Scott Brown says away supporters are an essential part of Old Firm clashes
Former Celtic captain Scott Brown fears clashes with Rangers are losing the passion with the lack of away supporters.
The teams meet at Ibrox in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-finals at noon on Sunday and at Parkhead in the league seven days later.
But there will be no travelling fans after Celtic rejected Rangers’ offer of 300 Ibrox tickets and the SPFL announced a season without away allocations while the clubs and authorities discuss a way to avoid the trouble that marred last season’s Scottish Cup clash.
Brown said at a Premier Sports event: “I understand why, but it’s disappointing not to see the 8,000 fans that we used to get because the atmosphere was brilliant and there wasn’t that much trouble back when I played.
“Going away from home you always want fans there because if you do score, you need somewhere to run. Celtic are going to score and they’re going to run in front of Rangers fans.
“It’s losing the passion. Football is the biggest thing in Scotland and it’s the biggest thing in Glasgow.
“I’m not a big one for people running on the pitch and the violence and throwing stuff, that’s not part of the game, but we need to get back to that passion.
“Stay in your seat, enjoy the game, watch the scenario unfold in 90 minutes and sing and support your club and then after that, look, all is forgiven, have the bragging rights with your mates, have a bit of banter. It’s a game of football, it’s not a fighting game.
“It’s brilliant for me as a player going to Ibrox to win the game and to have that passion, that involvement and that emotion of the game with your fans and for them to be part of it as well because that’s what makes football clubs football clubs.”
Even Graeme Souness was taken aback by the intensity of the rivalry when he joined Rangers after a career spent in the English and Italian top flights and featuring in a series of Scotland-England games.
The former Liverpool captain said: “I get people in England, grown men, wanting to come to this game. ‘Could you get me tickets? Will you come up with us?’
“And it just wouldn’t be the same. Football’s not the same without the support.
“I loved playing in hostile atmospheres. and there’s no bigger or more hostile atmosphere than an Old Firm game if you’re not playing in your home stadium. So it’s certainly diminished not having supporters in there.
“If you’re a big player you love being booed. How can you say that’s not a spectacle when you’ve got all that green at one end and blue throughout the rest of the stadium? And the other way around at the other ground.
“That’s what makes it the most demanding and exciting derby game I ever played in or was a part of.
“As a manager I was at Sporting Lisbon versus Benfica, Galatasaray versus Fenerbahce, really hostile atmospheres to work in. But this is the biggest, most hostile and most atmospheric. This is the big one.”
Souness and Brown were promoting Premier Sports’ coverage of the Premier Sports Cup quarter-finals.
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