Euro Travel Pressure Group

A growing number of Celtic supporters are becoming more and more frustrated with the current methods used by the club in the distribution of tickets for European away games. Many travelling supporters feel that the official travel partner, Thomas Cook, is being granted a percentage of our ticket allocations that is excessive. Thomas Cook have already sold somewhere in the region of 1500 seats on buses for the upcoming Manchester United match at Old Trafford, this is before the investors get their cut. The rest of us will go into a ballot for the reaming tickets from an allocation of somewhere in the region of 3500.

What this means is that anyone travelling from outside Scotland (i.e. Ireland, England) to away European matches has to come to Glasgow to travel on chartered planes or buses if they want a ticket for the match. The majority of these travelling fans prefer to have a choice in how they travel. Many prefer to travel independently.

With this in mind a meeting was called prior to yesterday’s match against Aberdeen in Garngad, Glasgow to discuss setting up a pressure group to try to get the club to reassess the arrangement in place. We recognise that the club is tied into a contract with Thomas Cook for the next year or so. We intend to make our point and try to ensure that those who travel regularly into Europe don’t have to book overpriced deals with Thomas Cook in order to get tickets in the future.

Celtic supporters from many different walks of life were represented, including individual supporters clubs from; Glasgow, Fife, Ayrshire and Ireland, Celtic Supporters Association, Not the View, More than 90 Minutes and TAL fanzines as well as supporters who travel independently.

The objective of the proposed group is to try to encourage Celtic to distribute the tickets in a fair manner, rather than in a commercially motivated manner. We are hoping to have them distributed in a similar manner to the current domestic away matches. We are not opposing Celtic having an official travel partner, only that they have an allocation of tickets.

In order to try to get as many different Celtic supporters on-board in the organisation of this pressure group we have decided to call another meeting for the home match against Hibernian; 25 October at 12.00 in the Garngad Bar (Lounge), Royston Road, Glasgow, G21 2QW.

If you feel strongly about this, then please come along. We intend to name the pressure group and choose a committee on this day, outline the aims and objectives of the group and present our case to Peter Lawell and the PLC.

and don't forget to bring your bullet proof vest.