Celtic fans have been told that they well get less than 600 tickets for the game at Tynecastle. This is another reduction, and it’s one that shows how unacceptable and disgusting the current away ticket situation has become.
It is a disgrace that the governing body stands back and allows this. Their complete failure to show leadership is killing the national game.
I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. Once you stop away fans from attending matches they fall out of that habit. You see empty seats in grounds all over the country every week now, so this isn’t about prioritising home supporters as some have suggested; it blatantly discriminates against certain clubs and their fans, most notably ours.
Hearts, who are one of the clubs continuously making this claim, don’t restrict tickets for their biggest rivals in this way, so their claim that they do it in our case because that allows them to give as many tickets as possible to their own fans is held up to be a transparent fiction. The reason clubs do this now is to gain a sporting advantage, it is as simple as that.
Almost every league in Europe has a guaranteed away fan allocation. This is another glaring example of how our league lags behind others in allowing gaping holes in the regulations. There is no reason why they couldn’t have put a minimum figure on there. Until recently it would have sailed through in a vote of the clubs. It’s only recently that’s become an issue.
Why are they letting this go on? They can claim that this requires the consent of the clubs, but in fact the SPFL executive has taken decisions out of the hands of the clubs before and they could easily do the same here. The clubs shouldn’t be near this decision. It’s the clubs who have done it. But they should never have been allowed to anyway.
The SPFL executive is weak. It projects its weakness. It’s why I knew we could get away with banning Ibrox fans from Celtic Park; what exactly was the SPFL going to do about that? It must be one of the most gutless football bodies anywhere, one that is content to administer without actually doing one bit of governance, and that’s how we got here.
Heart’s decision is a total nonsense, and if it wasn’t for the fact so many of our away games are shown live on television our away support would be even more disenfranchised, to the point we’d be lucky if the average fan saw any games which aren’t played at home.
The UEFA regulations exist for two reasons; to allow away fans the chance to watch their team, realising in the words of Stein that “football without the fans is nothing” and to protect sporting integrity in giving even the away club a suitable following to cheer them on.
And you know what? The best and most vocal statement in support of the fans that I’ve heard in the game since this crisis sprung up with Ibrox’s appalling decision to limit our tickets came from a player at the weekend just passed, and it was a women’s player at that.
Caitlin Hayes was absolutely superb in standing up for the rights of fans to watch their team and she called out the governing bodies as well as the Ibrox club. But you know what? She was also criticising ours because they’ve not done nearly enough.
Their statement – and I was glad we made one, but found it lacking – was pitiful compared to hers, which was magnificent in its fury and its disgust that this is what we have come to.
She showed the sort of leadership and the coherence in thinking that those running the clubs and the game itself are badly lacking, and if there more like her we wouldn’t be in this mess which gets deeper and darker and murkier the longer it goes on.
you,ll always get these little clubs biteing the hand that feed,s them,oneday eh don,t let the newspaper,s mess our club about ,don,t forget ,remember how they took us off track for ten in a row,a load of back biting rat,s
Please ?? tell them to stick the tickets up there arse.
Please ?? tell them to stick the tickets up there arse.
Yip Scottish Football is mocked mercifully down in England and reading this who can actually really blame them…
The Highland League is a masterful organisation in comparison to The SPFL and The SFA –
In fact The Football League committees on Rathlin, Islay, Jura, Colonsay, Mull, Iona, Tiree, Coll, Uist, Barra, Eigg, Muck, Canna, Skye, Harris and Lewis will have more guts and honest organisation than The SPFL and The SFA…
Maybe The SPFL and The SFA have connections to Muck as they (The SPFL and The SFA) are pure muck and filth) and perhaps Canna given that They canna get anything ever correct in life and couldn’t score in any whore house the length and breadth of the fcukin universe !!!
I maybe was a bit to general on my first comments on the Dallas blog accepting that not all Celtic fans are of one faith. But does the hearts shite back up my point that our enemies are all over this football map
That said I should have referenced an individual with a real Celtic history ” when you pull on that jersey your not just playing for a football team your playing for a people and a cause” RIP Tommy Callum tell them!!!!!
Hopefully that sums up my feelings better and what the dressing room message should be.
Probably get a better performance out the Hoops with minimal support that’ll back the team than a massive passive bunch o’ moaners that much of our so called supporters have become. As for Hearts – Do unto others as they do unto you
Well said sepp, they think it will put pressure on our team we expect our lads to play all over Europe, an win so let’s ban the shower of them including their backers in the press, the balloon will go up when they’re outside looking in lawell an co. Back us just once an stop grovelling to them BACK BRENDON AN THE TEAM an fk them all
I will try again, how many fans care about away tickets since there is no chance of getting one due to the Club’s ridiculous conditions to get one. This just let’s the morons on the opposite side of the scale that you are writing about get the tickets. It doesn’t matter which way you go left or right all the morons will meet on the other side of the circle.