Rangers' Statement is a masterclass in deflection as they whitewash over their fans' criminality

Mocking 66 dead is vile, but invading the pitch to assault opposition players, staff, and fans is criminal. But once again Rangers look away and refuse to take action against the Union Bears

The scenes on the pitch at Ibrox on Sunday didn’t just expose the failures of stadium security and the host club’s own failings. It exposed an entire institution’s rot.

Let’s be honest about what happened at Ibrox on Sunday, because Rangers’ carefully worded statement certainly wasn’t.

Celtic won a Scottish Cup penalty shootout with lethal precision. Of the 7,500 travelling supporters around a hundred flooded the pitch in the kind of spontaneous, joyful chaos that football regularly and beautifully produces. Players embraced fans. Fans embraced each other. Nobody was hurt. Nobody was looking to hurt anyone.

Then Rangers supporters surged from the Copeland Road end, and the afternoon turned ugly as pyros, bottles, coins, and fists were thrown by the marauding huns into the away end. A Celtic coach was assaulted. Julian Araujo was confronted by several Rangers fans and just managed to dodge a number of attacks. Police officers assaulted, and at least one Steward knocked out by a sucker punch from a balaclava clad Rangers hooligan. Police made nine arrests (with more expected) and called the scenes “disgraceful.”

Rangers’ response? A statement, released tonight, that spent more time condemning some vile graffiti than accounting for their own supporters’ violence, sectarianism, and all round behaviour. But we all know why - its season ticket renewal time and with another title challenge faltering after spending over £40 million on the squad, the club’s hierarchy will do anything in their power to try to keep their fans sweet until the renewal period closes.

Yes, Celtic fans defaced property with a reference to the 66 people who died in the 1971 Ibrox disaster. That is indefensible, full stop. Whoever did it deserves to be condemned. Those responsible are idiots who dishonour Celtic and the memory of Jock Stein who helped the injured and dying on that horrific day. Rangers were right to call it out as they were correct in calling for an independent review.

But moral authority requires consistency and Rangers have none here.

The Union Bears, the ultras group that spearheaded Sunday’s pitch invasion from their dedicated singing section, operate with what can only be described as the club’s blessing as club Chairman Andrew Cavanagh watched from the directors’ box as events unfolded.

The Rangers Hierarchy is Actively Complicit in Union Bears Criminality

The group has faced serious criminal scrutiny over the years, weapons discovered in storage areas within the stadium prior to a previous derby game, a former leader who was involved in drug dealing and other criminal endeavours - during his time as leader of the group - another member jailed for cocaine smuggling, the list goes on. Yet they receive club-sanctioned donation buckets, social media amplification, and institutional tolerance that ordinary supporters could never expect. Now they’re selling merchandise glorifying an attack on a Celtic supporter on the pitch on Sunday to fundraise legal fees for those arrested or expect to be arrested on Sunday. Rangers’ silence on this specific issue does not suggest ignorance. It suggests a calculation.

This is the same club that has ignored sectarian chanting week after week, that glosses over its own institutional failures while loudly focusing on others. The same club now calling for an independent review framed in language that treats Celtic’s pitch celebration as morally equivalent to their supporters’ violence. It is not equivalent. It was never equivalent. And everyone watching knows it.

Celtic’s board, typically reactive rather than proactive on another issue, have remained silence for another day. They have failed to formally condemn the attacks on their own backroom staff and players. That silence is its own kind of failure. Leadership means speaking clearly and with purpose when your people are targeted, not waiting to see where the wind blows first.

But the greater accountability here lies with Rangers. You cannot credibly present yourself as a club committed to good order while maintaining a symbiotic relationship with an organised group that just led a violent pitch invasion. You cannot deplore graffiti referencing a tragedy while refusing to address your supporters sectarian singing and weaponising child abuse with chants in the terraces. You cannot demand an independent review while your own house burns.

Scottish football’s administrators must now decide whether Sunday represents a line crossed or simply the latest incident to be managed, reviewed, and quietly forgotten.

The game deserves better. More importantly those football fans who don’t resort to thuggery when their team loses deserve better.