Celtic play a strange game over Alkmaar reschedule

Rescheduled for Wednesday 28th of April

Things have been a bit busy at WeKnowSFA Towers but given that our top story for a few days has been the announcement that the Celtic v Alkmaar game is off, we had better get reporting on the rescheduling of the match.

The reason for the friendly is the fact that Celtic supporters are owed one more game for their season book.

They pay for the 19 league games and two other matches.

The first “other” match came against Sunderland in a pre-season friendly with the other usually coming from a European or domestic home cup tie. Two potential money spinning games against Dynamo Moscow and Arsenal ensured that Europe would not be where the freebie was picked up.

In the League Cup, Celtic were drawn at home v Hearts in a game that was televised live on BBC. This would have been an ideal opportunity for Celtic to use as the “other” game and many critics have rounded on the board for making this a ticket game.

However, there was a lot of discussion over the sums Hearts were demanding from Celtic if it was a season book game to be extremely high and this prompted the decision to make it a ticket game.

We don’t know the sums, we don’t know the full story but it is fair to say that Celtic gambled on getting a home draw in the Scottish Cup to use as the “other” game and the gamble backfired. Much like their spending policy in recent years, the Celtic board have found they do not always have the luck to back up their frugal policy.

Away ties in the Scottish Cup have created the situation where Celtic owe the punters who paid up front an extra game. Fans are turning away from league matches in their droves, the last thing they really want is a friendly of no value but they have paid for it and if Celtic waived the game, there would be bigger trouble for the club.

Someone at Celtic has obviously did the sums and worked out that going ahead with the rescheduled game against Alkmaar and the cost of reimbursing the Dutch team and the costs of the night is a financially more attractive option than having to reimburse every season book holder at Celtic Park.

There may also have been a payment to Alkmaar regardless if the game got paid or not so from the financial sense, you can see why Celtic have went ahead with the game.

And lets face it, if the PLC board knows how to make a decision, its with one eye on the financial bottom line. Even if this is detrimental to the fans or on-field performances.

The Celtic v Alkmaar match is up against Barcelona v Inter Milan on terrestrial television and Celtic are involved at the Youth Cup final at Hampden against Rangers.

At £5 for adults and £2 for children or concessions, a game against Rangers, a chance to see the up and coming stars in a final and the fact that Celtic have been heavily promoting this game, you can see why many Celtic fans will choose this game over a first-team friendly.

We said it at the end of the last Alkmaar article but Celtic fans will be counting down the hours and minutes until the 2009/10 season is over, it’s been one thing after another!

Are you going to the Youth Cup final?

PS. Remember you have the chance of winning a Scottish football t-shirt. All you have to do is follow us on twitter and on the 1st of May, we pick one lucky follower to grab a shirt!

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