'Saddened' O'Neill fears impact on derby away fans

Ugly scenes marred the aftermath of Celtic's Scottish Cup quarter-final win on penalties at Ibrox, with spectators entering the pitch.

“- Published Martin O'Neill fears large ticket allocations for away fans at matches between Celtic and Rangers may be lost forever - and he is "saddened" by events that have led him to that conclusion”

BBC

As of Monday, nine arrests had been made following Sunday's encounter.

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It was the first meeting of Rangers and Celtic since 2018 to have such a large away support - around 7,500.

Recent away allocations for the fixture had been much smaller: 800, 2,500 or with no visiting support at all.

Sunday's larger away crowd was in part because of the rules of the Scottish Cup, while other recent Old Firm cup ties have been semi-finals or finals at Hampden, with evenly-split crowds.

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Rangers had hosted Celtic the previous Sunday in their 2-2 Scottish Premiership draw, when away fans made up around 2,500 of the 50,000 crowd.

Danny Rohl's side are due to visit the 60,000-seater Celtic Park once more in the league this season and when the last time the sides met at Celtic Park in January, approaching 2,400 Rangers supporters attended.

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill said he fears large ticket allocations for away fans at matches between Celtic and Rangers may be lost forever and that he is "saddened" by events that have led him to that conclusion.

“- Published Martin O'Neill fears large ticket allocations for away fans at matches between Celtic and Rangers may be lost forever - and he is "saddened" by events that have led him to that conclusion”

BBC

O'Neill said he was "a really big advocate, from a distance, of feeling that without away fans, without the full allocation of away fans, I thought the Old Firm game, still a fantastic fixture, had lost some of its lustre."

He added: "I thought the noise emanating from Ibrox, both last Sunday and the Sunday before that, even though we'd only 2,500 people, was something I have not heard for a long, long time."

O'Neill described the atmosphere as "really magical" and said: "Saddened seems almost like you're minimising or downplaying things."

He called for "serious consideration" of what happened and what could have been avoided, but warned "People are going to look at it and say 7,000 people at Ibrox or Celtic Park just cannot be policed. I don't know the answer, but I still think something would be seriously lost again if that atmosphere throughout the game is anything to go by."

Graeme Souness, who managed Rangers from 1986-91, agreed that the increased number of away fans "added to the atmosphere" but said he does not think that level of visiting support will be seen again.

He called the fixture "the biggest derby in the world" and said: "Unfortunately, I don't think we'll see that again. What happened on Sunday will mean we won't see away supporters in the stadium again, not in those numbers anyway."

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Souness said a "small minority spoil it for everyone" and suggested alcohol contributes, adding that he filmed the scenes on his phone.

He described Rangers and Celtic as "monsters" and said their supporters' passion is what makes them institutions.