Celtic ask Nicola Sturgeon for 20,000 Midtjylland crowd after Scottish Government set 2000 minimum - Daily Record

Celtic have pleaded with the authorities to let as many as 20,000 fans into next week’s Champions League showdown with Midtjylland.

The move comes after Nicola Sturgeon announced that clubs will be given the green light to have crowds of 2000 back inside Scotland’s grounds from Monday.

But Record Sport can reveal new Parkhead chief executive Dominic McKay immediately followed up the First Minister’s announcement by submitting a special application to have 10 times that number permitted for the crunch qualifier against the Danes.

The FM left the door open for clubs to request bigger attendances when she confirmed the next stage of relaxing Covid restrictions, including taking the padlocks off turnstiles when the country moves into level 0 at the start of next week.

But McKay is pleading Celtic’s case by pointing out that 12,500 Scotland fans were allowed into Hampden for the Euros last month despite the rules at the time only allowing for 500.

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Record Sport understands Celtic were still waiting for an answer last night after opening discussions with politicians and health chiefs who are still nervous about unlocking, despite feeling the heat as England pushes ahead with lifting restrictions.

Parkhead will have 2000 punters on board for this weekend’s friendly clash with Preston and Hoops ace Greg Taylor admitted he’ll be happy if there are any fans inside after last season’s closed-doors misery.

He said: “If it is anything, we would love it. We got a wee glimpse of that at the Scotland games and what a difference it made.

“Football needs fans and us especially, we miss them and we can’t wait to have however many we can get back.

“I think we’ve got to leave last year behind, it was disappointing, but of course we missed the fans.

“We were probably one of the teams who suffered the most but hopefully we’ll have them back this year and it will help us on.”

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2021-07-13 21:29:00Z
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