Response from Neil Doncaster re Hearts. Well done Scotland.

[Joe O'Rourke]

Following on from my email last week to Neil Doncaster regarding ticket allocations to the Celtic Support, I received a response from Neil Doncaster through his PA Michele Shields. I enclose a copy of the email below for your information.

Dear Joe

Many thanks for your email below.

Current SPFL Rules provide for each club to make available a ‘reasonable’ number of tickets for away fans. If any club feels that their allocation is not reasonable, they are able to request that the SPFL make a determination on the issue. This happened last season, involving a match between Queen’s Park and Dundee.

Any club may make a request for a determination – none have done so this season thus far.

Our Competitions Working Group is looking at this issue to see whether any changes in SPFL Rules or Regulations are required.

In the meantime, thank you for taking the time to write to us with your views.

Kind regards, Michele

I suppose the first question is, did Celtic ask for the SPL to intervene? and the simple answer to that is no. I have spoken to Michael Nicholson on a couple of occasions with regards to Hearts Allocation, and Celtic’s Lawyer Chris Duffy attended a meeting of the SPL about ten days ago. The basic problem is that Hearts claim they can sell the tickets to their own supporters, and with Celtic requiring an 11-1 vote to change the rules, success would be very unlikely, bearing in mind that only Sevco would take a large number of supporters to most away matches.

That’s not to say the rule won’t be changed, I think it can be changed with proper discussions amongst the other member clubs of the SPL, it certainly won’t be changed this season, and I believe Celtic will be asking to change the rule to a minimum of 5%, the big change if that was decided would be our visit’s to Snake Mountain, but that would mean, if Sevco didn’t agree, we would need the other ten clubs to agree, what’s the chances of that? But we must keep trying. This weekends match is a nightmare for us supporters who go every week, but the responsibility for that decision lies firmly with Hearts.

As I’ve said previously, I hate International weekend’s when Celtic don’t have a game. We can only hope that all our players come back fit and healthy, we have suffered badly in the past with players away on International duty. It was great to see Liam Scales getting his debut for Ireland. I thought Big Liam done well, and if he maintains his form with Celtic, and keeps his place in the team, there is no reason why he can’t stay in the Ireland team. Big congratulations to Scotland for qualifying for the Euro’s in Germany next year. It’s great to see Callum Mc Gregor and Greg Taylor getting the chance
to play at a major tournament for their country.

Glasgow’s still Green & White.