Joe O’Rourke of the Celtic Supporters Association has hardened his stance on away ticket allocations for the Glasgow Derby.
Last month the supporters chief called for the 5% UEFA allocation to be applied for the fixture which would see around 2,500 Celtic fans at Ibrox rather than the 700 sitting ducks between the Broomloan and Govan Stands.
O’Rourke recently met with Michael Nicholson to discuss the issue, today on the Supporters Association message board he is calling for a return to the pre 2018 level of 7.500 away tickets at each venue:
This is a one sided dispute, Newco made a unilateral decision to dramatically reduce the allocation from the full Broomloan Road Stand, to around 750 in the corner crammed between the Broomloan and Govan Stand’s.
Celtic Football Club still have the ability to return to the Status Quo, because the Board showed the wisdom to sell the tickets normally allocated to Newco supporters as “Special Season Tickets” which don’t cover those games, but are sold on a game by game basis. Newco on the other hand sold the seats we used to get as season tickets
Every Celtic Supporter I have spoken to say’s the same thing, either return to the status quo, or stick their tickets where the sun don’t shine. Newco supporters have demonstrated on numerous occasions that they can’t be trusted to behave.
There has been absolutely no official comment from Celtic on the matter which came into the spotlight when no away fans were present at the last two SPFL Derby matches of last season.
Unofficially the move was triggered by Celtic refusing to take tickets for Ibrox in May following incidents involving the away fans being attacked at the January fixture.
The twist in the tail this time is that the O** F*** partners may be about to split on the issue with Bisgrove expecting to be offered 700 tickets for Celtic Park on December 30.
That would require Celtic to apply segregation of a few hundred seats plus increased police and stewarding costs.
With the SPFL rules being a vague request to provide away clubs with ‘appropriate’ numbers of tickets it looks like the issue will have to be resolved between the two clubs.
The memories of Celtic fans celebrating four consecutive wins from the Broomloan Road Stand is one that has left Ibrox fans forever scarred.
Bishrove can’t back down on that issue without being hit with a furious backlash while Celtic fans are watching closely to see if Nicholson will stand his ground on safety matters.
Celtic still sell Special Season Tickets which provide a seat for 17 SPFL matches with the other two tickets sold at the time dependend on the away allocation.
Since the start of the 2018/19 season those Season Ticket Holders have all been given tickets for the Derby matches.
The interesting scenario would be if the two clubs are drawn together in the Scottish Cup with SFA rules requiring the away club to get 20% of the tickets.
In previous times each club would have settled for the SPFL allocations but if Celtic are drawn at home to the Ibrox side they would be expected to hand over 12,000 tickets.
