Martin O'Neill says the complete Old Firm away fan ban was inevitable from the moment Rangers offered them just 300 briefs for the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final. And both the Celtic boss and rival manager Derek McInnes are unhappy it's come to this – with at least five derbies now set to be played in front of home fans only.
SPFL announcement
The SPFL announced the bombshell news earlier today that the away allocation has been pulled for the upcoming League Cup clash, and that neither team will have visiting allocations for their Premiership derbies this season. It comes as a direct result of the chaos that followed March's Scottish Cup quarter-final between the two at Ibrox, when violent scenes ensued after fans from both ends invaded the pitch.
An SPFL disciplinary earlier brought the hammer down on the clubs and in a separate announcement earlier today, the governing body revealed there will be no away fans at any game between the two in an SPFL competition this season.
Martin O'Neill's reaction
"I think that was inevitable, really, after Rangers were offering 300 tickets, and I think we refused that. And I think it was just inevitable that that's the decision that the powers that be would make, eventually. It's really sad, I must admit, from a normal punter's viewpoint."
"It's still a great fixture. I've said this on a few times. I still looked forward to it when I wasn't involved."
When asked if he feared there might never be away fans at an Old Firm again, O'Neill went on: "Hopefully that won't happen at some stage or another. Maybe we might all see sense and see that this particular fixture, which is one of the greats in European football, if not the world, honestly. I keep saying this regardless of the calibre of the teams playing in the game. It's a great, great fixture, and it loses a great deal with the big allocation of away fans not being in the stadium.
"So really, yeah, really disappointing, but we'll see what develops over this season."
"How will it get resolved? Hopefully the two clubs will get together at some stage or another and try and iron out particular problems."
"I mean, it's not to say that we haven't had a few problems in the past, but they seem to have escalated over the last number of seasons, which is a problem."
"Rangers and Celtic will still be a fixture of sorts, a really fine fixture, but not to the same extent without the away fans."
Derek McInnes' reaction
"My first reaction is it’s disappointing that that decision has been made. Without commenting too much, because I don’t know the club’s position on it at the minute and I think it’s more appropriate that the club speaks on it, it’s always better when opposition fans are allowed into a derby game."
"But there have still got to be behaviours met. I haven’t spoken to anybody at the club regarding that, so I can’t really comment any more on that."
"Generally speaking, in any fixture, in any game, it’s always better if your supporters are there to be with and watch your team. But, in the context of everything that’s going on with this fixture, there’s a lot to consider and a lot to discuss. As far as I was led to believe, that was still up for discussion, so it has caught me on the hop a bit."
