Celtic are stepping up the pressure on the Scottish Government to ensure that fans can be back inside Celtic Park for the start of the new season.
No fans have attended a match inside Celtic Park since 7 March 2020 despite the club lobbying for a test event as far back as last July.
During the regular season Ross County and Aberdeen hosted matches in front of crowds of 300 fans but those events weren’t followed up by bigger numbers at future fixtures.
In just over a fortnight 12,500 fans are expected at Hampden Park for Scotland’s European Championship opener against the Czech Republic with Celtic pushing to take advantage of that breakthrough.
While revealing some pre-season fixtures in July Celtic stated:
Clearly, we are encouraged by the recent announcement of supporters being allowed entry at sporting events across Glasgow this summer, including at Hampden and on Glasgow Green.
Celtic has been at the forefront of the effort to get supporters back with us and now as we move back to normality, we are preparing to welcome you home to Celtic Park.
We will be doing all we can to achieve this as soon as possible and will update all our supporters on developments as we look ahead to the new season.
Celtic have still to send out Season Ticket renewals for next season with that decision dependent on naming a manager as well as capacity issues for the new season.
It is unlikely that 60,000 fans will be allowed in for the July Champions League qualifier but a phased return would certainly be welcomed with ‘gate money’ still Celtic’s biggest single source of income.