This week, Celtic announced an official partnership with Sportli – a company through which the club will sell digital sections of the Celtic Park pitch to fans.
At £29.99 to rent one single digital plot per year, or £49.99 for three, a small portion of each purchase goes to the Celtic FC Foundation (a reported £1 per plot), with supporters able to claim their "Piece of Paradise", as per Sportli's marketing blurb.
Despite relative interest from some fans – a sizable chunk of plots appear to have been purchased at the time of writing – swathes of supporters have expressed disdain and disgust on various social channels, with many saying they've filed formal complaints with the club's Supporters Liaison Officer since the announcement was made.
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On the Celtic subreddit, dozens of fans have criticised both Sportli as an organisation and the club itself for entering into the partnership in the first place, with some Reddit users calling for fans to boycott the offer entirely and instead donate £30 straight to the club's charitable arm.
"Would rather they just had a ticket resale scheme so that it's easier to just go to a game," said one Reddit user in the replies to this thread.
Another said: "The absolute worst part is that you don't even ‘own’ it. It's a 1 year lease."
The original poster of the above introduced their dismay with the digital pitch plot scheme, saying: "I can complain with the best of them about us not signing players etc. but this is the first thing I’ve actually written to the SLO about.
"This is disgusting and the people who signed off on Celtic being involved should be ashamed of themselves."
More information on the 'Official Merchandise of Celtic Football Club sold under license' can be found here.
