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SO much heat, so little light. A week later and the Scottish Cup Final fallout is getting worse, not better.

No containment. Only blame dispersal from an industrial-sized PR blower, irrespective of right or wrong.

It’s been poisonous, hate-filled, he-said-she-said effluvia fuelled by people who should know better and, worse, those who weren’t even there.

So we might as well clear up where we are and where we might be going. Get a few facts straight, since that’s the thing people seem to be struggling with the most.

Maybe then we can all start moving towards reasoned outcomes instead of being deluged by dogma.

The Cause: None of it happens if Hibs fans don’t invade the park at Hampden. None.

That’s the genesis of the whole thing. Yet Hibs’ hierarchy and their massed ranks of support can’t and won’t accept they’re primarily responsible for everything that ensued.

The use of the word exuberance doesn’t cut it. They shouldn’t have been on the pitch.

Every other team for decades has managed to win the Cup – some of them with even longer dry streaks than Hibs – and resisted doing it. Any attempt to focus on what follows the dam bursting is an attempt to deflect.

The Effect: Two-fold – firstly, the players being regarded as fair game and, secondly, that once some supporters got beyond the halfway line, they weren’t there to celebrate, they were going to rub the opposition’s noses in it.

The assaults on the players have generated the most rage, mainly because the one thing lacking amidst the chaos was certainty. All I can say is what I saw personally from the press box.

Which was Rob Kiernan taking a kick from someone then being stupid enough to go back for a bit of his own, needing two security men to drag him back.

And Andy Halliday, instead of getting up the tunnel after being protected in the centre circle by the ref and Dylan McGeouch, insisting on trying to applaud the Rangers support and taking a boot on the way there.

READ MORE: Rangers v Hibs: Police confirm 11 arrests in the aftermath of Scottish Cup final pitch invasion

He brushed it off, unhurt, but it’s still a nonsense he was in that situation at his work.

Apparently because I didn’t record video evidence of these incidents while I was rewriting a thousand-word match report, I’m a liar – but that’s the nature of social media for you.

The fans’ reaction? Put 20,000 folk anywhere, then stick a few hundred in front of them giving it the up-ye and come-ahead gestures, and a certain percentage will be hardwired with enough Neanderthal stupidity to think the only response is to wade in, not walk away.

Sad but true. Almost as sad is that the rest appeared to think singing about Fenians was somehow the more measured reaction.

The Perception: This is where it gets murky because both Sky and the BBC, as a matter of policy, bailed from showing the full incursion. That doesn’t mean they stopped filming and I’m led to believe Sky have already handed over footage to the police.

It means anyone who wasn’t there has no idea of the scale. Phone and periscope clips are there for all to see but they’re a microcosm, and judgment without the big picture is flawed.

It hasn’t stopped the twitter militia, though, occupying the moral high ground on behalf of Hibs.

The Reaction: From Hibs? Restraint, to the point of being comatose.

I’ve had people say Rod Petrie’s response was appropriate but the fact it was dragged grudgingly from him, and that he claimed he hadn’t seen any violence when he’d been watching from the directors’ box, diminished his credibility.

READ MORE: Rangers and Hibs fans keep Scottish Cup Final fallout going on the Sports Hotline

But not as much as Rangers have managed to diminish theirs in the days since. Their statements on Saturday and Sunday were the polar opposite of good PR – they were public retaliations, not public relations.

Creating more confrontation isn’t crisis management. So here’s a serious question: Who’s actually leading Rangers?

Is it Jim Traynor, the hired help? Is it Paul Murray, the de facto day-to-day face of their board? Dave King, the mainly absentee landlord? Stewart Robertson, the managing director?

There was so little cohesion, so little aim on their scattergun, that any sympathy they had at being initial victims has evaporated. They’ve overplayed their hand to the point of nausea.

Robertson’s statement the other day on the Billy Boys? Yes, he condemned it, but only on the premise that at least it wasn’t as bad as violently invading the pitch?

Why can’t he just say ‘What we did was wrong, full stop?’ It’s not an “either/or” situation.

Nothing mitigates against mass sectarianism, nor against violence, provocation or not.

The Recriminations: Those from both sides who perpetrated crimes will be dealt with, rightly, as criminals. The CCTV and Sky footage should provide enough evidence.

The SFA? Ordinarily, their problem would be their members’ failure to empower them in terms of strict liability for fans.

But because it was in the Cup, then Rule 28 of their Competition Rules – Disorderly Conduct – gives them plenty of rope to censure, fine or ban from next year’s competition.

READ MORE: Hampden riot: SFA launch hunt for fatcat fans who clambered out of VIP seats to join Scottish Cup Final pitch invasion

Hibs instigated the trouble and will be the ones primarily sanctioned. But should Rangers face them as well for their reaction? Either way, the clubs will contest it because they’re both so intent on playing themselves as innocents.

Meanwhile, the SFA have an independent commission to appoint to look at what went wrong and if it was avoidable.

Once you get beyond the invasion as the root cause, the lack of a rapid reaction to it was the next biggest problem. When the dust settles, I suspect the tardiness of the police’s deployment will be where the fault lies, not in the planning.

Were they waiting for extra-time? By the time they got their line – it felt like 10 minutes but took less than five – the damage was done.

The Solution: Is there one? One that won’t spark more fights, more pathetic protests of innocence, more whataboutery?

The compliance officer may choose to bar Hibs from defending the trophy and fine Rangers but he’ll face lengthy legal challenges from both.

Whatever actions are taken, though, they need it done quickly. Not the nine months it took the SPFL to cane Motherwell.

There’s a new season looming that is filled with promise. New personalities, revamped competitions, fresh hope in Europe, World Cup qualifiers. Let’s be positive, because it’s bound to be calmer, right?

Right? …