Martin O’Neill has responded to Rangers cutting Celtic’s ticket allocation for the upcoming Premier Sports Cup quarter-final at Ibrox to just 300 tickets.

Celtic were handed 7,500 tickets for their previous trip to Ibrox in March, with the Hoops winning 4-2 on penalties that day. Celtic supporters made their way onto the pitch to celebrate with the players before Rangers supporters ran towards the Celtic end in the Broomloan Stand, leading to unsavoury scenes.

This has led to Celtic and Rangers both being fined £100,000, while each side’s next Scottish Cup home game will be played behind closed doors.

O’Neill himself is frustrated by the decision from the Ibrox hierarchy and admitted there is very little point in any Celtic supporters attending the game if so few tickets have been handed to the Hoops.

He said: (TCW), “Well, we might as well not get any, if that’s the case, you know, so.

“My view, taking off, you know, my Celtic manager’s hat, I’m just looking at it from a viewpoint. It’s one of the great fixtures. Even if the teams are not of the standard of, you know, let’s say Paris Saint-Germain or Real Madrid, it is still a fantastic fixture.

“You realise how big it is in European games and in the world. People talk about it as a great game. And the best atmosphere is when the away fans have their allocation. That’s been my point the whole way. I thought from a distance, watching games when it was away, that it lost something.

“I remember, I think it came to one of these, one of the games here for Celtic and Rangers, and Rangers scored a goal in complete silence. So that’s not what you’re looking for. It’s still a crowd participation game.”

O’Neill is clearly annoyed by what the low ticket allocation means for the fixture going forward, particularly the back-and-forth between the two Glasgow clubs when full allocations are awarded, as they were earlier this season in the Scottish Cup.

He added: “And that’s a shame. If these are the things that are happening because of it, if we’re both having to play behind closed doors for the next game if we’re at home, well, I don’t know. I’m not contesting that.

“But overall, it’s, you know, from a distance, it is a shame because it’s a phenomenal fixture. And when we played, we played the league game, and obviously, memory plays tricks on you at the end of the day, the league game where we were 2-0 down. I have not known noise like it at Ibrox for a long time, even in my day. Or so I think.

“It’s probably wrong, but it was phenomenal, you know. And just to be participating in that game gives you goosebumps. So that’s a shame. That’s a shame. But very obviously, if we’re going to, if they’re going to give us 300 tickets, I would rather say no. And we’ll give them one!”

Asked whether there was a chance Celtic could refuse the tickets, O’Neill said: “I genuinely don’t know that there. I’ll ask my learned friend, Iain, but I don’t know. I don’t know.

“It’s just that was my viewpoint on the thing.”

O’Neill did not confirm whether Celtic will accept the allocation and struck a good balance by offering his own personal view as Celtic manager without speaking on behalf of the club over whether the Hoops will take the tickets.

Questions will now remain over the precedent this sets for the Glasgow derby going forward, with Celtic potentially set to respond with a similar allocation when Rangers next visit Celtic Park.

Rangers have once again cut the Hoops’ allocation at Ibrox, reopening the debate over away support at one of Scottish football’s biggest fixtures.