Celtic-Rangers away ticket impasse set to continue into next year

Football Mad -

The away tickets impasse between Celtic and Rangers is set to continue until into next year.

Rangers have confirmed there will be no visiting supporters at the first two Glasgow derbies of the William Hill Premiership season.

An agreement appeared to have been struck in March this year to bring back allocations of around 2,500-3,000 tickets for rival fans, but there will be only home supporters at Celtic Park on September 1 and for Rangers’ home match on January 2.

A statement from the Ibrox club read: “Rangers was informed that Celtic will make no allocation for away fans for the September Old Firm game.

“The allocation to be implemented by both clubs was clear and Rangers was taking all steps towards fulfilling that agreement.

“In the meantime, we can confirm that no away allocation will apply for the January Old Firm fixture at Ibrox.

“This is consistent with the reciprocity embedded in the agreement reached between the clubs and the SPFL.”

Reports earlier claimed Celtic were unconvinced that Rangers would be able to safely house visiting fans for their New Year fixture amid ongoing delays in Ibrox renovations which have forced Philippe Clement’s side to host their opening matches of the season at Hampden Park.

Celtic fans had been handed a small corner of Ibrox before their club refused tickets on safety grounds (Jeff Holmes/PA)

Those concerns have apparently led to Celtic deciding not to hand tickets to Rangers for the upcoming Derby.

The Scottish Professional Football League announced in March that an agreement had been struck to ensure about five per cent of Ibrox and Celtic Park would be reserved for away fans during league games between the Glasgow rivals from this season.

In 2018, Rangers tore up the long-standing convention that saw about 7,500 fans travel across the city on derby days and reduced that figure to around 10 per cent of that total. Inevitably, Celtic followed suit.

The situation developed that neither club accepted tickets for each other’s grounds for safety reasons and Celtic refused Rangers’ request for tickets for the December 30 game last year, with the SPFL unable to enforce vague regulations over away allocations.

The PA news agency has contacted Celtic for comment.