Former Celtic striker Tony Watt has called for Celtic and Rangers to end their dispute over away ticket allocations.
Rangers have reduced Celtic’s allocation for the upcoming Ibrox clash to 300 tickets, following disorder at the Scottish Cup meeting in March. The clubs have faced sanctions, including stadium closures and fines, with Celtic labelling the punishment "disproportionate."
Celtic manager Martin O’Neill suggested rejecting the allocation entirely, a stance that has faced criticism. Watt, speaking on Superscoreboard, said: "It’s childish, isn’t it, from both sides. There’s a middle ground for everything.
"Both teams should be sat in a room, two of the head honchos and whoever else needs to go, and say ‘let’s be grown men about this’."
He urged for a conversation to reach a fair agreement, saying that public disputes make both clubs look childish.
Former Rangers player and coach Alex Rae agreed that the dispute would negatively impact supporters. He said: "It’s the bare minimum they’ve given them, and you know what’ll happen the next time that fixture comes around at Parkhead; the Rangers fans will get it.
"And it’s the fans that are actually going to suffer here from both sides."
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Rae suggested that a more manageable allocation of 2,500 would have been an ideal situation.
He reminisced about attending Old Firm matches as an away supporter when allocations were significantly higher. He said: "I absolutely used to love going down to Parkhead and watching the game as a Rangers fan, and I know my mates from Dennistoun would love coming to Ibrox as well when it was around the 7,000 mark.
"Then it got cut down to a couple thousand; now to go down to 300 feels like we’re right back to square one and I don’t think anybody’s happy with that decision."
Watt also questioned whether 300 tickets can reasonably be justified for a game at a stadium with a capacity close to 50,000. He said: "That should have the governing bodies saying ‘is that a reasonable amount?’
"It’s not. I’m not saying Celtic deserve more, or less, but if you’re putting wording in something, be specific about it because if there’s 49,000 and you get 300, that’s not reasonable.
"300, you’re better off with zero; it’s tit-for-tat. 300 is scandalous.
"Both sides were wrong regardless of who started it; just get in a room and thrash it out."
