The current ticketing dispute between Celtic and Rangers has seen outspoken pundit Simon Jordan accusing the Ibrox club of simply ‘playing to the gallery’ with their recent statement.
Celtic don’t want the opposition’s ultras, the Union Bears, at Parkhead for their May 10 Premiership showdown, which Rangers have disputed and have since complained to the SPFL.
As things stand, no away fans will be present for the final Glasgow derby of the season, which could prove to be pivotal in this season’s manic three-way Premiership title race.
But when Rangers suggested in a statement that there is ‘clear and material sporting imbalance’ at a crucial stage of the season, warning it could set a dangerous precedent for the league’s future, a certain pundit on talkSPORT was having none of it.
“No, so you are talking about 1,600 fans being in the stadium against the other 50,000. Is that the argument?” Jordan questioned.
“No, they are just playing to the gallery of not wanting to be accepted, that their ultras are being excluded. They are playing to the gallery of their fanbase by saying, ‘We aren’t going to put up with that.'”
How can we ensure that the Glasgow derby can continue having full allocations after the latest incident?
Simon Jordan slams Rangers’ statement after Celtic ban away fans
The interesting thing here is that Rangers were beaten by Motherwell at the weekend, and now they face Hearts at Tynecastle on Bank Holiday Monday.
Many believe that if Danny Rohl’s men lose that fixture, then they are out of the title race. They are currently four points behind the leaders, and that would be seven with three games to play.
While nothing has been decided yet regarding this ticket situation, by the time the Rangers players rock up to Celtic Park, there is every chance they are completely out of the running to become champions because Hearts face Motherwell the day before.
Either way, this ticket drama is still up for discussion, and Jordan, who is the former owner of Crystal Palace, has never been shy to state what he thinks.
Rather than focusing on a perceived sporting disadvantage, Jordan shifted the blame squarely onto the failure to adequately police the previous Scottish Cup tie, which Celtic won on penalties, and sparked the initial fallout.
Jordan argued that the unbudgeted revenue from that hostile cup clash should have been utilised to heavily bolster stadium security.
Jim White: “Rangers say, ‘At a crucial stage of the season, the removal of any away fans from one of the defining fixtures of the competition would introduce a clear and material sporting imbalance. It would also set a precedent with a potentially significant consequences for the league in future seasons.’
“Do you think it does?”
Jordan: “No, so you are talking about 1,600 fans being in the stadium against the other 50,000. Is that the argument?
“No, they are just playing to the gallery of not wanting to be accepted, that their ultras are being excluded, so they are playing to the gallery of their fanbase by saying, ‘we aren’t going to put up with that.’
“Police these games properly. If you had policed the game properly, if you had committed the resources to the cup tie that could have been committed. It was outside of the curriculum of the budgeting that you have for the league, because it’s a cup tie you would never have budgeted for, so it’s extra revenue.
“You could have policed that game. You could have flooded it with police. You could have made it economically viable for the police to put more police in there. You could have stopped it. You couldn’t have stopped them from writing horrible inscriptions inside the stadium.
“But you could have stopped the pitch invasions, and the optics would have been different, and the conversations would have been different.”
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
