Celtic fans have claimed to be making a protest against ticket prices - well as many people know it's a lie to his the fact that they have a poor traveling support and heres the proof
credit to baileysforme & Orangepeel1872 for the details
Rangers attendances at away SPL fixtures (excluding games at Parkhead v Celtic) season 07/08
7711 v Inverness
11544 v Kilmarnock
15948 v Hearts
10009 v Motherwell
12129 v Dundee Utd
6627 v Falkirk
17798 v Aberdeen
16217 v Hibs
6137 v Gretna
7753 v Inverness
10546 v Kilmarnock
16173 v Hearts
11214 v Dundee Utd
16872 v Hibs
10445 v Motherwell
7439 v St Mirren
17509 v Aberdeen
Total: 195131
Celtic attendances at away SPL fixtures (excluding games at Ibrox v Rangers) season 07/08
6329 v Falkirk
16232 v Aberdeen
7840 v St Mirren
16125 v Hibs
6011 v Gretna
8260 v Kilmarnock
16454 v Hearts
7004 v Inverness
12357 v Dundee Utd
6803 v Falkirk
14651 v Aberdeen
7213 v St Mirren
15735 v Hibs
3561 v Gretna
9771 v Motherwell
9158 v Motherwell
13613 v Dundee Utd
Total: 177117
For me it’s all about support. Sustained support. Not peaks and troughs, dips and rises depending on success rate at a given time, I’m talking about the big picture, the overall scenario.
Allow me to put forward comparisons on support for both clubs, based on that old enemy of the Yahoo – FACTS. Where better to start than with a comparison of attendances at both clubs pre-season friendlies over the last fortnight.
Saturday 16th July 2005 Rangers take 11,000 fans to Belfast v. Linfield (Source: Belfast Telegraph). Celtic take 4,000 to Fulham (Source: The Sun).
Tuesday 19th July 2005 Rangers take 6500 to Ipswich (Source: Daily Record).
Thursday 21st July 2005 Celtic at home to Sporting Lisbon. Crowd 30,000 (Source: Daily Record) for a game that was FREE to season ticket holders.
Saturday 23rd July 2005 Rangers at home to Borussia Monchengladbach crowd 30, 700 (Source: Sunday Herald). Tickets £17.00
Sunday 24th July 2005 Celtic at home to Leeds United crowd 13,000 (Source:The Sun). Tickets £16.00.
TGFITW? Don’t make me laugh.
Talking of pre-season friendlies brings me nicely to Peter Lawell’s ridiculous assertion when interviewed at Glasgow Airport last summer that “Sellick have a million fans in North America”. That was the same Sellick who played Chelsea a few days later at the 70,000 capacity Seattle Seahawks Stadium in front of 30,504 “bemused locals” and who subsequently played Liverpool in front of a crowd of 24,271 at Rentschler Field (capacity 40,000). The same Sellick who chose NOT to go to North America this summer. Their million fans must have been so disappointed.
Lawell is another in a long line of Yahoos who is happy to perpetuate the myth than anyone who has ever stood on a four-leaf-clover is a dyed in the wool Sellick fan, whilst conveniently forgetting that the majority of so-called “Irish Americans” are in fact Protestants of Ulster-Scots descent (Source: USA National Opinion Research Center).
Then there’s their “massive” support in the Irish Republic. In the summer of 2002, they played two friendlies in the ROI. 7400 was the total attendance for BOTH matches, including fans of the home teams. A week later Manchester United played to a full house and Rangers played Linfield at Windsor Park, again to a full house. Oops, Timmy’s been caught out again!
It could also be mentioned that over 8,000 Rangers fans turned up at Murray Park for a training day 4th August 2004 (Source: Daily Record).
What about the on the domestic front? Yep, The Theatre Of Shame has had bigger average crowds than at Ibrox in recent seasons. In fact the figure is around 9,000 more. By strange coincidence their stadium holds around 9,000 more! No surprise there then eh? (Talking of stadiums, will they EVER attain the UEFA five-star status the vastly superior Ibrox has held for years now?)
Has that always been the case? Not at all. Let’s look again at Timmy’s enemy. FACTS. Now I could go on all day printing these but I’ll just give a few examples taken from season where they out-performed us to prove my point:
Season 1983/84: Celtic (2nd in league) average 18,390. Rangers (4th in league) average 21,995. (Source: SFA)
Season 85/86: Our worst season in 80 odd years, 5th in the League and knocked out of both Cups. Meanwhile, Celtic won the League on the last day of the season. However, we still averaged 25419 to their 24012. (Source: Evening Times May 1986). Take away Old Firm matches and the difference would be even greater as they had a far bigger ground capacity than us at that time.
Season 87/88: Celtic won the league. Rangers were third. Their average home league attendance was 33,199. Ours was 38,568. (Source SFA).
Want to go a little further back? Bob Crampsey (former season ticket holder at The Glitter Stadium) said this in the Evening Times of 14th March 2001 “I confirm that the list of attendances you submit for Celtic Park in the period 1958-64 (too numerous to reproduce here) are accurate and, indeed, crowds at Parkhead hovered around the 7000 mark for run-of-the-mill matches." In other words, 7,000 was their usual attendance.
Indeed throughout history The Rangers have ALWAYS had a larger following than Celtic. Lest we forget season 1993/94 when their average crowd was a paltry 22,759 (Rangers averaged 43358). Does anyone have any idea where the additional 36,000 “faithful” followers have come from? And where were they in 1994?
Which again brings me conveniently to another Yahoo myth. I doubt if there's any of us who haven't been subjected to the lie "Yeez only hud two fousand furra gemme against Partick Fistle...."
The game in question was played on Wednesday 23rd May 1979, a rescheduled match which had been cancelled due to snow at New Year. Why was the crowd so low you may ask? Well, two days earlier on the Monday night we had been beaten 4-2 by Nonce FC in the game that clinched the league for them. Whilst not making excuses, the Thistle game was totally meaningless.
Here's the crux of the matter. The attendance at the game was actually 6,087. This figure is recorded in official Scottish League records. The 2,000 figure came from a Daily Record estimate (it would seem even in those days the Record was prepared to tell lies about our club). Willie Waddell, was moved to issue a statement that rubbished the quoted attendance, and declared the number to have been "nearer 10,000 than 2,000." Incidentally, Rangers won 1-0 thanks to a Derek Johnstone goal. (Source: Scotsman Saturday 21st August 2004). It should also be noted that Ibrox was undergoing massive redevelopment at the time.
By comparison 4,956 turned out for a Nonce FC home match against Dundee on 24 April 1984 (Scottish League Records). So the next time the yahoo in your life starts spouting his lies, be sure to quote him the FACTS and watch him squirm.
And now for the Greatest Yahoo Lie Of Them All. “We had 80,000 in Seville”. Isn’t it amazing how this figure, plucked from the air, has become accepted by the underclass and their press apologists? I even heard Alan Brazil tell us live on Talk Radio that there were 120,000 reptiles in Seville! That bhoy has obviously had an experience that’s damaged him psychologically. Back to Timmy’s Achilles heal. FACTS. The Chief of police in Seville estimated the figure at 45-55,000. The official UEFA figure was given as 58,000. Ach well, let’s add on a wee bit just to make it sound good. Why let 20-odd thousand get in the way of another good Yahoo lie? Their need to be loved shows them for the inadequate’s they undoubtedly are. They are not normal people.
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