Another week, another soap opera in Scottish football, another mountain out of a molehill, but this time it’s about Old Firm tickets.
As Record Sport exclusively revealed, Celtic chiefs were ‘stunned at the Rangers u-turn’ for next week’s Old Firm clash.
Look at this way. Rangers offered Celtic 700 tickets for the match; Rangers will obviously have sought assurances that they will receive the same amount for the January fixture.
Celtic have said they can't guarantee that so Rangers will have clearly responded with a message of ‘Well, no thanks! We’ll keep the 700 tickets.'
That’s all it is. Nothing more, nothing less. Yet, going by the social media comments it is made out to be some sort of conspiracy.
We are all aware of red zones and how clubs need to look after their own supporters when these restrictions are in place. Every club has the right and should be doing that.
But some of the utter nonsense on the back of this decision is hardly surprising and some of the reaction, including from pundits, to it have been typically embarrassing.
It’s always the same when this type of thing pops up. Instead of looking at things rationally and thinking ‘Ah, yeah, so if club 'X' cannot guarantee your club a return on tickets, then maybe that’s the correct decision?’ But no, it’s never that simple.
Rangers are scared of Celtic and Angeball and are petrified of the great Celtic resurgence? We have seen and read it all.
Yet, these comments are said without a hint of irony when recently we have seen Hearts and Dundee, and today St Mirren fans being locked out of Parkhead.
Does that mean Celtic are scared of those three sides, or are being petty towards them? Absolutely not.
It seems to fit the current narrative that because Celtic are on a bit of a roll and Rangers are now trying to find their feet that Rangers are not allowing Celtic fans into Ibrox on August 29. Let’s not forget the last time Celtic beat Rangers Covid 19 wasn’t even a thing.
I mean, I know Celtic want to gain every early advantage possible, there is nothing wrong with that. But to be so ‘stunned’ by this ticket fiasco is next-level nonsense.
You never really know what the thinking is behind their reaction with this one. It seems pretty straightforward. If you cannot give the same guarantees over tickets for both games, then it is only right at this point in time that the games are restricted to home fans only.
Most of these fans have paid for season tickets for a season when they haven’t been able to attend.
In some Celtic fans' cases, they spent their last season time outside their home stadium demanding sackings, chasing team buses and throwing barriers while Rangers destroyed their 10 in a row dream.
At the end of the day, Scottish football has to grow up. The whole faux outrage is boring. As for Rangers, they are spot on to refuse Celtic any tickets given Celtic apparently tried to pull a fast one.
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