I want our full allocation for Scottish Cup tie against Rangers at Ibrox, insists Celtic boss Martin O’Neill

Martin O’Neill has demanded that Celtic get their full ticket allocation for next month’s Scottish Cup tie with Rangers.

The Scottish Cup quarter-final draw opened up the prospect of a traditional full stand of Celtic fans at Ibrox when the game takes place around the weekend of March 7-8.

Tournament rules state that away clubs have the right to claim up to 20 per cent of tickets, which equates to about 10,000 fans at Ibrox.

But Police Scotland will ultimately decide if the visitors receive that amount, as competition regulations add that the area of the ground for travelling fans is agreed by both clubs and police, with stadium safety laws taken into account.

Celtic fans traditionally filled the Broomloan Stand, which has about 7,500 seats, but their allocation was slashed by Rangers to 750 in May 2018. A tit-for-tat battle ensued between the Old Firm rivals, and there was a complete absence of fans at the fixtures for a spell before both clubs last season introduced away allocations of about five per cent, with additional security arrangements introduced, including safety nets.

Boss O’Neill wants to see the full allocation granted on this occasion, saying: ‘I don’t know the club stance but, if you take me out of the club at this minute, just being a Celtic supporter, I would want all the tickets we can get, the allocation that’s available to us under the rules. I assume that would be forthcoming.

‘I thought that the Old Firm fixture lost a little bit in the sense that the full allocation was not given, for whatever reason. I don’t know historically what it was. I’ve got kind of an idea but it doesn’t really matter.

‘But I think that that did lose a little bit of one of the great fixtures in European football, if not the world. But at least there’s some fans coming back and it makes a bit of a difference.

‘But to get the full allocation as we did …you know, going to Ibrox and having the side to the left full of Celtic fans was always gratifying.’

The draw means Celtic face four consecutive away games, first travelling to Stuttgart and then Aberdeen in between two games at Ibrox.

O’Neill was unconvinced about the rationale for scheduling their rearranged game at Pittodrie on March 4.

‘I thought the Aberdeen fixture was stuck in there very, very quickly,’ he said. ‘They (the SPFL) don’t want to have some postponements going into the split. I think that was their reason for it. But it was something that could have been considered, really, because it did mean an awful lot of away travelling for fans. It’s going to be difficult to afford those particular fixtures.’

Meanwhile, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could be involved in Wednesday’s Premiership encounter with Livingston after completing his first two training sessions.

O’Neill said: ‘He’s looking pretty good. I haven’t picked the squad yet, but there’s a possibility of that. Kieran (Tierney) came off with a suspected concussion (against Dundee), but I think he broke a bone in his nose. But he’s okay and I think he wants to be available.’