The Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers, has claimed his club had no option but to shut out Rangers fans after their rivals failed to keep their side of the bargain.
There will again be no away supporters at Celtic Park on 1 September, and for Rangers’ home match on 2 January despite an agreement, brokered in talks with the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) in March, for visiting allocations of about 5%.
Fresh talks between both clubs and the SPFL reaffirmed that commitment beyond those two matches but Rangers had previously claimed they were “taking all steps towards fulfilling that agreement” before New Year.
With Philippe Clement’s team playing at Hampden Park amid ongoing delays to renovations of the Copland Road stand at Ibrox, however, Celtic were unconvinced that the Broomloan End would be ready to accommodate their fans in January and decided not to offer Rangers tickets for their home match.
Rodgers declared he was “disappointed for both sets of fans” and added: “Listen, it’s not complicated. I believe there was an agreement in place to carry out works to ensure that it’s in place for both sets of supporters to come. Celtic have been working on that for a number of months.
“I know the work that has gone into it and the investment to ensure that everything was right for this fixture,” Rodgers added. “But you can only do that if the agreement is upheld with both. So if we can’t guarantee that, then sadly we aren’t able to open the gates for the away support for this one.”
Disagreements over away allocations first surfaced in 2018 when Rangers tore up the long-standing convention that saw about 7,500 fans travel across Glasgow on derby days, reducing that figure to around 10% of that total. Inevitably, bitter rivals Celtic followed suit.
The situation deteriorated to the point that neither club accepted tickets for each other’s grounds for safety reasons. The SPFL became involved after Celtic refused Rangers’ allocation request for the 30 December Old Firm game last year.
When asked if Celtic could have taken it in good faith that Rangers would do the required safety work by the end of the year, Rodgers said: “I think the board have made a really, really good decision. The club’s job is to protect the support and if there’s not that guarantee then … I think it’s logical you wouldn’t reciprocate.”
“Celtic have played their part in what they were asked to do. And again, I go back, nothing of this was Celtic’s issue. Nothing. When you go back to when this all started, it’s nothing to do with Celtic. Celtic gets dragged into this as being a Celtic-Rangers thing. It’s not a Celtic-Rangers thing. This is a Rangers thing.
“So Celtic, when even they’re asked to have this agreement to make the stadium safe and everything else, we plough money into that, we do the works, which started months ago. And on both parties, it hasn’t been agreed. So it’s not complicated. It hasn’t been done. It’s not good faith. The agreement hasn’t been upheld.”
“It’s not great faith if we allow Rangers supporters in and then we get to January and our own supporters can’t get in,” Rodgers continued. “So Celtic rightly have to defend their supporters and their club. And sadly, as I said, the Rangers supporters miss out on this game and Celtic the return game. But let’s hope that after that we can then find a way to get the supporters in.”
The SPFL earlier confirmed an agreement remained for ticket allocations of about 5% following the first two derbies, “subject to all necessary requirements being satisfied at both Ibrox and Celtic Park”.
An SPFL spokesperson added: “The presence of away fans is a vital ingredient of the passion, drama and excitement that is the hallmark of the Premiership. We are pleased Rangers and Celtic are committed to achieving the return of away supporters to their derby matches as soon as possible.”
Rangers manager Clement, who was speaking at the same time as Rodgers, said only: “I am not involved in these talks, but I hope for football games always that there are two sets of fans.”
Source: theguardian.com
