There is hope yet that an increased crowd capacity will be sanctioned for Tuesday night’s battle with FC Midtjylland – after Nicola Sturgeon left the decision to be sorted by Glasgow City Council.
As first reported by Record Sport, new chief executive Dominic McKay sent off a special request to the government asking for 18,000 more fans from the 2,000 initial outlay – after Celtic supporters were outraged, given that Hampden had been precisely the same amount of spectators for the Euro clashes against Czech Republic and Croatia. The hierarchy at Paradise were hoping to have been given an answer on the matter on Thursday, however nothing came of it – meaning that if the council don’t respond today, it will be highly unlikely that Celtic will be allowed the 20,000 fans into the ground that they have been craving for so long.
Sturgeon administered the newfound relaxation which allowed 2,000 fans into the grounds, although she admitted that special consideration could have been made in order to allow certain events extra fans – and later u-turned on her decision, stating that the council of each venue would have the final say on the matter.
Admittedly, this is the same council who banned people from using PARKS in Glasgow throughout the tougher times of the Coronavirus pandemic, so I wouldn’t get your hopes up about fans being finally let into Paradise again after 15 months of waiting. Although, on the other hand, an increase in economic spending due to the 10x bigger crowd and the potentially positive case studies that may come from the monitoring of the crowds, could spark council chiefs into allowing the decision.
Either way you look at it, the council and government’s lack of guidance, communication and simple competency is frustrating, especially when it leaves Celtic fans in the dark over whether they can return to one of the main things which improves their mental health. I’ll leave this quote from a Daily Record source close to discussions here – it very much sums up the situation…
“The lack of guidance from the government when it comes to approving increased crowds has created a bit of a vacuum. Local authorities are nervous about being left to make the decision on their own, so it’s no great surprise that Celtic are waiting longer than expected for an answer.”
