SWPL: Rangers cancel Celtic Old Firm ticket allocation over security risk concerns – MyCyberBase

Rangers have cancelled Celtic’s away allocation for this weekend’s women’s Old Firm derby after concerns over high-risk supporters attending the game.

But Rangers have now cancelled all tickets for Celtic supporters, saying they had received information of fans planning to attend which would have required a significant police presence.

“Intelligence received by Rangers and Celtic on Thursday suggested groups of ‘risk’ supporters in a significant number had purchased tickets from the Celtic allocation,” the Ibrox club said.

“Rangers called an urgent operational meeting between both clubs and Police Scotland, with Police Scotland indicating they would need to deploy a sizeable resource at short notice as opposed to it initially being a police-free fixture.

“Rangers is committed to ensuring there are away supporters at our matches. However, a unique selling point of the women’s game is the unsegregated, family-friendly atmosphere, with many children attending these matches.

“Taking all of that into account, Rangers’ security team decided it would be unsafe to allow these ‘risk’ supporters into the stadium, and with Celtic unwilling to cancel just their tickets, the decision to cancel all tickets was taken.”

Celtic have responded, saying they were only informed of the decision on Saturday morning.

“The decision to deny access to so many fans is hugely disappointing, even more so given that there were a number of options available to allow our fans to safely attend in a stadium of such capacity,” they said.

“Celtic will liaise with the home club regarding refunds for all tickets and will communicate to our supporters who had purchased tickets as soon as possible.”