Celtic will receive just 650 tickets for league matches away to Hearts next season.
The BBC say that the Tynecastle club are cutting away allocations next season for every team other than rivals Hibernian.
The move is said to be a result of large season ticket sales in Gorgie, but it will continue to squeeze a Celtic support already struggling for tickets.
Celtic received 1,264 tickets for each of our visits to Tynecastle last season, with only Rangers giving us less. There’s a reason why the two clubs are allowed to get away with offering us such a paltry allocation for their grounds.
It all lies in the SPFL rules and Section I27 in particular. It reads: “The home club must make provision for the admission of such reasonable number of visiting supporters at every home League Match and Play-Off Match.”
The key words in there are “reasonable number”. Put simply, the SPFL has no quantitative guide for visiting clubs.
The term “reasonable” is subjective and allows the likes of Hearts and Rangers plenty of wiggle room. It is interesting to ponder how far the clubs could actually go before the SPFL stepped in.
Most of our other competitions have more stringent rules in place for visiting supports. In Europe, 5% of Celtic Park must be made available to away fans (UEFA). In the Scottish Cup, it’s up to 20% of the capacity. (SFA, 29.1)
Of course in Scotland, many of the stadia are so small that even a healthy percentage wouldn’t always satisfy the Celtic support.
5% of Tynecastle is around 1,000 tickets, significantly less than we received last season. Away to St. Mirren or Ross County it would only be around 400 tickets.
However, a proper rule would at least see a healthy Celtic contingent at Ibrox for league matches, and far more than are currently in place.
With other Premiership teams entitled to a greater share of Celtic Park, should there be the demand, there would be reasons for them to vote it through too.
Perhaps it’s time for Celtic to lead the discussion before our away allocations at the likes of Tynecastle and Ibrox become even less reasonable.
In other news, Joe Hart may have another important role at the club
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