Celtic take on Hib’s in the League Cup round of sixteen today at Celtic Park. The prize for the winners will be a place in the hat for the quarter-final draw.
Yesterday afternoon theRangers secured their place in the draw with a controversial win over St Johnstone at two-thirds empty Hampden Park.
As you will be aware theRangers are currently playing their home matches at the National Stadium with no confirmed date for a return to Ibrox available as building work delays continue to cause chaos to their season.
Should Celtic win today that will of course mean that there could be a Glasgow Derby in the quarter finals of the League Cup and theRangers could be first out the hat giving them a home tie.
That would present the SPFL with a huge headache if Ibrox remains out of commission and the match has to be played at Hampden.
Celtic would be entitled to an allocation as the away side. Yet unless the traditional Celtic End is made available to Celtic supporters – which would cause uproar and rage amongst their supporters- their is little chance that Police Scotland are going to agree to a smaller number.
The SPFL will be forced to sort it out and it will be impossible to please everyone. Of course both clubs could fill Hampden with their own fans for a Glasgow Derby match. Hampden is usually a neutral venue with an even split.
But as the temporary home of theRangers they will be entitled to the lions share of the tickets. But will probably have to give Celtic more than they’d like and it will not be their decision.
If Ibrox is ready then it’s a different set of issues as the work needed to accommodate the Celtic supporter is highly unlikely to have been started never mind finished by the time the League Cup quarter-finals are played.
Celtic will again be entirely with their rights to demand an appropriate allocation and once again the SPFL will find themselves in an impossible position.
Of course if it’s Celtic who are the home side then as a well run, solvent football club, there will be no such problems as all modifications agreed by both clubs and the SPFL have actually been implemented at Celtic Park.
That’s why a theRangers v Celtic draw will be the draw the SPFL is dreading.
I don’t think that they will find it difficult to keep the two teams apart in the draw.