Celtic boss Neil Lennon has given his thumbs up to UEFA’s announcement that teams in the Europa League can have up to 30% of their stadium capacity filled with fans in the group stages, the Celtic YouTube channel reports.
UEFA’s plan for fans to return means that if Celtic can get approval from the local authorities, the Hoops could be playing in front of crowds of 18,000 later this month. Lennon is a fan of this idea.
“We would like the fans back in”
“Ideally, we would like the fans back in, I think UEFA are looking at trying to get some of the stadium filled, and that would be brilliant going into these games” the Hoops boss said on the Celtic YouTube channel shorty after the win over Sarajevo.
It is not really a surprise that Lennon is backing the 30% idea. After all, since the season started he has been an advocate of getting fans back into stadiums.
Last month BBC Sport reported that Lennon hoped for fans to be able to return to Celtic Park for the Glasgow derby. Sadly that isn’t going to happen.
Back in August Glasgow Live reported comments from Lennon about getting fans into a home league game test event against Motherwell. Once more, that did not happen.
Celtic boss has done all he can on the matter
Really, Lennon has said and done all he can about getting fans back into Celtic Park. There is really nothing more than he can do except ask for the return of fans, and hope that the government listens.
Hopefully the Scottish government approves of UEFA’s plan for 30% of fans. They may feel that a lower number is suitable though.
Neil Lennon would probably back that. After all, it is better to have some fans in a stadium than no fans. We will just have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully in less than a month though, Celtic Park is filled with 18,000 fans. What a sight that would be.
In other news, Neil Lennon deserves more credit for Celtic’s away form in Europe.
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