Away fan ban ‘a Rangers thing, not a Celtic-Rangers thing’ – Brendan Rodgers

Rangers ended the long-standing convention of allowing 7,500 Celtic fans into Ibrox in 2018, reducing the allocation to about 10% of that total, with Celtic following suit.

Eventually, neither club accepted tickets for each other’s grounds for safety reasons, but an agreement had been reached in March between the SPFL and the two clubs to reintroduce away fans.

Given the size of the respective stadiums, about 2,500 Celtic fans would have been able to visit Ibrox, with 3,000 Rangers supporters for games at Celtic Park.

“The agreement hasn’t been upheld, so Celtic rightly have to defend their supporters and their club and, sadly, the Rangers supporters miss out in this game and the Celtic supporters in the return game,” Rodgers said.

“I think the board have made a really, really good decision. The club’s job is to protect the support and if there is not that guarantee come the second fixture then I think it is only logical that you wouldn’t reciprocate.”

Rangers on Wednesday said they would not provide Celtic fans with tickets for the January fixture after being informed of their rivals’ decision for the September game.

“The allocation to be implemented by both clubs was clear and Rangers was taking all steps towards fulfilling that agreement,” Rangers stated on their website.

“In the meantime, we can confirm that no away allocation will apply for the January Old Firm fixture at Ibrox. This is consistent with the reciprocity embedded in the agreement reached between the clubs and the SPFL.”

Manager Philippe Clement said that, as he was not involved with the decisions, he could not comment other than to say that it is “always better for the product” if two sets of fans are in attendance.