Petition takes on Old Firm ticket surcharge

Published on Monday 4 August 2008 23:12

THE organiser of an online petition against the Old Firm's proposed ticket surcharge has written to the ten other SPL clubs urging them to stand up to Rangers and Celtic.

Alan Young, a member of the Hearts Supporters' Forum, has asked the owners or chief administrators of those teams to unite, respect their own supporters' wishes, and reject the Glasgow clubs' demands to receive five per cent of every ticket they sell to their away support as "administration costs".

Last week Dundee United reluctantly agreed to the charge. In his letter Young suggests that instead of doing so, the Tannadice directors should have called a meeting with the other nine clubs and come up with a united strategy to oppose Rangers and Celtic on this issue.

"That was when all ten non-Old-Firm sides should have stood as one and said 'Don't send any fans then!'," Young writes. "That was when you all had the opportunity to either sell those tickets to your own fans (even if you had to discount them a little) or leave those areas of your grounds empty.

"In leaving your grounds empty, you could have achieved three things. 1. You would undoubtedly have saved money in policing/stewarding costs for the game.

"2. You could have highlighted to TV audiences just how petty and ridiculous these two clubs can be.

"3. You would have had these two clubs' massive supports complaining bitterly about being locked out of away matches. They would complain to you, the SPL, the SFA but most importantly their own clubs.

"Not so long ago, all the non-Old-Firm clubs in the league stood together and stated that if Rangers and Celtic did not back down over plans to gain huge percentages of TV deal money for themselves and leave scraps for the rest, that they would all resign from the league and start again. It worked then and it can work now."

&#149 The online petition can be found at www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/stop-the-old-firm-bully-tactics.