Kilmarnock chairman Billy Bowie has claimed that Celtic are set to suffer from ticket cuts at Rugby Park.
The Killie chief made waves earlier this week when he announced Rangers’ ticket allocation for the final game of the season. The Ibrox club are only going to receive 4,000 tickets. That’s half of the 8,000 the Glasgow clubs normally receive from the full Moffat stand in Ayrshire.
With Steve Clarke’s side going for Europe and celebrating their 150th year of existence, the move makes sense. They want their supporters to enjoy the day, and not feel outdone by a vast Rangers support.
But, interestingly, this doesn’t appear to be a one-off. Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Daily Record, Bowie pushed that this is an idea that will be used again in the future.
“We have spoken to our own supporters about it and there is a feeling that they are intimidated when the Old Firm sides come to Rugby Park.
“So we have decided what we want to do is create an environment for them on match days where they feel absolutely safe. We want them to feel comfortable bringing their families to any Kilmarnock game. That has not always been the case.
“We are creating a fan zone behind the Moffat Stand with a nine aside football pitch and we want Kilmarnock supporters and their families to come along and enjoy the whole matchday experience. We want to celebrate what our own club has achieved on the last day of the season but this is the model we plan to use going forward.”
Important not to criminalise football supporters
This is totally Bowie’s decision in the end. If he feels he can lure more Killie fans through the gates at the expense of opposition fans, then he’s quite right. The likes of Hibernian have done the same.
Rangers can hardly moan either. They wielded a massive axe on Celtic’s allocation for Ibrox. Apparently, that was down to a demand for tickets, but it seems more likely that they were just sick of us giving them a doing on their own patch and lording it up.
Where Bowie has to calm down, however, is how he talks about Glasgow fans. It’s almost criminalising them to act as though they threaten other supporters’ safety.
There were no reports of any injuries from Killie fans when Celtic last visited. A last-minute goal ultimately saw a mini pitch invasion, but it hardly endangered any Kilmarnock supporters.
To say his own supporters feel “intimidated” by opposition fans isn’t fair. It damages the supporters’ reputations unfairly, with Celtic doing plenty for Kilmarnock by selling the Moffat stand out over the years.
But nobody can argue if Bowie wants to take this course of action. He’s quite right to look for more tickets for home fans if he feels he can sell them. But don’t start demeaning opposition fans and making it the main reason for the policy.
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