On Sunday, 1 September, the first Old Firm Derby of the season will take place at Celtic Park and despite an agreement being made at the end of last season, no away fans will once again in be attendance for a match between Celtic and Rangers.
The lack of away fans in this fixture has been a regular occurrence for more than a year and none of the Old Firm matches played in the Scottish Premiership last season featured away supporters.
Why are there no Rangers fans at Celtic Park?
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Celtic's decision to not allocate any away tickets for Rangers fans for the Old Firm Derby relates to an ongoing issue around fan safety at Old Firm matches. Fan incidents have marred the fixture over the years and after allocations were repeatedly cut, the two Old Firm fixtures at the end of the 2022/23 were played in front of no away fans.
At the end of last season, both clubs agreed to re-introduce a 5% allocation for away fans at Old Firm matches this season but ahead of the first derby of the season, Celtic wrote to Rangers informing them of their decision to refuse entry to away supporters.
Celtic pinned the blame on Rangers, stating that while they had undertaken the necessary security protocols to allow away fans to return to Celtic Park this weekend, they weren't convinced that their rivals had done the same and feared that their fans would therefore be unable to attend the next Old Firm match at Ibrox in January.
Brendan Rodgers backs decision to ban away fans
Explaining this decision further, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers said:
“Celtic have played their part in what they were asked to do. When you go back to when this all started, it had nothing to do with Celtic. Celtic get dragged into this here as being a Celtic-Rangers thing. It’s not a Celtic-Rangers thing, this is a Rangers thing.
“When asked to have this agreement, make the stadium safe, we plough money into that, that started months ago. On both parties, that hasn't been agreed, so it's not complicated, it hasn’t been done.”
“The agreement hasn’t been upheld, so Celtic rightly have to defend their supporters and their club and, sadly, the Rangers supporters miss out in this game and the Celtic supporters in the return game.”
“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.”