The behaviour of some Hearts fans at Celtic Park was mortifying … Why are some football supporters incapable of showing basic human decency?

As someone who spends a fair amount of time in football stadiums across the country, I can testify first-hand that there are moments so cringeworthy that you can feel your toes curl.

Moments which are so disgusting and so embarrassing that they are beyond the comprehension of any decent right-minded person.

What happened at Celtic Park last Sunday afternoon was one such occasion, as a group of lowlife scumbags in the Hearts end decided to sing sectarian bile during a tribute to Johnny Doyle.

Doyle was a talented winger who played for Celtic, Ayr United and Scotland during the 70s, before his life was tragically cut short in an accident at the age of just 30.

Quite rightly, Celtic supporters wanted to mark the anniversary of his death with a minute’s applause, only for the whole thing to be desecrated in the most vile and shameful fashion.

Granted, it was a minority among the Hearts support, but it was still loud enough to be audible as they chanted about dying a ‘Fenian b******’.

Martin Geissler was among those in attendance. Plainly, the BBC Scotland presenter and lifelong Hearts supporter did not hide from the issue.

Writing on social media, Geissler said: ‘Some grim songs coming out of the Hearts support today. I was there, it was excruciating and humiliating.

‘A small, small section of our support as a whole but vocal and well represented today. Proud to support the club I’ve always loved but get that stuff out. It’s awful.’

Credit to Geissler for calling it out. With a large following and a public platform, many others in his position would have stayed quiet and moved on, almost pretending it never happened.

Over the past few years, this column has repeatedly highlighted instances of sectarianism in Scottish football, only to be met with the usual whataboutery on social media. We all have a duty to speak up and call it out.

Make no mistake, this is not a Hearts problem alone. Far from it. It is a Scottish football problem, one which is deeply ingrained into the fabric of what some supporters believe to be banter or acceptable behaviour.

The Old Firm have spent decades perfecting the art of deflection. Celtic fans have specialised in IRA nostalgia and the casual glorification of violence and terrorism that most of Ireland itself has long rejected.

They have mocked the death of the Queen with banners and chants of: ‘If you hate the royal family, clap your hands’ during a minute’s applause.

The Green Brigade’s particular brand of compassion has seen them disrupt Remembrance Sunday tributes with pro-IRA songs and turn their backs while the rest of the stadium stood in silence.

Some Rangers fans are no better. They will routinely sing about the Billy Boys and being up to their knees in Fenian blood. In the past, they have mocked the death of Tommy Burns and others.

Every time one set of fans are caught and an issue blows up, the other side’s keyboard warriors respond with: ‘Aye, but what about when your lot did such and such?’ It is as embarrassing as it is predictable.

That whataboutery is part of the disease. It turns every incident into a points-scoring exercise. Nothing ever changes.

The same problems exist now as they did 30, 40, 50 years ago. The same songs are wheeled out, the same excuses are made, and the idiots continue to tarnish the matchday experience for everyone else.

All of which begs a very simple question. Why are some football fans seemingly incapable of just showing basic human decency?

It is little wonder some parents no longer feel comfortable taking their kids to games. The whole environment can feel like an absolute cesspit at times.

When a tribute to a man who died far too young becomes an opportunity for sectarian abuse, when a minute’s silence for a monarch or for the war dead is treated as a political protest, when the death of a rival player or a manager is turned into a punchline, it is mortifying.

Kids who attend these matches and witness these things are, in some cases, brainwashed to believe that abuse of the most disgusting kind is simply a performative aspect of the matchday experience as a fan.

Scottish football has spent years pretending this is an issue that will eventually somehow fade away. It has not. The numbers involved may be small relative to the overall support, but they are loud.

They are organised and emboldened by the knowledge that their clubs and the authorities have limited appetite for the sustained confrontation required to root them out.

Police Scotland too often look the other way. Broadcasters mute the audio and issue an apology. Rival fans treat it as ammunition for the next episode of whataboutery rather than a shared disgrace. And so the poison persists.

This is nothing to do with ‘banter’. It is the refusal of a minority to accept that a sense of compassion and basic human decency is not optional.

Johnny Doyle was a talented footballer who died far too young. His family, in conjunction with Celtic, asked for a simple acknowledgement of that fact. A section of the Hearts support answered with sectarian hate.

That is not rivalry. That is failure – of character, of culture, and of the adults who still think this is acceptable.

Every club has its share of these morons. None are exempt.

The difference is whether the majority of supporters, the clubs themselves, and the wider game are prepared to treat the problem as something that must be confronted head-on rather than managed.

Geissler did his part. He refused to minimise it or ignore it. More need to do the same. Judging by some of the responses on social media, it struck a chord with many fans.

Supporters who also feel embarrassed when some of their own choose to indulge in similar bile. All of this comes at a time when the football authorities are finally showing some backbone in their efforts to tackle fan disorder.

Handing out stadium bans is one thing. But as Geissler has demonstrated, a large part of this also comes down to self-policing among supporters. Everyone has a duty to call it out and do better.