Old Firm Matches to Exclude Away Fans This Season

The Old Firm cauldron will burn a little differently this season. There will be no away supporters at any Premiership or League Cup clashes between Celtic and Rangers, after the SPFL confirmed a blanket lockout for visiting fans.

Rangers face Celtic at Ibrox in the Premier Sports Cup on September 13, before the sides collide again at Parkhead in the league a week later, both live on Sky Sports. Those fixtures will be played in front of home crowds only.

This is a sharp turn from the previous agreement between the clubs. Celtic and Rangers had signed off on a plan to allocate five per cent of stadium capacity to away fans for all SPFL meetings at Ibrox and Celtic Park.

That deal has now been shelved.

The change follows trouble between supporters during the Scottish Cup tie in March and the findings of an independent review commissioned in the aftermath. Once that report landed, the whole ticketing arrangement went back under the microscope.

Rangers then put a new offer on the table: around 300 tickets for Celtic fans at Ibrox instead of the usual 2,500 or so. The club said the reduced allocation reflected its assessment of the risks around that specific fixture.

Celtic turned it down.

With the two sides unable to agree, the SPFL stepped in and imposed a temporary solution: no away fans at any Old Firm league or League Cup match this season.

In a statement, the league said the move would give Celtic, Rangers, the SPFL, Police Scotland and other authorities the breathing space to fully digest the independent review, act on its recommendations and plan future fixtures in detail. It also stressed the need to give supporters and matchday organisers clarity, rather than leaving every game hostage to late ticketing wrangles.

Safety and security, the SPFL underlined, remain the driving force behind the decision. All parties have pledged to work together over the course of the season, and the league has left the door open to revisiting the stance if circumstances change significantly.

The current arrangement is framed as short term, but not that short. The SPFL confirmed that plans for Old Firm matches beyond this campaign will be thrashed out well before the 2027/28 season kicks off.

For now, the most intense fixture in Scottish football will be played with only one half of Glasgow inside the ground. The question is how long that becomes the new normal.