GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 20: A general exterior view of Celtic Park, home stadium of Celtic ahead of the UEFA Champions League Play-offs Round First Leg match between Celtic and Kairat Almaty at Celtic Park on August 20, 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
Tonight, Keith Jackson broke the story that, despite everything that has happened over the past three days, the Ibrox supporters’ allocation for Celtic Park will remain unchanged. I am aghast if that turns out to be the case.
After the scenes at Ibrox and the national outcry. After three days of lectures about supporter behaviour and public safety … nothing changes?
If anyone wanted proof of the cowardice that runs through Scottish football, from the clubs to the governing bodies to the police, that would certainly provide it.
Because this decision would tell us more than any statement ever could.
The supporters who attacked Celtic fans and staff at Ibrox would still be inside Celtic Park for the critical league fixture. Meanwhile a large group of Celtic supporters remain locked out of their own stadium.
At the recent meeting between Celtic and the Green Brigade, council officials told their representatives that the Safety Advisory Group was responsible for delaying their return. Yet that same Safety Advisory Group now says nothing about the behaviour of Ibrox supporters at the weekend.
Apparently no safety concern exists when it comes to allowing them into our stadium.
That raises a couple of very simple questions.
If the weekend’s events genuinely posed a serious risk to public safety, why did authorities take no action? Why did they ignore the one obvious precaution? Because if safety truly drove the argument all week, the decision would be obvious. No one would allow the supporters responsible for those scenes anywhere near the next match between these clubs.
Instead we appear to have the opposite outcome.
A supporter organisation that has been fundraising for members facing criminal charges, using merchandise that depicts someone kicking a Celtic supporter in the head, will be inside Celtic Park. The Green Brigade will not.
This arrangement is apparently acceptable to Celtic.
We know it is acceptable to the Ibrox club. It is acceptable to Police Scotland. Apparently it is acceptable to the SPFL and the SFA.
Which leads to another uncomfortable question.
What exactly have the last three days been about? Because if this turns out to be true they clearly have not been about public safety. It has not been about protecting supporters. It has not been about restoring standards in Scottish football.
For three days we have been treated to outrage, condemnation and moral lectures.
Yet the one decision that might have demonstrated genuine concern for safety has not even been considered. Apparently, we carry on as if it never happened.
That makes the last three days look less like a serious effort to address a problem and more like a performance. Posturing. Virtue signalling. Deflection.
Meanwhile Celtic supporters have watched their name dragged through the mud while defending a club that has chosen silence.
Earlier today, I argued that Celtic deserved time and space before responding. If the club needed that time to establish facts or to ensure any statement remained within legal boundaries, that was understandable.
If this process ends with Celtic supporters punished by Celtic while those responsible for violence face no meaningful consequence, then serious questions must be asked about the priorities of those running the club.
Where exactly does the safety of Celtic supporters, staff and players rank in those priorities? Because right now the message looks unmistakable if the supporters who attacked Celtic fans and officials still receive a welcome at Celtic Park.
On top of that, Jackson says Police Scotland apparently signed off on this decision, which makes their rhetoric over the last three days look increasingly hollow.
The governing bodies have delivered plenty of talk about reflection and discussion. So far they have taken no action. Instead, they promise another round of meetings and conversations. Scottish football has never lacked talking shops.
What it lacks is the courage to take decisions.
Everything we have witnessed over the past three days now looks hollow.
The outrage. The lectures. All the calls for reform.
None of it has translated into meaningful action.
The club whose fans were responsible for the worst of the disorder has escaped without consequence. So why would they change? No one is asking them to, far less offering them the less pleasant incentives. They might as well get the run of Parkhead.
If serious disorder takes place at Celtic Park when these teams meet again, every organisation that has spent the last three days moralising will carry a share of the responsibility. That includes the governing bodies. It includes Police Scotland. It includes the council. And it includes Celtic itself.
Because the supporters who attacked Celtic fans and staff at Ibrox should not be anywhere near Celtic Park. Yet they have apparently now been invited back. After everything that has happened, that decision will speak louder than any statement ever could.
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I have no words for these spineless fkrs,it was bad enough the last time they were in and our fans locked out,this is reprehensible,unbelievable,my ST is hanging by a fkn thread,fkn hypocrites
I don’t understand the whole debate around away allocations and how it is not safe to go back to 7500 fans at Ibrox or vice versa. It happened for years without any pitch invasions. I’ve supported Celtic since the 80s and can’t remember any pitch invasions during these games. The clubs and the police just need to crack down on the idiots. That shouldn’t be too onerous given how difficult it can be to get a ticket for an away game. Stop the spiderman masks, stop the organised marches to the games and do proper searches before entering the ground.
