There’s barely a month goes by now without news of some Scottish club reducing the Celtic allocation for their ground.
It’s been a tough few years in that regard for the Hoops faithful. A decrease in tickets and an upsurge in demand (from the start of the 2010s) has led to a situation where it is virtually impossible for any new fan now to catch a Celtic game on the road.
That’s a debate in itself, however, even regular away day trippers are missing out on some of the club’s biggest games nowadays. It’s a sad state of affairs.
As we covered last week, Hearts will offer us just 576 tickets for our visit to Tynecastle on October 22. Their reasoning is that they’re “very much focused on the home fans.” While that’s understandable, so are Celtic frustrations at our following being cut to one block, and the likelihood of hundreds, if not thousands, of empty seats in the home end.
Saying that, there will at least be some Celtic fans at Tynecastle. There have been none at Ibrox for our last two visits there, and it seems unlikely that the situation will change for any of the other Premiership derbies this season.
Kilmarnock, St. Mirren and Aberdeen are some of the other clubs that have severely reduced our allocation in recent times. Over the past 24 hours, there have been rumours of Motherwell further bringing our numbers down. It seems very much like the away day is slowly dying in Scotland.
It’s all just a real shame. While, again, you understand the need for clubs to look out for their own, the overall image of Scottish football must surely play a part at some point.
What our game lacks in quality it makes up for in drama and support. The SPFL are always quick to bring out the stat that more fans per capita attend top-flight matches in Scotland than in any other European country. Yet they don’t seem to be doing much to keep attendances as large as possible.
We must be the only country in the world that actively tries to downplay or quell its biggest selling point: the fan culture. It’s genuinely maddening and is made even more frustrating from a Celtic point of view because our club is in favour of large away crowds.
The obvious suggestion here that is often mooted is for the league to bring in a 5% away allocation rule. That would give every away side the option of 5% in each ground they visit. If they don’t sell it out before a period of time, the tickets are given to the home side.
That would give us roughly 2,500 for Ibrox and around 1,000 for Tynecastle. It would also entitle both Rangers and Hearts to 3,000 tickets for Celtic Park. Surely, that would be beneficial to the image of Scottish football, and much better than this dire current situation that is only getting worse.
I won’t hold my breath for any move from the governing body.
In other news, Liam Scales gives forgotten Celtic star some huge encouragement
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