Motherwell and Rangers over the behaviour of their fans at the Premier Sports Cup semi-finals last month.
Both semi-finals at Hampden delayed their kick-off after fans lit flares and other pyrotechnics, prompting the league to take action against the clubs.
The SPFL has described the supporters’ behaviour as illegal, dangerous and irresponsible, and the clubs involved now face punishment for breaking league rules.
Friday’s announcement marks the first time that the SPFL has charged clubs over the use of pyrotechnics, despite some high-profile incidents in recent years.
It’s the first time that unacceptable conduct charges have been brought against a major club since Motherwell was disciplined over supporter behaviour at the play-off final in 2015 when Rangers player Bilel Mohsni received a seven-match ban for punching and kicking Lee Erwin.
The charges have been made public ahead of next week’s cup final at the national stadium, but it could be some time before the clubs involved appear at a disciplinary hearing.
A panel will be convened by the league but with Celtic, Motherwell and Rangers all to submit evidence in advance it’s not expected that there will be hearings until early 2025.
STV understands that although there were minor incidents involving Aberdeen supporters at their semi-final against Celtic, their conduct was not considered to be on the same scale as the other three clubs.
A statement from the league read: “The SPFL can today confirm Celtic, Motherwell and Rangers have been charged with a breach of SPFL rules following the behaviour of their supporters at the Premier Sports Cup semi-finals.
“It was fantastic to have over 80,000 supporters attend last month’s semi-finals, however, the large-scale, organised and illegal pyrotechnics displays which were carried out by a small minority of supporters before the Celtic v Aberdeen and Motherwell v Rangers matches were totally unacceptable.
“This irresponsible behaviour by a minority of fans led to a 14-minute delay to Celtic v Aberdeen, a 5-minute delay to Motherwell v Rangers and caused significant inconvenience to thousands of fans at the game and to supporters watching worldwide.
“The SPFL, Scottish FA, Police Scotland and other organisations have been clear that such use of pyrotechnics is illegal and poses clear dangers and health and safety risks to fellow supporters, players and those working at matches.
“There have been a number of complaints from supporters about these incidents and the SPFL and Scottish FA have been in ongoing discussions with the clubs involved in the weeks since the semi-finals.
“The SPFL can now confirm that Celtic, Motherwell and Rangers have all been issued with formal notices of complaint under SPFL Rule H34 and each club will face a disciplinary hearing.
“Preparations are ongoing ahead of the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and Rangers at Hampden Park next week, as the SPFL prepares to welcome a capacity crowd for one of the highlights of the Scottish sporting calendar.
“The SPFL and Scottish FA will continue to work closely with the finalists in the build-up to this showpiece occasion to reinforce the importance of ensuring a safe and enjoyable match day experience for all supporters in the context of what is now an ongoing disciplinary process.”
The league rules state that every club must “ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that: its players, officials, supporters and any person exercising a function for or connected with the club do not engage in unacceptable conduct at a stadium on the occasion of an official match”.
The rules also say that clubs must identify any supporters who engage in unacceptable conduct and take “proportionate” disciplinary measure against those individuals.
The SPFL does not have specific punishments attached to each rule, instead giving the disciplinary panel a range of sanctions to choose from. These range from an official warning or reprimand, through to a fine or partial or full stadium closure.
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