Celtic and Rangers away fans BARRED from Old Firm games as background to decision and talks between clubs explained
RANGERS and Celtic will keep away fans LOCKED OUT of Old Firm league matches for the rest of the season.
The Glasgow rivals have offered only reduced allocations for visiting supporters in recent years, giving out around 700 tickets to travelling fans at both Ibrox and Celtic Park.
However it’s now understood that following talks between both clubs ahead of their next Premiership clash on April 8, NO away fans will be allowed in due to concerns over “safety and security”.
After the April 8 clash there will be another fixture scheduled between the two sides at Ibrox once the split commences.
The decision will have no effect on the Scottish Cup semi-final clash due to take place on April 30.
It’s understood Celtic instigated talks after negative fan experiences at the last two Ibrox games and the club informed Rangers they wouldn’t take tickets for Ibrox in May on “safety and security” grounds.
After those discussions commenced, it’s believed Rangers agreed that they wouldn’t take tickets for Parkhead in April either.
There have been many nasty incidents in recent times that have seen both sets of away fans targeted by the home supports.
One such incident was when a Celtic fan was left bleeding after being hit by a glass bottle at this Year’s New Year clash at Ibrox.
There have also been incidents where Rangers fans have been targeted at Celtic Park, with the Ibrox club criticising the police response last May after their supporters, including the elderly and disabled, were pelted with missiles at the end of the match.
Rangers are also understood to be unhappy with the pre-match set-up at Parkhead that requires fans to be at the stadium two hours before kick-off to be safely escorted to their seats.
It is believed that Celtic do want to re-open talks aimed at a bigger away allocation at the games going forward.
Both clubs are working with Police Scotland to find a resolution but as it stands there will be no reversal of this decision.
It means that Scottish football’s biggest game will go back to having no away fans once more, following a dispute over ticket allocations that arose last season.
Celtic fans used to get the whole of the Broomloan Stand at Ibrox with Rangers supporters given a similar amount for a corner of Celtic Park in the Lisbon Lions stand where it meets the Main Stand.
But in 2018 the Ibrox club made the decision to cut Celtic’s allocation to that of every other visiting team, thus giving them only the small corner of Ibrox (West Enclosure), which has around 700 seats.
That led to Celtic following suit by reducing the amount of away fans that would be offered tickets to Parkhead to a similar number.
If a solution is not found by the start of next season, it could mean that away fans will once again be banned from the opening Old Firm match of the 2023-24 campaign, with the first derby clash of the season typically taking place in early September or late August, only five or six weeks into the season.
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