Falkirk fans right to boycott Celtic Park visit over £36 ticket price | OneFootball

Falkirk FC has certainly made an impact on the Scottish Premiership this season with their highly respected manager John McGlynn now being mentioned as the favourite to take over at Aberdeen from Scottish Cup winner Jimmy Thelin, who was recently sacked by the Pittodrie side.

Falkirk Manager John McGlynn at post-match media conference. Falkirk v Celtic, Scottish Premiership, Falkirk Stadium, 14 January 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

The two recent matches against theRangers at Ibrox then a few days later at Pittodrie highlighted to extent of the job that requires to be done to get Aberdeen back playing decent football and it has to be said that if Falkirk can look so impressive with their resources Aberdeen should certainly be capable of doing so much better.

Yes they won the Scottish Cup, but like St Mirren seven months later, they got Celtic in a final at exactly the right time although both for entirely different reasons.

After the title tussle this weekend away to Hearts, Celtic’s next two Scottish Premiership matches are at home to Falkirk on Sunday 1st February then away to Aberdeen three days later on 4th February.

Celtic visited the Falkirk Stadium for the first time in over a decade last midweek in a re-arranged Scottish Premiership match and were certainly fortunate to come away with a 1-0 victory after John McGlynn’s side had the best chances and played better football than the Champions.

Falkirk were on a decent winning run ahead of the visit from Celtic and subsequent to that disappointment they travelled to Tynecastle at the weekend and knocked league leaders Hearts out of the Scottish Cup.

Rather than just their fine football though Falkirk has created another interesting scenario in the Scottish top flight after returning from a long absence that saw them playing in both the Championship and also League One, the third tier of Scottish football. That’s where John McGlynn, a former senior scout at Celtic under Brendan Rodgers in his first spell at Parkhead, found the Bairns. The job he has done since becoming Falkirk manager has been remarkable.

Playing in the lower league Falkirk missed out on all the political tit-for-tat in the Scottish Premiership regarding pricing for SPL tickets. Celtic supporters travelling to away matches, for instance at Tannadice last month paid £34 for admission. When other sides outside of the big Glasgow clubs visit the prices are much lower.

Celtic respond by matching that price when Dundee United visit Celtic Park and the size of the away support decreases, partly because of the higher price but also because of the lack of belief that their team can get a result in Glasgow. Statistically of course they will have a point as relatively few points are dropped in Glasgow by the big two to sides from outside of Glasgow.

So if Dundee United want to charge Celtic fans £34 then Celtic then charge Dundee United fans the same. Fair enough you might think. The demand for away tickets from Celtic and theRangers supporters is such that the away allocations will sell out anyway. Indeed theRangers have a scheme that supporters pay to join that allows them to be included in ballots for away tickets, thus adding to the cost further.

Incidentally in the Glasgow Derby you get little change out of £60 for an away ticket at Celtic Park or Ibrox, again with the two clubs charging the same price.

Back to Falkirk and last week they set the ticket price for Celtic fans at just £25, a welcome saving for the travelling Celtic support. Falkirk could easily have charged the same as Dundee United and the rest of the league, outside of theRangers but as a community club chose not to do so.

Celtic players applaud the travelling support. . Falkirk v Celtic, Scottish Premiership, Falkirk Stadium, 14 January 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

Celtic though has rather disappointingly not returned the favour and instead are charging Falkirk fans £36 for their early February visit to Celtic Park, prompting the call for a boycott from the Falkirk fans.

Falkirk has visited Celtic Park twice this season, in an entertaining Friday night Premier Sports Cup tie in August and then in Martin O’Neill first match in charge at the end of October after Brendan Rodgers left the club. On both occasions the Falkirk support was higher than any other away side outside of theRangers.

Celtic really should look at this and as Falkirk has charged Celtic supporters £25 match this for the Falkirk supporters many of whom are now going to stay away because of Celtic inconsistency on the matter.