There will be plenty of empty seats on show when Celtic take on Kilmarnock this weekend.
Ange Postecoglou‘s side are at Rugby Park on Sunday afternoon, looking to move three points closer to league glory.
The team will be backed by 3,969 supporters (Celtic) who will pack out the traditional Chadwick Stand.
But the three other stands at Rugby Park will have plenty of empty seats on show, just like in our August win at the stadium.
In 2019, Kilmarnock halved our allocation for their stadium (Daily Record). The days of us having both end stands at Ayrshire haven’t returned since.
Killie’s thinking is that a reduced away support will pay dividends in the long run, with more home fans able to come out and support their team.
It is a plan that has been replicated by the likes of Hearts, St. Mirren, Motherwell and, most notably, Rangers.
Of course, the big difference with a club like Kilmarnock is that the majority of seats will lie empty.
Thousands of Celtic fans will watch the game at home when they would have loved to have been there, and Sky Sports will broadcast those empty seats.
Many Celtic fans will have turned to trying to secure home end tickets for the 5-0 August win.
At that point, Killie sold home tickets to anyone willing to travel to their ticket office. (Kilmarnock, August 2022)
Now, however, they seem to have reduced the ticket options for Celtic fans even further.
For Sunday’s match, they have announced that only those who have “purchased home end tickets from the club in the past three years” will be able to buy home tickets.
This includes season ticket holders who are able to buy extra home end tickets. But it comes with a severe warning.
“Any season pass holders found to be sharing the private link, or purchasing tickets for the opposing team’s support, will have tickets and season passes cancelled without refund.”
From their point of view, it wouldn’t be good to have Celtic fans in among home supporters.
From a Celtic point of view, it is just yet more evidence of clubs turning away cash from visiting fans with seats set to lie empty.
Only in Scottish football, eh?
In other news, Celtic could be affected further down the line after the Premier League made a big announcement over gambling advertising
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