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In the last few hours Celtic released a statement regarding our proposed game against Linfield, which will happen on the 14th of July with a five pm kick-off.
The big takeaway from the statement is that Celtic will refuse any tickets for the match, the reason given as "the safety and security of all Celtic supporters travelling and attending matches is of paramount importance to the Club" which in a way is understandable, as there will no doubt be a...unique atmosphere at Windsor Park.
But reading between the lines it seems that the club is worried about the prospect of another UEFA fine, as there could well have been lots of pyro and 'Rebel' songs on display from the Celtic fans that night, and that's why we haven't taken the tickets.
As regards to the 'safety and security' of the fans, we've played in places like Russia, Ukraine and Israel in recent years and fans have travelled, and those places seem far more hazardous than Belfast.
The element of farce regarding all this is that Celtic have agreed to play Lyon at Celtic Park on the 15th of July, and that game is still set to go head even though Celtic will be in action the night before! That game will surely attract a very low attendance as few people will want to see Celtic's reserves in action.
The best thing for the club to do would have been to take even a token number of tickets - say, 500 - to show that they still have trust in the fans, after all 'we are the club' as we're often told. There is still time for Celtic to do this but I imagine that they won't, and I feel for the Celtic fans, especially those in Belfast, who won't be able to attend the game.