‘Everything’s moving in the right direction’, Neil Lennon discusses supporters return

CELTIC last played at Paradise on March 7th with a 5-0 win over St Mirren. The Scottish Champions were in blistering form that day in preparation for the Glasgow Derby the following week but as the old cliche goes, a week is a long time in football.

A three month layoff ensued with no training being allowed as the pandemic wreaked havoc with thousands tragically losing their lives. Celtic have since returned to training as the preparations begin for the August restart. As it stands, these games will be played behind closed door with no set date for a return fixed. However, Neil Lennon has given a positive update that crowds will return sooner rather than later.

Speaking to the Official Celtic website, Lennon admitted that it won’t be the same until supporters return.

“In an ideal world, we’d love to get crowds back into the stadium sooner rather than later. Everything’s moving in the right direction and we’re trying to stay as positive as possible on that.

“We’d love to be playing in front of supporters. Watching the games, whether that be in Germany or England, it’s just not the same but understandably, it’s good to see football back, not as we know it, but in some sort of shape or form.

🟢⚪️ The Bhoys back at Paradise… 🏟️🏠

Home of the #9INAROW Champions! 🏆9⃣ pic.twitter.com/HQk59sZzxu

— Celtic Football Club (from 🏡) (@CelticFC) June 19, 2020

“Ideally, though, going forward we want crowds in. It’s important for a club like us to have that support and there’s a huge motivation going into this season.”

Earlier this week, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has said that he expects supporters to be back into grounds ‘sooner rather than later’.
Ceferin said that the supporters absence will not continue in the long term and supporters will be back into grounds watching their teams in the not so distant future.

“I am confident that we will not have to endure the fans’ absence for long and that they will be allowed into stadiums sooner rather than later.”

Celtic will begin their season behind closed doors as the club push for an unprecedented 10-in-a-row. Training has already begun at Lennoxtown with stringent health protocols in place. The players and supporters will be hopeful that the enforced ‘ghost games’ will be at a minimum.