Celtic yesterday released an update hitting out at Heart of Midlothian Football club after the Gorgie side cut the away allocation by 20 percent, meaning that the travelling Celtic supporters have been allocated just 508 briefs for the vital clash in the capital at the end of the month…
25th January 2026; Tynecastle, Scottish Premiership, Hearts versus Celtic; Matchday programme on the goalpost. Photo Vagelis Georgariou
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Celtic’s statement
‘We have been informed by Heart of Midlothian FC that we will receive an allocation of 508 tickets for our forthcoming match at Tynecastle Stadium at the end of this month.
‘Clearly we are surprised and disappointed at this move, which represents another cut of around 20% on our previous allocation and follows significant reductions across recent years.
‘However, to be very clear, this is outwith our control and is the decision of the home club.’
25th January 2026; Tynecastle, Scottish Premiership, Hearts versus Celtic; Turnstyles at Tynecastle. Photo Vagelis Georgariou
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Hearts are just a one of several clubs who have lowered the number of away supporters allowed to attend matches, with the most recent Glasgow Derby away lockout also highlighting the concern of the availability to travelling supporters.
Hibernian’s empty seats at Easter Road
The Ibrox club started this trend back in 2018, and while it has spread across Scottish football, it’s one that’s dilutes the atmosphere in our game and also can be particularly costly to some clubs like Hibernian who lost a few hundred grand in revenue by keeping half of their traditional away stand empty in their recent home match against Celtic.
Small minds means empty seats at Easter Road. Photo social media
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Celtic themselves have been left with no choice but to do the same when offering briefs to rival supporters. Celtic for all their faults are willing to offer a reasonable away allocation to visiting teams and while the demand may not be there most of the time, Hearts could certainly have benefited from a higher allocation at Celtic Park back in May.
Hearts ended up shooting themselves in the foot with away fan restrictions
That never happened because of their earlier decisions to restrict the away support. at the two matches between the teams at Tynecastle earlier in the season
25th January 2026; Tynecastle: Scottish Premiership, Hearts versus Celtic; General view of Tynecastle pitch. Photo Vagelis Georgariou
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In a time when we are struggling to showcase our football, is it really wise to shut out yet more supporters and in doing so reduce the atmosphere on match days?
St Johnstone saw sense
Hibs tried it and were left with empty seats and lost revenue. St Johnstone tried it previously but soon reverted to increasing the away allocation for the visit of the two Glasgow giants to fill their 10,000 seated stadium, something that rarely if ever happens for any other games outside of the visits from Celtic and the Rangers.
25th January 2026; Tynecastle, Scottish Premiership Football, Hearts versus Celtic; Hearts fans swinging scarves. Photo Vagelis Georgariou
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Fergus McCann built and filled a 60,000 Celtic Park Paradise
Fergus McCann gave Celtic a massive strategic advantage by building a 60,000 seated stadium back in the mid 1990s. Hearts have an even bigger stadium a few minutes walk from Tynecastle and that could be used to house bigger supports and generate more revenue for a club that says it wants to challenge Celtic for the title on a regular basis but acts like a wee diddy club when it comes to denying football fans the opportunity to attend football matches.
16.05.2026 Celtic v Hearts, SPFL Premiership Callum Osmand goal against Hearts to give Celtic a 3-1 lead in the title decider. Photo Kenny Ramsay IMAGO/ News Licensing
Cameron Devlin of Heart of Midlothian reacts after conceding a third goal scored by Callum Osmand of Celtic (not pictured) during the Scottishl Premiership match between Celtic and Heart of Midlothian at Celtic Park on May 16, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
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Read Celtic’s update on Tynecastle ticket allocation below…
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
