No League Cup Final Priority for supporters who missed out in May

CELTIC this morning announced the criteria for the Betfred Cup Final against the Rangers at Hampden on Sunday 8 December. Just like in the last Cup Final back in May, our opponents will take their full allocation of just over half the stadium – sneakily there are actually a few extra rows in the traditional Rangers end at Hampden than in the Celtic end – so tickets are going to be hard to come by.

In May for the Scottish Cup Final against Hearts Celtic balloted all the supporters who met the set criteria and it is this criteria that Celtic are using for the first ever League Cup Final meeting between Celtic and the Rangers.

However no consideration appears to be given to those who met the criteria in May but were unsuccessful in the ballot. It will be interesting to see what happens here and if it’s the same supporters who are successful while others miss out again. One thing is for sure there will be plenty of angry supporters among those who miss out twice.

The criteria is as follows according to the official Celtic site: “STH on the HCTS whose payment was taken by Direct Debit for home Cup matches v Dunfermline (17 August 2019), Partick Thistle (25 September 2019) and who purchased a ticket under their own client ref, for the League Cup semi-final v Hibs (2 November 2019).

Celtic were quick off the mark to market the expensive corporate packages and if these are sold in high numbers as expected, there will be even fewer tickets for the supporters who paid to see the earlier rounds only to miss out on the Final.

Celtic certainly seem to be anticipating a backlash. “Unfortunately, we do not have a sufficient allocation to offer all STH who meet this criteria a ticket for this match, and we appreciate the disappointment this may cause.

“We fully understand that the allocation of tickets we have been given will not be able to satisfy the demand from supporters wishing to attend the match.

“We also fully accept that many supporters will be disappointed. However, we would ask fans to understand and appreciate that this is a difficult process for the club to administer, given the ticket allocation provided.

“We thank fans in advance for their support and understanding.”

The Celtic Star asked Celtic SLO John Paul Taylor after the Scottish Cup Final in May if the club had considered adopting a system where supporters who met the club’s criteria who were unsuccessful in a ballot would be given priority for the next Cup Final where the opponents were taking their full allocation. JP stated that at that time the matter hadn’t been considered but today we got our answer.

Good luck to everyone in the ballot, especially the supporters who missed out on getting a ticket for the Scottish Cup Final in May.

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