The Celtic-Ibrox Ticket Standoff Is Over For Now, But The SPFL Shouldn’t Be Taking Credit.

The SPFL posted a very self-congratulatory message on their website this morning, announcing that there has been a resolution in the Celtic-Ibrox ticket standoff, one which ends with a minimum ticket guarantee for both clubs. Each will get 5% of the other’s ground.

The SPFL is hailing this as if this was a triumph and that it was solely down to them.

But in fact, of course, this is nothing of the sort. Allocations will be one third of what they were before Ibrox’s pathetic and petty behaviour changed not only the fixtures between the two clubs but sparked a raft of similar reductions all across Scottish football’s top flight, and even into the second tier recently. All the while, the SPFL did nothing.

Our “governors” have failed to govern, it’s really as simple as that.

They could have taken this matter out of the hands of the clubs – they should have, in fact. Ibrox should never have been allowed to just unilaterally slash our allocation without any consultative process, and in doing so endangering our fans. Even when it was clear that they done exactly that the SPFL still failed to do anything to assure our supporter’s safety.

They abrogated their own responsibilities at every turn here.

A minimum allocation guarantee should have been written in stone in the league’s constitution before now; that this issue has had to be forced is lamentable.

And forced is the right word, because that’s exactly what has happened here. Celtic has forced the SPFL to get involved in this.

When it became clear that Scottish football’s governing body had no intention of actually doing any governing we were forced to take matters into our own hands.

Fan safety at Ibrox could not be assured, their club was not interested in making that a priority and so we refused tickets for the games, that’s what happened. Then, when it became clear that even this was not going to move the needle we banned theirs from Celtic Park pending a resolution.

We had to drag the SPFL into this kicking and screaming.

This was not some example of great leadership from them, it was another example of how spineless they are and how ineffective.

They can spare us the “oh look how well we’ve done” garbage. It was Celtic, in showing that they were willing to ban Ibrox fans entirely, who got this solution.

Without us taking that action, we’d still be reduced to 700 fans there. Nobody at Hampden offered leadership of any kind, and they still aren’t.

I really don’t know who they are trying to kid here.