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As Satisfying As It Would Be, Celtic Must Not Tell Ibrox To Ram Its 700 Tickets.

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Today debate rages across Celtic cyberspace about those lousy 700 tickets we are to be “handed” by Ibrox as if it were an act of charity and not something they are mandated to do by the SPFL regulations.

John Hartson has weighed in to suggest that we demand 10,000 or tell them what to do with their tickets, and a lot of our sites appear to agree.

Talking to friends of mine, some of them feel exactly the same way.

Believe me when I say that I understand that impulse. When I read the coverage of this – and their club didn’t even have the basic decency to announce this, they leaked it to their goonish “official media partners”- I was absolutely furious, especially as it was coached as if they were doing us a favour or taking some sort of moral position on it.

Yet I balk at the idea of us telling them where to shove their tickets.

I balk at the idea of us turning them down or making a demand for more which we all know full well is going to fall on deaf ears.

There are two reasons why I feel this way.

First, our fans are entitled to go to Ibrox and support their team.

And 700 tickets is better than none at all.

It’s easy for those who don’t go to away games to demand that we turn these down, but for those who would follow Celtic to the moon and back it’s a harder thing to swallow. The allocation is paltry, and insulting, but we can’t deny those guys their chance to do it … and we can’t deny the team the opportunity to have our fans in the ground.

The second reason is that Ibrox will not respond in kind.

They will take our 700 tickets and they will give them to the worst of their support, and we will have to put up with their bile for 90 minutes even as our own supporters are deprived.

We aren’t going to move the needle here.

Just look at the state their club is getting into pandering to the crazies over Australia; does anyone really believe they are going to wander into the next big fight with their fans to grant us more tickets for their stadium?

As usual with this lot, they’ve taken a lamentable decision for short-term gain without thinking for one minute about the long-term impact of it. They did this to appease the howling of their fans who couldn’t stand the sight of us celebrating in their stadium after we’d stuffed them.

That’s why we’re here right now, because pitiful losers grumped and moaned and bitched about having to suffer a bit of ridicule and humiliation … their board never thought past doing it for a year to shut them up. They are now trapped in a ludicrous situation.

I see no way of reversing them on this, and so our threat to send the tickets back would do not one bit of good.

We can’t deny them an allocation any more than they could deny us one now that there are no more requirements for red zones … they will snap up anything we offer them and the whole point of cutting their allocation in the first place was reciprocity.

All we’d be doing sending those tickets back would be handing them a victory.

The best thing we can do here is simply continue reflecting their behaviour with our own.

They’ve offered us a ridiculously small allocation … we should respond in kind, and make it clear that this is the way it’s going to be, and that they are the ones responsible for that.

It is shit for our away fans, and I get why the support as a whole is furious at their presumption and arrogance and the way the media is spinning this … but let’s not play into their hands, folks.

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  • John says:

    Why do we need to offer them tickets? I can remember they banned celtic from their ground and wouldn’t let any celtic supporters in. There isn’t a rule in Scotland like UEFa, where 5% of the capacity has to ho to away fans.
    Celtic should hand the 700 tickets back and tell them they won’t get any for parkhead either until we get the minimum they have to their Euro opposition.

  • Thomas Daley says:

    They started this whole game by cutting our allocation.
    When they say we are restoring the original agreement. Then we will allow them back.
    Until then Celtic park toilets remain undamaged

  • Stephen McAdam says:

    Send them back! And give them none! If that inccurs a fine so be it! Or the section lays empty fair enough, I see your point on away fans and guys that go everywhere! I did at one but I self imposed a ban myself for that hellhole way back and could had tickets for every game there at the time if I wanted. Celtic star nailed this earlier we dont want that poison in our ground with their vile songs and perma rage weaponising tragic events to sing their sick songs as well as their sectarian, racist hate filled bile! It’s good this situation they created! Keep them out of PARADISE and send those tickets to that hellhole breeding ground of hate back!

  • Stephen McAdam says:

    Also the reason the Atmosphere was akin to a european game at the drubbing of ” der hun” in febuary was largely down to the absence of the “poison” Hail Hail another TREBLE incoming

  • Martin says:

    I think we should clarify what the rules are about this. If they say we must offer them tickets then we must. Strength of feeling holds no sway in front of the rulebook.

    But if we must allow them in, it’d be a shame if the concession stands ran out of everything very early.

    I’d prefer them never to darken our doors again to be honest, and if that means we’re not at Ibrokes so be it. I rather fancy this problem won’t have too many seasons left anyway. But we can’t just knee jerk send them back then realise after the fact we’re obliged to offer them seats. That’s pride and stupidity ruling.

    • Zeddy says:

      I disagree not because it would be satisfying in any way that’s just petty. Who actually misses it ? This is just their way of showing who’s boss and in my view we shouldn’t have risen to the bait in the first place. But now that we have we certainly shouldn’t do it again.

  • jrm63 says:

    send the tickets back, it is just not worth the hassle

  • Archie Barton says:

    Don’t normally disagree with you but on this occasion I do, you say we should think of the fans that would miss out on the 700 tickets, but why not go a step further and think of the thousands of other fans that are missing out since the changes in ticket allocation at Ibrox

  • John Paul Bruen says:

    They had no tickets for the last game so we don’t need to hv them tickets for the next one . Keep them out

  • Bhoy4life says:

    700 is as good as none.
    Politely decline and keep things as they are, let them destroy their own toilets and bill themselves.

  • John says:

    I think we should tell them to f*ck off with these 700 tickets. I would honestly be fearful for the safety of 700 of our fans who would be in that cess pit especially if we scud them.And when it comes to the next game keep the bigoted scum out of our ground.

  • George Greene says:

    Absolute utter dung.We owe that organisation the sum total of nothing never mind affording them an ounce of credibility .

  • Paul Herries says:

    I do not agree, 700 is a dismal amount and should not be taken up. And why would Celtic want to go to a stadium with no atmosphere.. Take none & give none.

  • Martin Macfarlane says:

    They started all this they are an embarrassment HH

  • Michael McCartney says:

    I think our players would welcome even 700 of our support in the ground to celebrate with them at the end of the game. The real worry I would have is the safety of our support if they can’t even guarantee the safety of the ex Celtic TV pundits at Ibrox. If Celtic do refuse the tickets then they should make it clear that safety of their fans is an issue.

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