Celtic Supporters Vote with their Feet

Celtic Fans have voted with their feet for the friendly at Celtic Park on Saturday against Middlesborough. Empty seats was the story of the day when Celtic new bhoy Camilo Duran equalised for Celtic in the 1-1 draw after the visitors went ahead through one time Celtic target David Strelec.

Many Celtic fans are frustrated with the lack of player recruitment and after the last two transfer windows have no confidence in those running the club to deliver anything more than broken promises and a continued failure to learn from past mistakes.

Fuel was added to the fire when two players who were on loan last season Ihenacho and Sarrachi took to social media to say thanks to the Celtic Support after Celtic decided not to resign them.

There are always two sides to every story but many Celtic fans have lost trust in Dermot Desmond who pulls all the strings and his CEO Michael Nicholas who has over seen the last number of failed transfer windows.

So with this in mind Celtic fans may be excused for leaning towards the players stories even if Celtic have used supportive voices within the Scottish main stream media to trickle out stories of those players looking for too much money!

Middlesborough fans out numbered Celtic supporters at Paradise and that sends a strong message to the Celtic board that enough is enough and that change is needed in the Celtic board room.

Next week it will be AC Milan who come to the East end of Glasgow for the last pre-season friendly ahead of the start of the competitive season. Celtic will not be able to rely on a big away support traveling from Italy, so it will be interesting to see if fans will continue to vote with their feet and stay away until Flag Day and use their season books which are already paid for. Hopefully Celtic will learn from this and re-introduce a pre-season friendly as part of the season book package.

Flag Day is on a Monday night. Football on a Monday night will not suit everyone especially those Celtic fans based here in Ireland and further a field.

Calls for a modern digital ticket service so season book holders can resell on their ticket is not on Celtic Agenda.

At the AICSC AGM which Celtic manager Martin O’Neill, Interim Chairman Brian Wilson and Celtic CEO Micheal Nicholson attended in what some would say was a box ticking fan engagement exercise.

A question asked by Leeside CSC – Are there plans to go digital in terms of season books and matchday tickets, with an option to transfer tickets?

Michael Nicholson took the question, and advised that there are no immediate plans to go digital with tickets just now, aside from their existing hospitality app. He did go on to say that they have looked at several UK clubs with digital ticket schemes in place, but was worried about the ease of sharing season tickets, which would directly impact the Irish clubs.

He said he was happy to look at something to help the Irish CSC’s, as he was aware that mid-week fixtures, in particular, meant a lot of empty seats in the stadium due to the Irish ST holders not in attendance. He invited suggestions and feedback from the Irish CSC’s and said he would happily re-visit this once we compiled some feedback.

https://youtu.be/Scw4TaqIL7I?si=_Uj7KFRqC1u1OZFE

Michael is paid £17,000 a week and he is asking for supporters to come up with suggestions for a digital solution to a ticket exchange. I deal with the FAI for our Irish supporters group season tickets and it is done through Ticketmaster and we can exchange tickets with ease with fellow Irish supporters.

The FAI have many problems but their ticket system shows how Celtic are still in the dark ages when it comes to positive digital solutions.

Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes Celtic Fanzine & Host of the Celtic Soul Podcast