Someone Will Have To Explain Why Celtic Fans Got So Few Tickets For Madrid.

The announcement from Celtic yesterday in relation to our tickets for Madrid was disappointing to some.

But to others it raised a series of questions, and primary amongst them is this; even if the Bernabeau is operating under a reduced capacity, we should still be entitled to 5% of the available tickets for the game.

This is a UEFA regulation.

The Bernabeau holds 80,000 fans during a normal game.

Five percent of that would have given us 4000 tickets. Even with a cut to 60,000 we’re still entitled to a minimum of 3000. So why is the number significantly lower than that?

Celtic has done a bad job of explaining this.

The club needs to lobby Madrid, and if necessary UEFA, on the issue.

How can a club with a capacity of 60,000 justify that allocation?

They will come to Celtic Park, which holds that, and I guarantee they’ll get more tickets than 1800. If we’re settling for that allocation something has gone wrong somewhere.

Our club really can be too passive at times.

1200 extra seats might not seem like a lot but that’s two thirds more tickets and our fans are entitled to wonder what happened to them. Celtic can’t simply accept an allocation that tiny without finding out how Madrid justifies it.

None of this nonsense about segregation and police is going to fly either; those things should not impact on our entitlement.

Honestly, our fans get enough of this nonsense here at home in Scotland.

When you travel to a ground the size of Madrid’s you expect to be treated fairly and we’re certainly not getting that in this case. The club has to go off and come back with some answers as to why. We’re getting just over half the tickets we’re entitled to … that’s not good enough and it is up to our club to enquire as to why and to fight for more.

It will be interesting to see what happens on this.