Why are there no Rangers fans at Celtic Park for the Old Firm?

On Thursday, 2 January, Celtic faced Rangers in the second Old Firm Derby of the season but once again no away fans were in attendance at Ibrox.

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 Celtic fans at Ibrox?

The decision taken by Rangers not to allocate any away tickets to Celtic fans for the most recent Old Firm match relates to an ongoing issue around fan safety. Fan incidents have marred the fixture over the years. 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.

The deadlock continued throughout the 2023/24 season. Still, 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 back in September, Celtic wrote to Rangers to inform them that they wouldn't be allocating any away tickets once again.

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, 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, which took place a the beginning of January.

In retaliation to this letter, Rangers confirmed that they would not allocate any tickets to Celtic fans for the match in January. The Gers refuted the claims made by Celtic and have always maintained that they were in a position to host away supporters for the Old Firm clash.

Brendan Rodgers backed the decision to ban away fans

Earlier this season, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers pinned the ongoing conflict on Rangers. He said:

“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.”

When will away fans return to Old Firm matches?

As things stand, there is no reason to believe Rangers fans won't be in attendance at the next Old Firm Derby at Celtic Park in March. An update on confirmation of this and the exact allocation should come at some point in February but based on the agreed 5%, Rangers can expect an allocation of around 3,000 tickets.