Celtic’s Scottish Cup allocation against Rangers was close to causing a dispute between the clubs.
That’s according to a report, which has given further details after the news that Celtic will have the full Broomloan Stand at Ibrox for the first time in nine years.
Scottish Cup rules dictate that away teams can demand up to 20% of stadium capacity, meaning that the Hoops were theoretically entitled to up to 10,000 visiting fans at the game.
According to the Scottish Sun, Celtic pushed for the ‘biggest possible allocation’ for the game, which Rangers were reluctant to agree.
But when the SFA made it clear that the compliance officer would get involved in the event that the two clubs couldn’t reach a compromise, the Ibrox side were forced into a decision.
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Celtic’s allocation for Scottish Cup tie with Rangers
That’s because the involvement of the SFA officer could well have seen them being forced to hand out the maximum 10,000 total to Celtic fans.
If that happened, we would’ve seen the biggest away attendance at Ibrox in the 21st century.
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The 7,500 figure is nearly 10 times the 800-ticket limit that has frequently been applied during the height of the recent ticketing dispute between the clubs.
This dispute began nine years ago, when Rangers cited an ‘unprecedented demand’ for season tickets in their decision to cut Celtic’s away allocation almost tenfold.
This simply never worked. Not only were atmospheres significantly altered, but fan safety concerns soon saw Celtic begin to refuse to take any away fans to Ibrox at all.
The most recent compromise reached by the clubs was at the beginning of last season, which saw away derby allocations raised to around 2,500.
But with a full Broomloan stand visible for the first time in almost a decade, could it whet punters’ appetites for a full-time return of the maximum allocations?
A Celtic win would certainly help in achieving that.
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Martin O’Neill on Celtic allocations vs Rangers
Prior to the allocation being confirmed, Martin O’Neill discussed his expectation for how many of the Parkhead faithful would be allowed at the game.
He said: “I thought that the Old Firm fixture lost a little bit in the sense that the full allocation was not given, for whatever reason.
“I don’t know historically what it was. I’ve got kind of an idea but it doesn’t really matter.
“But I think that that did lose a little bit of one of the great fixtures in European football, if not the world – but at least there’s some fans coming back and it makes a bit of a difference.
“But to get the full allocation as we did…you know, going to Ibrox and having the side to the left full of Celtic fans was always gratifying.”
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