Celtic refusing to allow Union Bears access to tickets for Glasgow Derby

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The Celtic Star

·24 avril 2026

Celtic refusing to allow Union Bears access to tickets for Glasgow Derby

Rumours had been flying around all afternoon that Celtic are set to ban the Rangers support for the upcoming Glasgow Derby at Celtic Park on Sunday 10 May in what is sure to be a highly significant encounter in the three-way Scottish Premiership title contest…

Scotland’s Shame – theRangers fans attacking the Celtic support at Ibrox after Celtic won the Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou

Normally senior Celtic PR staff would brief the Celtic fan media outlets that were on the club rota, usually the blogs and news sites, to frame these stories surrounding the politics and the various controversies involved in this fixture and there have been many in recent years.

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That option is not available to them at the moment due to their own small-minded ban on fan media so it’s left to mainstream journalists to break the story that after Celtic asked for assurances that no members of the Union Bears would be given tickets for the game at Celtic Park, with the latest Ibrox club subsequently failing to give those assurances, Celtic have decided to withhold all 2200 away tickets for the game.

The Celtic Board’s concern surrounds the actions of the Union Bears in running onto the pitch to confront Celtic supporters at the recent Scottish Cup quarter-final which Celtic won in a penalty shoot-out. A member of the Celtic staff was assaulted – not by one of the Union Bears – and police and officers and stewards were also injured during the violent scenes from the Rangers fans. Pyros and other missiles were also thrown into the Broomloan Road stand by the Rangers supporters.

In recent seasons there have been repeat violent scenes at Glasgow Derby matches at Ibrox but the games at Celtic Park and Hampden have not had these sort of incidents. Numerous Celtic supporters have been hit by missiles, including Buckfast bottles, broken glass was thrown in the Celtic goal area at half-time in a match and a member of the Celtic backroom staff was scarred for life when hit by a glass while walking up the tunnel at half-time. The culprit from the corporate area was later jailed.

Scotland’s Shame – theRangers fans attacking the Celtic support at Ibrox after Celtic won the Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou

David Murray banned the Celtic supporters for a match in the 1990’s claiming that this was a result of broken seats at an earlier game. Celtic did not retaliate on that particular ban.

In recent times, since Beautiful Sunday in March 2018 the away allocation has been cut dramatically due to the Rangers fan not being able to stomach the continuing defeats against a far superior side.

This ban however, following on from the recent trouble at the Scottish Cup tie, which is the subject of an SFA enquiry, is if it goes ahead likely to see away fans banned from the fixture for years to come.

Chris McKay and Michael Nicholson arrive at Ibrox.theRangers 2 Celtic 2. Sunday 1st March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou

As Stephen McGowan points out in The Herald under SPFL rules any club unhappy with the allocation of tickets for away fans can make a request for a determination. Rangers could now ask the league to make a determination on the matter through an independent sub committee of the board.

They are certain to do exactly that and it’s hard to say that they would be unsuccessful. Their fans should be at the game as we had the allocation in the match at Ibrox. However Celtic have legitimate concerns about the Rangers ultras and we have seen this season how the Celtic Board have acted in relation to the Green Brigade, for very little in comparison to the trouble at the Scottish Cup tie at Ibrox.

The Celtic support at Ibrox after Celtic won the Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou

Hopefully a solution can be found, perhaps the Union Bears will do the honourable thing and stand aside to allow 2200 ‘ordinary’ Rangers fans to attend the match.

Celtic has released a statement and we’ll get to that next. No doubt we’ll be hearing from the Rangers too…

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