Both legs of the Europa League qualifying tie between Czech side Jablonec and Celtic look like being played in-front of capacity crowds but as of yet there is no live broadcast of the away game available in Britain or Ireland.
Maybe if the likes of Premier Sports don’t buy the rights Celtic could step in and offer some ‘added value’ for the supporters, especially the 0/4 who they managed to exclude entirely from all games subject to ballots.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is set to announce today the latest Government update of the easing of restrictions and unless there has been a set-back then that should mean Celtic Park will be at capacity for the return match against Jablonec a week on Thursday (12 August).
Jablonec have confirmed on their own website that the game against Celtic this Thursday (it’s an early kick-off folks) will see the return of a capacity crowd at their Chance Arena stadium which has a capacity of 6108. That stadium name – Chance Arena – is of course somewhat ironic for the Celtic Supporters who achieved a remarkable 0/4 in the completely mute Celtic Ticket Office ballots – some of these fans would be justified in calling Paradise the ‘No Chance Arena’ when considering the incredible lengths that the ticket office has gone to to ensure some fans get all the access that they require while others got nothing whatsoever from their so-called ballots.
“From Sunday, August 1, 2021, new measures for organizing mass sports events came into force, and thanks to that we can put the complete capacity of the stadium on sale at Střelnice!
“Spectators can thus come to the match of the 3rd preliminary round of the UEFA Europa League in full numbers, subject to the current conditions, with confirmation of infectivity at the entrance to the stadium – complete vaccination, PCR test, antigen test or confirmation of disease.”
The criteria by which Jablonec supporters will be permitted entry to the stadium on Thursday include a negative PCR test within the last seven days, proof of having had the Covid vaccine or having had a positive Covid test in the last six months but having completed their self-isolation.
Celtic need to beat Jablonec to face Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in the Play-off showdown for a place in the Europa League Group stages. However if the unthinkable happens against the Czech side then Celtic will face the indignity of dropping into the Europa Conference League where we’d play either Tobol Kostanay of Kazakhstan or Slovakia’s MSK Zilina. If that happens the Celtic ticket office will have a very different problem – trying to get anyone to buy a ticket.
can’t come quick enough.
The game is supposed to be on BBC Scotland on Thursday night
Yes it is, confirmed after this article was published and reported in a separate article on The Celtic Star later in the day, yesterday. HH