Celtic fans to suffer as Hibernian put up away ticket prices

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Celtic fans wanting to watch the team play Hibernian later this month will have to fork out £32 for a match ticket.

Details of prices for the Saturday lunchtime kick-off were revealed recently on the Celtic website with Hoops fans now having to pay more than ever before to see the team at Easter Road.

It is not yet clear what sort of allocation the away support will get. The Edinburgh club chose to limit Celtic’s following for one of last season’s matches but the full South Stand was once again available for the post-split meeting.

However, the very fact that Celtic fans will now have to pay over £30 for a ticket should be a talking point.

The loyalty of the Celtic support is being punished by Hibernian

The vast majority of the Celtic support won’t be swayed by the addition of a few pounds to the cost but it’s a dangerous precedent that’s being set.

Last week, the annual BBC ‘Price of Football’ report found that adult fans can’t buy a single ticket to any Premiership match for less than £20. Celtic fans may struggle to get one for under £30 given the way things are currently going.

Our fans are constantly charged over the top due to their unwavering support – something that should be rewarded rather than punished. What happens in return is that our club then charge opposition fans the same amount because they can get away with it. That tit for tat mentality is always going to be pretty damaging for our game.

The difficulty you have is that smaller Scottish clubs are always going to look out for their own interests. If Hibernian can charge 4,000 Celtic fans a fiver extra then that’s £20,000 they’ve made instantly. They’ll care little about their own supporters paying a little more in exchange.

But it is totally unfair that paying Celtic punters will have to pay more at Easter Road than the likes of Hamilton or St. Mirren’s fans. Surely clubs should be forced to set a single away ticket price at the start of the season, and stick by it throughout the campaign.

Otherwise we’re in very dangerous waters indeed.