Celtic have announced that they have accepted the 700 tickets for Ibrox and that they are now on general sale. I’m sure that they never, even for a second, considered sending them back.
The club knows that Ibrox will take what we offer them and that there is no end in sight to this standoff. If the club thought rejecting our allocation would move them even an inch then they might have given it some thought.
But it would have done no good.
Instead the club has accepted the reality of this situation, and acted to make sure that at least some of our fans are present at their ground. This is not ideal, we all know that, but there’s a certain sense at Celtic Park that this is the way things are going to be for the foreseeable future and that we should start adapting to the situation.
There will be no change in our own posture whilst this remains the case.
Celtic will give them not one ticket more than we’re able.
There will be no “gesture” here in an effort to move this forward. The only step forward Celtic will accept is a return to the previous way things were done. Their club is not, at present, remotely interested in that.
As I said the other day, on the Endless Celts podcast, the fans deserve the chance to watch their team and the team deserves to have their support. That’s the real reason the club has gone forward here; we shouldn’t be depriving ourselves by taking a stand on principle which will achieve nothing except hand them a narrow advantage in this.
As usual, I need to take issue with some of the reporting.
It was not, as some in the press have claimed today, “COVID restrictions” which saw no fans for the first two derbies of the season.
It was the intransigent, arrogant, spiteful actions of Ibrox which caused that particular situation and the press can repeat the lie until they are blue in the face but it won’t change it.
They had a deal. Ibrox renegaded on that deal. Celtic responded by banning their fans.
That’s what happened no matter how much they want to twist the truth.
700 fans is a pitiful amount, but I’ll tell you something that Ibrox will soon learn to its immense displeasure.
700 fans can out-sing a whole stadium cast into silence by the performance of their team on the pitch, and that’s what will happen if we score an early goal. In that event, our fans could be the last people left in the ground at full time.
They will find out just how much noise 700 supporters can make … and how quiet 50,000 can be.
Except for the booing, of course.
The press have set their narrative already with the “Co-vid” nonsense. Celtic host the first meeting next season where the pressure will be huge on them to give in, the press will see to it that. It will be Celtic’s stubbornness etc etc.
While you are correct that the fans are entitled to see their team Celtic should have refused on the basis of the Celtic support as a whole. Approximately 1500 Celtic fans who were at the last game against the Ibrox mob will now have to miss out the return fixture at Celtic Park to accommodate “them”.
Celtic had a real chance to speak up for the fans here and yet again they failed us.
An absolute disgrace by the club accepting those tickets. 700? It is just not worth the hassle
Never let sevco back in paradise again to spout out there vile abuse what an atmosphere without them doesn’t matter how many get in they spoil it no devils in paradise good song the board should listen to it.