Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers publicly blames Rangers

Celtic and the Rangers share arguably the most famous rivalry in world football. Naturally, it is never out of the headlines. And there have been a lot of them regarding the ticket allocation situation for the upcoming two Glasgow derbies. Away fans were set to return to the derby this season, but it looks like that won't be the case for the first couple of fixtures at least.

Originally, the decision had been made that 5% of the tickets for the Glasgow Derby would be given to away fans. However, the Rangers currently find themselves playing at Hampden Park amid ongoing delays to renovations at Ibrox.

As a result, Celtic have taken the decision to not have away fans at Parkhead for their next meeting with the Rangers. That is because there is no guarantee that Ibrox will be ready in time to do the same in the return fixture.

This has emerged as a controversial topic in Scottish footballing circles in recent days. Brendan Rodgers is pretty clear about his view on the issue though. As reported by The Guardian, the Celtic manager said:

"Celtic have played their part in what they were asked to do. And again, I go back, nothing of this was Celtic’s issue. Nothing. When you go back to when this all started, it’s nothing to do with Celtic. Celtic gets dragged into this as being a Celtic-Rangers thing. It’s not a Celtic-Rangers thing. This is a Rangers thing."

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers publicly blames Rangers

Is this a Rangers thing after all then? Is anybody else having flashbacks to a certain goal from Odsonne Edouard by any chance?

Well, let's see how the situation plays out. At the end of the day, it would help the spectacle of the Glasgow Derby if away fans were to return to the fixture. It does not look like we are ever going to get back to the 7,500 figure of the past. But a 5% allocation is a decent starting point for sure.

What's most important though are results on the pitch. Celtic have made a bright start to the season. Their next test is against Hibernian in the second round of the Scottish League Cup. Rodgers' side were eliminated early from the competition in the previous campaign and will be keen to avoid that being the case once again.