As the ticket allocation arguments run on, the ins and outs of who to blame for starting the ball rolling on an issue that has engulfed Scottish football continues to be skirted around by the Scottish media.
Who is to blame for it is well known, however, there are others that still continue to claim that Celtic are somehow responsible for starting this issue when nothing could be further from the truth.
However, Celtic have seen their allocation at Tynecastle cut to around the 632 today which is just over HALF of what they had when they rocked up to Edinburgh last season and won the title.
The allocation caused a ruckus then and this is what Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart had to say about it.
At full-time after Celtic clinched the title, Hart said [The Celtic Way], “The fans are amazing, they go everywhere with us.
“It’s even sweeter to come to a stadium where they’ve tried to have as few in as possible.”
All eyes will be on the Tynecastle crowd when Celtic come to visit
And here lies the problem. Well, there are two actually. Let’s get the first one out of the way first. All eyes will be on the Tynecastle crowd this afternoon.
Hearts will be expected to have sold out their stadium and there shouldn’t be an empty seat in the house. Why else would they cut Celtic’s allocation again after halving it from the season before last?
The official explanation is that reducing the away fans will allow more of their own fans to get in and support their team. Fair enough.
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Let’s hope every single seat available to the Hearts fans has a supporter sitting on it because what kind of message does that send if there are any left empty?
And if Celtic do win today, which the Hoops support believe they will, how sweet will that feel to the 600-odd fans that have snapped up those tickets (and the players to be fair) knowing that no matter how little an away support is there, the Hoops still come up trumps?
Joe Hart said that the win last season was made sweeter due to the fact that Hearts seemed to want to dampen the celebrations. How sweeter will it taste now that on the first visit to the capital, the defending champions still walk away with all three points with less than half of the support that was there last season?
I would imagine it will feel fantastic for Hart. As it will for every Celtic fan who couldn’t get, but wanted, a ticket for Tynecastle.
In other news, ‘Hypocrites’: Mark Wilson delivers a bizarre Celtic ticket allocation ‘truth’ ahead of Hearts fixture