Thousands Of Celtic Fans Locked Out At Hearts As TV Viewers See A Mostly Empty Stand.

One of the most infuriating things about yesterday, other than the despicable conduct of the officials, was the shocking sight of our fans sitting in a mostly empty stand, surrounded by stupid covers over seats which could, and should, have had people in them.

It’s a travesty. Scottish football 2024, this is what you’ve become. This is what you’ve been allowed to become. Like a parody of a game which still quotes Stein’s “Football without fans is nothing” whilst conspiring to lock out as many paying customers as possible. No wonder our game is a laughing stock south of the border. We plead poverty and clubs do crap like this.

Those seats make an absolute mockery of Hearts’ claims that they are doing this because they need to prioritise their own fans; many thousands of them could not be bothered to show up and ours weren’t able to buy their tickets.

Their excuse is ridiculous, and yet this policy not only continues but has spread to other clubs, and at almost every ground we visit there are plenty of spaces.

What an embarrassing sight that was yesterday, and I’m sure that neutrals watching the game south of the border and elsewhere would have been baffled by it. I know that a lot of people up here are. The stupidity of this cannot be overstated. It is driven, in part, by the home fans howling about away fans they don’t particularly like, and clubs have rushed to appease them by reducing the allocations of said clubs. Mostly ours and the one across town.

How can the SPFL leadership watch scenes like that yesterday and continue to sit on their hands? Their claim that this has to be left to the clubs is risible.

They have changed regulations before without consulting the clubs; the executive has the authority to take any issue it wants for itself, and they refuse to do it.

We’ve seen this scene at too many clubs already and now Hibs are threatening to cut our allocations as well, presumably so they can surround a tiny group of our supporters with plastic covers in an otherwise three quarters empty stand.

These same clubs will squeal about the unfairness of the football finance model whilst they piss all over people who would pay them money twice a season. That was farcical yesterday and not for the first time at that ground. And this will go on until away fans get some level of protection from the governing bodies. I’ll believe that when I see it.