The behaviour of Celtic fans at a particular Scottish football game last season made the headlines.
At the League Cup semi-final against Aberdeen in the final win over Rangers, Celtic supporters let off pyro and the club was hit with a sanction from the SPFL.
The governing body has reduced Celtic’s ticket allocation for the next Premier Sports Cup match by 500 and if the offence happens again, the sanction will increase to 800.
Indeed, the same incident happened in the Champions League where pyro used by Celtic fans against Aston Villa almost threatened an entire ticketing ban for the following game against Bayern Munich.
And it seems that the SFA are going to introduce a similar initiative next season as CEO Ian Maxwell reveals a big rule change that appears to have been inspired by Celtic’s SPFL punishment.
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SFA introduce rule change the SPFL used to punish Celtic
Maxwell has vowed to eradicate unruly fan behaviour across Scottish football and he says that the SFA have now passed a motion to bring their rules on punishments more in line with the SPFL’s.
Maxwell told The Scottish Football Podcast [45m], “Yeah, absolutely agree, particularly towards the end of last season. We saw more and more [dangerous fan behaviour] and it’s unacceptable and we need to eradicate it.
“We approved a rule change at our AGM during the week from a cup competition perspective, which brings them more in line with the SPFL rules, because I think it’s really important.
“And the nuance to this is, on a league match, the SPFL deal with incidents of crowd behaviour and we deal with on-field stuff. If it’s a cup competition, then obviously it all sits under our jurisdiction, so we will deal with incidents of crowd behaviour. And it’s important that at Scottish football, both governing bodies are dealing with those things exactly the same.
“And the change that we made to our regulations at the AGM gives us the opportunity to do that.”
Ian Maxwell claims Celtic’s SPFL punishment has helped improve Scottish fan behaviour
Maxwell appears to have been inspired by the SPFL punishing Celtic with a reduced League Cup ticket allocation and he says that since that discipline was issued, fan behaviour across Scottish football has improved.
Maxwell continued, “You’ll have seen at the end of last season, after the League Cup semi-finals and finals, that the SPFL took charges against three of the clubs that were involved. That’s led to a reduction in ticketing allocations, which is a fundamental change.
“We haven’t gone there as Scottish Football up to this point, but I think it’s a really important step. I think it’s shown, particularly in a UEFA context, that it has an impact.
“Everybody was aware during the season that Celtic still have the suspended threat of a ticket reduction, and that definitely positively impacted fan behaviour. I think it’s right that we look at similar measures. We have to do something about it.
“And as I touched on, the ticketing reduction point seems to make a difference, and that seems to be something that fans think, ‘Well, hold on a minute, if somebody’s going to behave that way, and I’m not going to get to the game, I don’t want that to happen’.”
Since then Scottish football has seen Motherwell manager, Stuart Kettlewell quit the club due to fans allegedly abusing him and the effect it has on his family.
Celtic fans have also watched as an Aberdeen supporter assaulted one of their own players after Jack Mackenzie was hit in the face with a ripped out seat in their final game of the season at Dundee United.
Aberdeen have also been hit with a pyro charge by the SPFL after their fans used pyro in the 5-1 defeat to Celtic up at Pittodrie.
Whilst incidents like this are rare, it’s still a bit early to say if the punishment handed out to Celtic has improved fan behaviour at all considering the recent spate of charges.
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