Livingston have offered a full apology in the wake of Rangers supporters gaining match tickets to the home end of Almondvale Stadium on Saturday.
The Ibrox side were backed by three ends of the ground but multiple Livi supporters were left miffed that followers of the Europa League finalists were also able to land briefs from in the main stand. Those complaints have been heard loud and clear by Lions top brass and they insist it will not happen again.
Livingston have given both Celtic and Rangers the majority of tickets in recent seasons but they admits mistakes have been made and will now remove the option to buy tickets from the home end online when Glasgow's big two roll into town, and they will only be made available to existing season ticket holders.
A club statement on their official website read: "Livingston FC would like to go on record acknowledging the issues and complaints raised by our supporters following unacceptable scenes at Saturday’s cinch Premiership opener with Rangers.
"Despite the best intentions from all at the club, particularly after discussions in the week leading up to the game with Police Scotland and our stewarding partner, we absolutely agree and appreciate that what transpired on Saturday fell way short of what we had aimed for and quite simply put, wasn’t good enough in respect to the position it left our own, valued supporters in.
"Having been aware of issues in previous capacity crowd encounters, we weren’t naïve to the belief that opposing fans may try and purchase tickets in the home end. Despite our best attempts at putting measures in place to prevent – firstly at source, secondly at the turnstiles and thirdly within the ground, sadly, this wasn’t carried out to an acceptable level.
"The club held productive talks with the LFL Supporters Trust, our SLO and DLO yesterday, focussing on how we can all work better together going forward, led by the football club, to deliver more positive outcomes.
"Going forward, matches where we know our North, South and East Stands will be occupied fully with visiting fans, we will no longer offer any option to purchase tickets online for the home end. We appreciate the vast majority of our visiting support is well-behaved and a credit to the game, but unfortunately we need to deal with the irresponsible few.
"Furthermore, ONLY current 2022/23 adult and adult concession season ticket holders will be able to buy tickets in the home end either in person or over the phone with said season ticket holders card number being taken against those purchases to ensure that there is a level of accountability for who is purchasing tickets and for where these people will be seated in the stand.
"This will almost certainly see the club lose out on a portion of revenue from ticket sales for these games, but it is fundamental that the safety of our fans comes first and takes absolute priority over profit.
"There is no getting away from the fact that we didn’t get it right on Saturday and the club wants to put on record our sincere apologies to those who had their match day experience tarnished. We want all supporters and potential supporters to enjoy what the club has to offer. and admittedly, on Saturday, that wasn’t the case.
"Putting these measures in place will hopefully alleviate the concerns raised by many of you at the weekend, and we do appreciate those of you who took the time to get in touch with your experiences to allow us to make sure we make this better for future sell out matches.
"As ever, your support is hugely, hugely appreciated and we look forward to seeing you all back here for the clash with Hibernian on Saturday 13th August."
READ NEXT
