Kilmarknock Fans say no to seltic fans (forfeiting 100 grand)

[diablos]

Link;http://sport.scotsman.com/football.cfm?id=588792007#new


KILMARNOCK are prepared to forfeit around £100,000 to ensure Celtic fans do not take over their stadium on Sunday.

The champions-elect travel to Rugby Park knowing victory will land them their second Bank of Scotland Premier League title in a row.

However, there has been a level of antagonism between the two sets of supporters since the last day of the 2002/03 season, when, despite Celtic beating Kilmarnock 4-0, they lost the title on goal difference to Rangers, who beat Dunfermline 6-1 at Ibrox the same day.

Kilmarnock fans complained to the club about Celtic supporters finding their way into the home sections and to prevent a similar situation arising on Sunday, Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston says the club have employed stringent security measures with their ticket sales.

Johnston said that he is willing to sacrifice much-needed revenue to ensure the fixture passes off peacefully.

He said: "If the usual home support turn up on Sunday then there could be around 4,000 empty seats.

"Given that tickets are £23 each, we are going to lose around £100,000 in revenue due to restrictions that we have voluntarily put in place to segregate the supporters. It could be even more because some Kilmarnock fans may decide to stay away from Rugby Park because they don't like to be outnumbered.

"There were some problems at the end of the 2002/03 season when Celtic fans got into the home end. We had a lot of complaints from our supporters and we are following procedures that we put in place since then.

"When it became clear that Celtic could win this season's title at our place, they asked for more tickets. They will get approximately 800 more for the West Stand once they have sold out their initial allocation for the Moffat and Chadwick stands. That is the best compromise we can achieve.

"It is important that our supporters feel comfortable in their own stadium and we have to respect our season ticket holders. We can't give away additional tickets to Celtic without disrupting them."

Johnston added: "It is a significant loss of revenue. And on top of that we have only had 18 home games this season as opposed to 20 away from home.

"However, if we find that fans have given tickets away to Celtic supporters then we will consider banning them. But if you can't trust your own supporters, then who can you trust?"

[BBK]

I remember being at Selhurst Park when United effectively won the title when playing Wimbledon. 95% of the stadium was sold out to United fans, and whilst it was a great celebration for us, there's something sad when money rules over your own fans. Of course, there were no Wimbledon fans then anyway, but thats besides the point, so well done Kilmarnock for putting your own fans first.

[diablos]

Good to see from a club like kilmarknock as they cant really afford to lose the money but there own fan safety has to be their priority.

[Jimmy Conway]

I bet all the seats will be full on Sunday no way will they leave 4000 seats empty...

[diablos]

I bet all the seats will be full on Sunday no way will they leave 4000 seats empty...

Kilmarknock supporters will sell their tickets no doubt to the seltic supporters at inflated prices, Funny at least some of the seltc support may actually go to this game.