Yesterday The Celtic Star reported that Celtic supporters have been allocated over 4,455 tickets for the clash against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park a week on Sunday.
That is very welcoming change from the recent away days such as Tynecastle where we were allocated a measly 600 briefs and Hearts were left with egg on their faces as their supporters failed to take up the extra tickets taken back from the usual Celtic allocation resulted in loads of empty seats and their smallest crowd of the season.
The away support is something of a dying breed these days in Scottish football, not helped by the stance of certain clubs, with more and more preferring empty seats to paying customers.
We all know the childish antics by theRangers and the slashing of our decent allocation at Ibrox, but at least they have the comfort of knowing they will sell out any remaining briefs. And all they have achieved is to deny their own away support the chance to support their team at Celtic Park on 30 December.
The rest of the Scottish Premiership clubs are left with empty seats all around the stadium. That is self defeating and embarrassing, especially when most of these games are screened live on television. It’s not a good look and not one that potential sponsors would be prepared to bankroll.
Not only does it deprive the clubs of much needed income, it in turn deprives our supporters of an away day and a chance to watch the football and support the team.
Football is about the supporters after all, and this generous allocation by St Johnstone is the right move and one that should be considered by all the other clubs in the country.
For those saying it reduces the chances of Celtic winning, well we won at Ibrox with no Celtic supporters there and we also won at Tynecastle with just 500 Celtic supporters allowed to attend., but we dropped points at Easter Road after Hibs gave us the usual full allocation of a full stand behind the goals!
So that argument is blown out the water is it not?
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
