Valencia have taken drastic action and closed their ticket office after Irish Celtic fans have been buying tickets for the home end.
The move comes after a report in the Scottish Sun told of how Celtic supporters have been using Irish passports. This is how Valencia have been monitoring who’s buying tickets for the home end.
The Spanish outfit have a ban on Celtic supporters buying home end tickets. Therefore, the club have been rejecting British passports. Clearly, however, they’ve overlooked the fact Celtic have a big following from Ireland.
Around 10,000 Celtic fans are expected to have made the journey to Spain.
But it appears no more tickets can now be bought in a bid to ease safety concerns. Considering fans have already been getting joy regardless, you have to wonder if the damage has been done.
Too drastic a measure from Valencia?
You also have to wonder why Valencia didn’t just stop accepting Irish passports too. That would’ve shut off any fans looking to pull a fast one and sneak into the home end.
Valencia released a statement saying the following:
“For safety reasons, Valencia CF have taken the decision not to open the ticket office at the Mestalla today.
“As such, there are no more tickets on sale for the UEFA Europa League game against Celtic FC.
“Valencia CF apologise for any inconvenience that this measure, which has been taken with the knowledge of UEFA, the police and Celtic FC in the interests of fan safety, may cause some of our supporters.”
The statement appears to shut out any chance of tickets being made available again before the game. It’ll be interesting to see how many Hoops fans did indeed get lucky in the home end.
Celtic are looking to overcome a two-goal deficit tonight after a poor defeat at Celtic Park last week. And it looks as though they’re going to have supporters at both ends of the ground.
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