Police and stewards had to intervene as fans stormed the Ibrox pitch on 8 March. There will be no away supporters for Celtic and Rangers derbies in the Scottish Premiership or Premier Sports Cup this season. The "temporary arrangement" was reached following talks between the Glasgow clubs and the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL).

It follows the Scottish FA's independent review into events surrounding last term's Scottish Cup quarter-final at Ibrox, which was marred by unrest and pitch incursions from both sets of fans. Rangers host Celtic in the Premier Sports Cup on 13 September, with the city rivals meeting at Celtic Park in the league a week later.

Rangers had proposed a reduced away allocation of 300 for the impending cup tie, with Celtic rejecting the offer. The crowd disorder on 8 March came after a penalty shootout win for Celtic, when around 8,000 visiting supporters had been present. That figure was much larger than recent Old Firm league derbies, with ticketing rules different for the Scottish Cup.

The Scottish FA announced last month that both clubs would have to play their next Scottish Cup home games behind closed doors. Announcing the measures, a statement from the SPFL said: "This temporary arrangement will allow both clubs, together with the SPFL, Police Scotland and other relevant stakeholders, to give proper consideration to the findings and recommendations of the independent review, take forward the necessary actions and ensure sufficient time is available to plan future fixtures thoroughly."

"It will also provide greater certainty for supporters and those involved in matchday planning, while avoiding repeated uncertainty around ticketing arrangements for individual fixtures. All parties have committed to working constructively during this period, with safety and security remaining the priority."

This video cannot be played. McInnes disappointed with Old Firm away fan ban. The March cup meeting was the first time Celtic supporters have been given the full Broomloan Road Stand allocation at Ibrox since away allocations were reduced to fewer than 1,000 in 2018. The number of away fans at both Ibrox and Celtic Park fluctuated between about 800 and zero in a series of tit-for-tat moves before an arrangement was reached for "around 5%" capacity [2,500 - 3,000] for league games in 2025 and 2026.

Rangers manager Derek McInnes described the news as "disappointing", saying: "It's always better when opposition fans are allowed into a derby game. In the context of everything that's gone on with this fixture and the last part of it, I think there's a lot to consider and a lot to discuss. As far as I was led to believe, that was still up for discussion, so it's kind of caught me on the hop a wee bit."

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill described the decision as "inevitable" and "really sad". O'Neill added: "It's a great, great fixture when the ground is absolutely full. And I think the away fans make this. Hopefully the two clubs will maybe get together at some stage or another and try to iron out the particular problems."