Celtic Fans Could Not Get Tickets, Yet Tynecastle Disgracefully Had Many Empty Seats.

Last week, John Hartson said something this blog had been saying for a while; that Hearts and other clubs have taken the decision to restrict our supporter numbers in the hope that they will gain some modest sporting advantage from it.

It has not done them much good. Celtic has now won at every one of the grounds where this policy is in effect.

Yesterday, at Tynecastle, after a week in which their bragging and boasting about the size of their home support and its alleged waiting list, TV viewers were treated to the shocking sight of the stand behind the goal almost totally empty except for Celtic fans wedged into a tiny section.

Hundreds of seats had been cleared on both sides of them as “separators.” But from what? Those seats could have gone to our fans.

So could much of the rest of the stand.

It is pathetic that Hearts could not sell more of their own tickets, and it reveals their whole position on this subject to be nothing but a grotesque fraud.

That they still intend to vote against the minimum fan guarantee is pretty shameful.

That was an embarrassment to their club yesterday.

On and off the pitch, that was an absolute shambles on their part from start to finish. And in case their greeting faced fans get any ideas I’ve written much worse about the club across the city, and in far more detail, when it comes to their own appalling position on this matter … and I blame them for putting the whole game in this spot.

They did this as surely as anybody did.

But they at least fill their ground every week, and their position is a stronger one than Hearts can muster as a result of that.

To cut our allocation to such a paltry figure whilst hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of seats are empty is disgusting and watching it yesterday I was even happier with the result because of it. It was great to see even more empty seats, all around the ground, when there was still a half an hour to go in the match.

That sums up the support which is postured and demanding that we don’t get a decent percentage.

If their club continues to freefall down the league table – and a couple more defeats (with Ibrox coming up) and they will be in the bottom half – we’ll see what their average attendance ends up.

This position they and other clubs are taking is only good as long as they can put backsides in the leftover seats.

That Hearts couldn’t even do it yesterday for the visit of the champions tells you all you need to know.

This is a farce that has already gone on too long.