The League and Rangers and Celtic have agreed that away fans may return later in the 2024–2025 campaign.Following the revelation that the standoff over visiting allocations would persist until 2025, the Scottish Professional Football League had conversations with both teams.
All three sides agreed, as the SPFL verified, that there would be “zero allocation for away supporters” for the upcoming two derbies.
“Thereafter, Rangers and Celtic will provide ticket allocations of around five per cent of respective stadium capacity for away supporters, for SPFL matches between the two clubs,” the statement continued.
This is still contingent upon Ibrox and Celtic Park meeting all relevant conditions.” “Away fans’ presence is a vital ingredient of the passion, drama, and excitement that is the hallmark of the William Hill Premiership,” an SPFL statement continued.
We are happy that Celtic and Rangers are determined to get away fans back to their derby games as soon as feasible.” The same deal was made in March 2024 to reinstate allocations of between 2,500 and 3,000 tickets for fans of the opposing teams. However, Celtic notified Rangers that they would not be receiving any tickets for the September 1 match at Parkhead.
Rangers released a statement on Wednesday that stated: “Rangers was making every effort to carry out the agreement, and the allocation to be fulfilled by both teams was obvious. “We can confirm that there will be no away allocation for the January Old Firm match at Ibrox in the interim.
“This is consistent with the reciprocity embedded in the agreement reached between the clubs and the SPFL.”
The Rangers’ inability to securely accommodate visiting supporters for their New Year’s fixture, coupled with ongoing delays in Ibrox renovations that have forced Philippe Clement’s team to play their opening games of the 2024–25 season at Hampden, has led to reports that Celtic, who has not yet made a public statement, is not convinced.
Rangers broke up the long-standing custom in 2018 of having 7,500 fans travel across the city on derby days, cutting that number down to around 10% of the total.
Celtic was bound to follow suit. For security reasons, it came to pass that neither team would accept tickets for the other’s grounds.
Rangers then requested tickets from Celtic for the December 30, 2023, match; at that point, the SPFL was unable to impose ambiguous rules on away allotment.
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