Celtic Security Concerns The “Driving Force” Behind Ibrox Ticket Allocation Shocker.

The news has just broken that Celtic fans will not be attending Ibrox this season and their fans will not be attending Celtic Park.

The media might want to report this as some kind of “agreement” but in fact it stems from very real concerns that our club has expressed over the way our fans are treated at that ground, especially in terms of keeping them safe.

This blog has reported on a number of high profile incidents at Ibrox involving our fans.

It is perfectly obvious that Ibrox’s selfish and egotistical move to cut our allocation several years ago has placed the small number of our fans who are allowed to attend in danger.

This was emphasised during our last visit when several of our supporters were injured.

There is simply no way that Ibrox can guarantee our fans safety whilst we are crammed into a little corner and surrounded by hostile supporters on all sides.

The police operation was once very simple and straightforward at Ibrox and it is has become ludicrously complicated and needlessly dangerous. This decision from our club has been a long time coming.

SPFL regulations do require the clubs to allocate an area to away supporters; it’s not clear if Celtic turning down the allocation has resulted in us effectively banning Ibrox fans from Celtic Park or whether that’s simply the one thing both clubs have come to an agreement on. But that’s the consequence of it, and it might last a while.

Celtic has not given up in requesting that allocations be restored to what they were … Ibrox simply does not want to hear it.

Every time this story appears in the papers it is inferred that both sides are equally to blame and this is simply not true. This standoff was created there. They are the ones who are determined to keep things as they are

They don’t care that it places our fans in harm’s way.

But Celtic is simply not prepared to accept the situation as it stood prior to today’s breaking news.

Our club will not allow the safety of our fans to be jeopardised any further at a ground where our goalkeeper was showered with broken glass, where our fans were the targets of missiles and where one of our staff was hit on the head with a bottle, which recently resulted in a criminal conviction.

Celtic were gravely concerned with Ibrox’s so-called mitigation measures and in spite of several appeals to take this matter more seriously our club do not believe that the measures in place are sufficient to protect our travelling support. That’s the fact of it although the media will try to spin this every other way that they can.

This is the right decision, and one that was inevitable, as tough as it might be for our away fans.

Their safety is paramount to the club and we’re just not willing to compromise on it simply so the Ibrox board can continue to pander to its lunatic fringe.