Away fans to return to Old Firm fixture as Celtic confirm allocation for Ibrox

Away fans will return to the Old Firm for the first time in over two years after Celtic confirmed their allocation for Ibrox.

Around 700 Celtic fans will attend the Premiership clash at the home of their city rivals on Sunday, April 3.

It will be the first time since December 2019, when a similar number of Rangers supporters travelled to the game at Celtic Park, that away fans will be allowed to attend the fixture.

It has been an even longer wait for Celtic fans who will be inside Ibrox for a derby match for the first time since they watched their side win 2-0 on September 1 of that year.

After the 2019/20 season was finished early due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, games were played behind closed doors for the whole of the 20/21 season and the two Old Firm games this season have been attended by home fans only.

Around 50,000 Rangers supporters watched their side beat the Hoops 1-0 at Ibrox before Celtic put three past the champions in front of 60,000 of their own supporters in February’s return fixture.

It was reported earlier in the week that Rangers had handed the league-leaders around 700 tickets for the third derby game, to be played in the southside of Glasgow, and Celtic confirmed on Thursday that the tickets will be offered to those who missed out in March 2020.

A statement released on social media said: “Tickets for away match v. Rangers are now on sale to eligible STH.

“Tickets have been allocated to those who were originally offered tickets for the match v. Rangers on 15th March 2020 which was cancelled.”

Celtic will go into the game three points ahead of Rangers and a superior goal-difference of 14 with only seven games remaining.

Meaning the Ibrox men will have to avoid defeat to realistically keep their title hopes alive with the last, and potentially title-deciding, game between the pair to be played in Parkhead after the split.

The sides will also meet in a Scottish Cup semi-final match at Hampden on April 17.