Rangers and Celtic fans have been warned not to be "d***heads" when they travel for November's friendly in Australia.
The Sydney Super Cup meeting between the two Glasgow rivals remains on despite intense opposition from both sets of fans.
Taking place in November amid the World Cup, both teams will also play domestic A-League opposition but the main attraction is the first derby in foreign soil which the organisers are hopeful will be a sell-out at the 80,000 capacity Accor Stadium.
Australian authorities are working with both clubs and Scottish police to plan for the event though Sydney-based supporters clubs have both expressed doubt the game will be treated as it is back home.
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, New South Wales sports minister Stuart Ayres said: "It’s not 1984, it’s 2022, and we love passion, we love noise, but we want safe environments that people can come to.
"We’ve got a long runway, the event’s in November, we’ll do a lot of clear messaging around ticket sales and expectations of fan behaviour: come along, have a great time, just don’t be a dickhead.
"We’re a well-experienced city when it comes to running large-scale, major events. We’ll engage with the clubs, we’ll take advice from them around preparations."
But John Wright, the Oceanic Rangers Supporters Association representative for the ‘Sydney True Blues’, is concerned.
He said: "The two sets of supporters hate each other.
"I was excited at the prospect that I could take my nine-year-old to a Rangers game in Sydney - wow, that’s dream stuff. But if I get on the train with my nine-year-old in the inner west, and we’ve both got our Rangers shirts on, and I get onto a carriage full of Hoops, blokes who’ve been on the bevvies for five or six hours and going to play their deepest, longest rivals... I mean, what’s going to happen?
"We were throwing around ideas that we’d run coaches from our base - the Aurora at Central, where we typically watch games - from there to Homebush, just to ensure safe passage for members. But we’re not going to be able to afford to do that for everyone who’s wishing to attend.
"This is not like going to watch Souths and St George. This is being touted as a family event, but there will be 10 to 20,000 people going with an intent that they’re going to an Old Firm game because that’s how it’s being marketed. They honestly believe this is a fluffy rivalry."
Craig Cleland of Sydney City CSC added: "There’s never been an event like this where the fans have been in a different city for a week.
"You just have to keep them away from each other - they can’t expect it to be a friendly atmosphere because it might be for so long, and then something will happen."
