A match which never actually finished. A fall-out that will never end. A day never to be forgotten. A season never to be emulated in terms of drama and controversy, simply dissolved into a sea of chaos.
There are days when Scottish football reminds us all why we love it so much. The raw and undiluted passion, the intensity of it all, the occasional bit of self-deprecation and comedy value.
The unalloyed beauty of a league unburdened by vast corporate wealth and petrodollars. A league which retains its soul and the fundamental essence of what football is all about.
What unfolded at Celtic Park and around Glasgow city centre on Saturday afternoon was not one of those days.
Instead, this was a day when it felt mildly embarrassing to even be associated with the whole thing. If you feel like you’ve heard that before, it’s because you probably have. This was Groundhog Day all over again.
For anyone who disputes that substance abuse is a major part of this issue, you’ve obviously never been in a stadium toilet on match-days.
Hundreds of Celtic supporters stormed the pitch on Saturday after clinching the title
A report by Daily Mail Sport last year found that cocaine use in Scottish stadiums was now ‘endemic’ among younger supporters in particular.
The report also found that at least seven clubs in the SPFL had been made aware last season of concerns about drug misuse inside their stadiums.
The streets of Glasgow, particularly around the Trongate area, became a lawless playground for coked-up neds to run riot.
Just as the pitch at Celtic Park had been turned into their own canvas to paint the most shameful of pictures, this was a day when the East End of Glasgow felt like the Wild West.
Let’s start with those closing stages of the match itself. With the scoreline at 1-1, Hearts were poised to make history and become champions for the first time in 66 years.
They came within a whisker of one of the most seismic achievements imaginable. Not only were Hearts denied by two late goals, their players were also denied the basic respect their season had so richly merited.
Their players were denied their basic personal safety on the field by a descent into anarchy which exposed an enduring tolerance for disorder at an institutional level.
Celtic claimed the league title, a fifth in succession, but the manner of its confirmation left a sorry stain that no amount of green-and-white bunting and confetti could disguise.
Despite the line now being advanced by Celtic and the SPFL, there was no final whistle. If there was, nobody in the stadium heard it. Not the fans, not the managers, not the players, not those in the press box. Nobody.
Martin O’Neill actually confirmed this to be true himself. Speaking after the match, O’Neill revealed that the fourth official had told him there was still around a minute to play after Callum Osmand had made it 3-1.
Several Hearts players were accosted by fans as they made their way towards the tunnel Â
It was only when Derek McInnes sought him out in the tunnel for a handshake that O’Neill realised the whole thing had been brought to a finish.
In effect, the match was abandoned prematurely due to the pitch invasion. Would Hearts have scored two goals in the space of a minute or so? No, of course not. But that’s not the point.
A game cannot be deemed to have finished purely on account of supporters being incapable of behaving themselves.
Where do you draw the line with that? Suppose there was another minute or two left to play, what would the officials have done then?
Some people have argued that common sense prevailed. When the alternative would have been to send the players back out on to the pitch and risk more disorder, the smart move was to call it a day.
But that completely and utterly misses the point. The whole point is that these morons should never have been on the pitch in the first place.
O’Neill was asked about the disorder after the match and admitted that, if Hearts players were accosted by Celtic fans, it was ‘pretty serious’.
Celtic captain Callum McGregor was also asked about it and claimed that fans spilling on to the pitch was ‘inevitable’ amid the euphoria of such late drama.
But why should it be viewed as inevitable? It’s only inevitable because Celtic and the footballing authorities in this country refuse to tackle it properly.
As a club, the extent of Celtic’s communication on Saturday was a few celebratory posts on social media, as well as one poking fun at Hearts and an article in the Wall Street Journal.
Questions remain over whether referee Don Robertson actually blew the full-time whistle
Those comments from their interim chairman Brian Wilson after the shame game at Ibrox, where he effectively blamed the police and absolved his supporters of blame, look all the more ridiculous.
Celtic at least had the decency to apologise to Hearts in a statement last night. Whether or not they take any meaningful action to tackle this, however, remains to be seen.
As the Parkhead club made very clear prior to the recent Old Firm match with Rangers, they are responsible for the policing arrangements inside their own stadium.
When they cannot guarantee the safety of players on the field, they don’t have a leg to stand on. This will rumble for days if not weeks. These things always do.
The SPFL came out yesterday with a mealy-mouthed statement about how they condemn the post-match disorder. At this point, it’s just hot air. They say this stuff every year.
After several of their officers were attacked in the city centre on Saturday, Police Scotland batted the ball back into Celtic’s court and asked them to take responsibility for failing to plan appropriately.
But this was no spontaneous excess or over-exuberance born purely of joy. It was a failure of planning, of communication, and ultimately a failure of leadership, one which happens year after year.
There is now an unspoken acceptance that this is simply what happens when a league title is won in Scotland. Glasgow city centre is turned into a warzone.
The ugly underbelly of Scottish football is exposed, the sense of entitlement among these morons, the institutional incompetence in how to combat the whole thing, a casual tolerance for disorder.
It should be noted that Hearts chief executive Andrew McKinlay also serves on the board of the SFA as vice-president. It will be interesting to see what the governing body have to say on the whole affair, if anything at all.Â
There was a heavy police presence in Trongate, with a number of arrests made
In times of such lawless violence, strong leadership starts right at the very top of the game.
To his credit, O’Neill had the good grace to acknowledge Hearts and their outstanding contribution to what has been a fantastic season as a whole.
Hearts did not deserve to lose the league in this fashion, with their players ushered out the door within 20 minutes of it being decided that the match would not continue.
Still in their team kits, and with some of them allegedly being assaulted by Celtic supporters, their team bus was forced to leave the stadium via a police escort.
It was an exit which denied them of basic dignity and respect, as well as the chance to acknowledge their 752 supporters who were buried away in a corner of Celtic Park.
Ironically, it was the Hearts fans who spent the duration of the match surrounded by a dense police cordon, only for the Celtic fans to cause all of the trouble.
Over the course of the past nine months, Hearts have elevated not only themselves to new levels, but an entire league. Scottish football has drawn global interest on the back of what they have done this season.
Hearts will regroup and come back stronger. They know that the duopoly in Scottish football need not be eternal.
They glimpsed the glory of an underdog threatening to shatter the established order. That vision should not be allowed to perish on the basis of one chaotic afternoon.
For Celtic and the footballing authorities, inaction and half-measures are no longer acceptable. It’s time for proper accountability. Failure to address this only shames them further.
