Rangers: Celtic's Old Firm ticket allocation will be maximum 800 next season

New Rangers CEO James Bisgrove has said a maximum of 800 Celtic fans will be at Old Firm games at Ibrox next season.

No away fans were inside Ibrox or Celtic Park for the final two derbies because of safety concerns for the 800 who were at previous games this season.

Bisgrove said there will be talks with Police Scotland and Celtic – but the number will not be close to the 7,000 away fans who used to attend the game.

“It’s definitely an area we’re going to look at,” he said.

“We’re going to have dialogue with all the right stakeholders and authorities. Be that Police Scotland, be that Celtic, we recognise all the different viewpoints.

“There is no specific date in the diary for those talks but the dialogue will take place in the summer and we will see where those discussions go in terms of next season,” added Bisgrove, who also said he is keen to “revisit the feasibility” of safe standing returning to Ibrox.

Bisgrove believes astute signings can return Rangers to being the “dominant team in Scottish football” despite Celtic comfortably winning the title this season and last.

“If we can get those recruitment decisions right – and you just have to look at the acquisitions of Nicolas Raskin and Todd Cantwell and the impact they have had – we have got a lot of optimism the Rangers team on the park next season will be a winning Rangers team,” he said.

“Traditionally Rangers has been the dominant team in Scotland. Clearly that hasn’t been the case last season or the season before, but we have a lot of belief in the manager, the scouting and the strategy – so that’s why we are optimistic.

“We’ve already made good inroads into that plan.”

Meanwhile, manager Michael Beale has played down speculation linking Rangers with Los Angeles’ 24-year-old Ecuador midfielder Jose Cifuentes.

Cifuentes is out of contract with LA at the end of this year but Beale said: “It’s not really close if I am honest.

“These things pick up speed in the newspapers and everywhere. He is obviously a good player, a very good player but his contract runs to December which seems a long, long way away.”

Original article published 19.05.2023 on the BBC Sport website.

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