Celtic and Rangers Fans Face a Season Without Away Support
The SPFL says there will be no away fans at Glasgow Derby fixtures this season, a decision that would strip Celtic supporters out of Ibrox and Rangers fans out of Celtic Park for as long as it stands.
The SPFL has announced that there will be no away supporters at Glasgow Derby matches this season that fall under its remit, according to Celtic News Now. Worth noting straight away: the source headline flags that the SPFL’s own statement did not use the phrase “Old Firm” at all, which tells you something about how carefully this has been worded.
We’re working from an extracted report rather than the full text of the SPFL’s statement, so treat the specifics here as what’s been reported rather than gospel. There’s no official quote in front of us, no named spokesperson, and no detail yet on exactly why the decision has been taken or for how long it’s meant to run.
Which Fixtures Are Covered
What the report does tell us is the scope. It covers the usual four Scottish Premiership derbies between the two clubs – assuming Rangers finish in the top six and those fixtures actually materialise – plus the upcoming Premier Sports Cup quarter-final at Ibrox.
That’s a meaningful chunk of the fixture list. Four league derbies plus a cup tie is the bulk of the Celtic-Rangers calendar in a normal season, and if this holds, it means neither support travels to the other’s ground for any of them.
What It Means for Supporters
For Celtic fans who’ve already seen allocations at Ibrox shrink over the years, this is the logical, grim endpoint – from reduced ticket numbers to none at all. Rangers fans lose out on Celtic Park in exactly the same way, and it’s worth being honest that this cuts both ways rather than being some one-sided punishment.
We’re not going to speculate here about the reasoning behind it. The source doesn’t establish a cause, and until there’s a fuller statement or confirmation of any link to other disciplinary matters affecting these fixtures, we’d rather report what’s known than guess at what isn’t.
What Happens Next
The Premier Sports Cup quarter-final at Ibrox is the immediate fixture in the crosshairs – that’s the one arriving soonest with this restriction attached. Beyond that, whether all four league meetings are affected depends entirely on Rangers making the top six, so there’s a genuine conditional element still to play out.
No timeline for a review, no word on appeals, nothing on how long this arrangement is meant to last. We’ll keep across it as more emerges.
Mon The Hoops.
