BT Sport stand by Sutton as they defy Ibrox ban

BT Sport will host their coverage of tomorrow’s match in Leverkusen from a deserted Celtic Park.

With two Glasgow clubs in staggered kick-offs in the Europa League the normal policy would be to set up the entire production crew from the live stadium and take in the earlier match at the same venue.

On Matchday 1 Chris Sutton and Neil Lennon were denied access to Ibrox to cover Celtic’s match away to Real Betis forcing BT Sport to get Stan Petrov into a London studio to provide coverage of the match from Spain.

Sutton has again been denied access to Ibrox with BT Sport standing by their striker with their double-header coverage coming from Celtic Park with two matches going on elsewhere.

The Sun reports:

CHRIS SUTTON has been red-carded AGAIN from appearing at Ibrox for broadcaster BT Sport.

The Celtic icon was due to appear at the home of Rangers as part of Thursday’s Europa League action as the Scottish champions take on Sparta Prague.

But he’ll now take his seat at an EMPTY Celtic Park in the latest twist in an ongoing spat over the former Hoops star who is famed for his outspoken views on the game.

Rangers host Sparta in a 8pm kick-off but the TV crew will be based at Parkhead despite the Hoops playing away to Bayer Leverkusen in an earlier fixture.

The broadcaster would normally be in attendance at the live home game but BT bosses made a last-minute switch when Gers blackballed Sutton.

Last night a source said: “It’s going to look pretty strange when they’re analysing the game from an empty stadium.

“But Chris Sutton is a valued member of the BT Sport team so when Gers told them he wasn’t welcome they didn’t hesitate to change their plans. There was no way they would leave Chris.”

BT Sport has exclusive coverage of all three European competitions but no domestic matches which reduces the impact of any ban or stand-off.

Lennon, Paul Lambert and John Hartson have all been involved in their coverage of Celtic’s Europa League matches with the Welshman in the stadium away to Real Betis and Ferencvaros.