Interesting question – if everyone is saying we can’t have the away allocations again in the league because the fans can’t be trusted then what happens at a semi-final or final at Hampden between the two? Empty stadium? You can bet that won’t happen.
There now can be no doubt that the biggest cowards in Scottish football are found in the Celtic boardroom. They are not Celtic fans, no Celtic supporter I know wants supporters of the Ibrox club anywhere near our stadium.
Cowards to a man. We’re being savaged by every bastard and their dug and the “board” are going to let the vermin into our stadium while still banning our own supporters. Sticking up for the supporters! Not a chance of that by the invertebrates who run our club. Ban the filth for good. Incredible decision that defies logic and goes against the fans wishes.
They are gonna just troll The Celtic Support until the day they stink the city of Glasgow instead of The Celtic Boardroom as they walk down The Celtic Way for the final time…
They’ll eventually slither away having ‘won’ their war with The Green Brigade and to hell with the team and the support it needs…
As I say they’ll slither as they’re lower than the snakes belly…
Only a matter of hours till Sevco batter them with a statement when the cops allow them to…
While I’d never recommend anyone to assault them – Just how fuckin hilarious and sweet would it be if one of The Union Bears battered Lucan to his severe injury after he invited them to Parkhead…
But he’s the reason that they’re only a point behind us so they probably love him the way we loved their bumbling CEO Bisgrove !
It’s come from pathological liar Jackshun so I’d take it with a pinch of salt for sure…
But ya never know with our yellow hollow Scummy Bastard of a Board…
They’ll be looking for your season ticket soon enough…
DON’T GIVE THE SCUMMY BASTARDS ONE PENNY NO MORE !
(KevJungle over at CQN might have been correct all along)…
James, why are you giving credibility to a Keith Jackson article?
The police said today they would like clubs to ban ultras…so we can ban theirs at our own home.
Yesterday the police said they cant police an away support at these games so let’s just ban them all.
We did it before and only let them back in recently..let’s do it again there will be zero repercussions. We ban them and take no tickets for Greyskull. Or ban them and talk about next season next season.
Seems simple to me!
We can as a club take the action the police cant we can take the action the spfl wont.
Just refuse an allocation.
Permanently ban all Sevconians from our stadium. We have the fanbase big enough to fill those gaps.
Chief Constable Jo Farrell calls out both Celtic & Sevco for not issuing condemnation statements. So wouldn’t it be very strange if, at the same time, Police Scotland are “singing off” on this Parkhead allocation story. Something stinks about all of this. Someone is lying.
“On top of that, Jackson says Police Scotland apparently signed off on this decision, which makes their rhetoric over the last three days look increasingly hollow.”
Police Scotland “signing off”? It wouldn’t surprise me in the least. Afterall, that’s the same Police Scotland who always get the final say in whether any orange parade gets the go-ahead. And to my knowledge Police Scotland have NEVER prevented one from taking place, despite some band openly displaying illegal banners/flags of terrorist organisations.
We are now into the 4th day after that carnage and our board have yet to condemn the violence towards our support and the Celtic personnel. Spineless parasites.
FFS! Signing off, not “singing off”.
BOTH clubs are intent in keeping division and hatred going.It’s a big money spinner.
Always follow the money.
One person gets assaulted (allegedly) and the spineless parasites on Celtic’s board ban all of the Green Brigade. And that ban is still ongoing.
Celtic fans and employees WERE assaulted last Sunday and the spineless parasites on Celtic’s board don’t take any action against the scum who did it.
Those facts alone show the spineless parasites are not fit to hold the positions they have. They need now, more than ever, to stand down and allow REAL leaders to occupy the posts.
There is no way we can allow this to happen, it has to be stopped and I’m not talking protests as these bastards are laughing at us. If someone is injured because of this decision it’s on Nicholson.
How many years do we need to listen to that phrase ‘2 cheeks of the same arse, bad as each other etc…..’. For once and for all DO NOT give ibrox 1 solitary ticket for celtic park. Every fuckin year glasgow police, glasgow council bend over backwards to help ensure hundreds of orange walks get approved to spout their racism, sectarianism in plain sight. Try asking these bastards to approve a st patricks day parade in glasgow! I bet you that glasgow is the only city in the UK that will refuse this. Ask the authourities why it is banned and they will struggle to give a coherent answer. Truth is they are shit scared of the backlash from the orange order,rangers fans,anti catholic scum in general,police scotland etc,etc. What say do we glaswegians, of the sane variety, have in the decision to approve 100s of orange walks every fuckin time they request a walk! I am from irish parents who moved here in the late 50s and I have had many arguments ( debates more like) with them re their choice of city to emigrate to! Didnt take long for them to admit that they made a bad choice of having chosen an orange shite hole of a city.
KTF.6
6?